The Madman's Library by Brooke-Hitching Edward

Author:Brooke-Hitching, Edward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2020-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

A Talismanic shirt of the early sixteenth century with the entire Qur’an written inside, bordered by the ninety-nine names of God written in gold. The shirt was believed to be imbued with protective powers and was likely meant to be worn under armour in battle.

With the rise of Christianity in Europe, non-Biblical magical texts – or ‘grimoires’ as they would be known from the eighteenth century – became a target of authorities for suppression and burning. The difficulty, though, was defining what exactly magic was – its overlap with science and religious study meant it could never be entirely distinguished. Take the ‘leechbooks’ of late Anglo-Saxon England, for example, medical handbooks which offer spells and charms for healing alongside scientific instruction – magical or medicinal? One approach, adopted by the Spanish-born Archbishop of Lyon, Agobard (c. AD 779–840), was to puncture superstition with reasoned argument. Agobard wrote several works against pagan practices, as well as a curious treatise De Grandine et Tonitruis (‘On Hail and Thunder’), rediscovered in 1605. In this book, he methodically argues against popular beliefs in weather magic, particularly the conviction that there were ships that flew above the clouds, carrying villainous sky-pirates who routinely descended to steal crops damaged by storms (conjured by tempestarii – storm sorcerers), to take back to their land of ‘Magonia’.2

A magical appeal to the Baltic Doom-God for control over lightning: ‘Birch-bark letter no.292’ is written in the Karelian/Baltic-Finnic language from the early thirteenth century. A translation was made by the Russian linguist Eugene Helimski in 1986: ‘God’s arrow, ten your name(s) / Arrow sparkling, arrow shoots / The Doom-God guides/directs (leads/rules?)’.

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