Magic in the Cloister

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Monks and Their Magic Texts at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury

2 Natural Magic: The Basilisk and the Lodestone

3 The Liber vaccae: Magical Uses of Monstrous Creations

4 Image Magic: Harnessing Power in the Harmonious Universe

5 The Liber de essentia spirituum: Magic, Revelation, and Fellowship with Spirits

6 The Ars notoria and Its Monastic Audience

Epilogue John Dee, St. Augustine’s Manuscripts, and Renaissance Magic

Appendix 1 Translation of the Glossulae super Librum imaginum lunae

Appendix 2 Translation of the Liber de essentia spirituum

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

“All histories have limits, but the core of this study is full of rich detail and judicious analysis. Page deftly illuminates not just the contents of a major library of medieval magic but also the intriguing intellectual and spiritual contexts in which it took shape.”

—Michael D. Bailey, American Historical Review