Actually, this site is quite wonderful for people who are interested in
the 16th and 17th C English magic because it links to transcriptions of
MSS on magic from the BL, such as Add. MS 36674 and Sloan MS 2731. The
transcriptions are incomplete, and they fail utterly to indicate how the
MSS were annotated (the first four articles in Add. 36674, for example,
were heavily annotated by Gabriel Harvey -- I'm considering writing a
short piece, half in jest, entitled "How Gabriel Harvey read his magic").
On the other hand, they do attempt to reproduce the paleographical
features of the original texts, which is a nice touch. At any rate,
skimming over the handbooks on the site gives you a really good sense of
how pragmatic, or even sordid, much Renaissance magic really was. In the
handbooks there's little about discovering the holy mysteries of the
heavens -- much more about getting reluctant women to sleep with you, and
having spirits show you were treasures were buried...
Cheers,
Genevieve Guenther
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005, David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
> I can't vouch for the scholarliness of the editions used, but if your
> ears perk up when you hear the names Johannes Trithemius, Heinrich
> Agrippa, Athanasius Kircher, Giordano Bruno, and John Dee, check out
>
> Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica
> http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm
>
> This site is a member of the "Enochian WebRing" so you know it has to be
> good! Also includes "Reginald Scot's collection of magical texts: A fine
> example of Elizabethan English." Doesn't have anything about Merlin (I
> mean John Dee's) crystal ball on the homepage, but I'm sure it's in here
> somewhere. And there are pictures, too: angelic sigils, planetary
> sigils, several magic circles, and Dee's holy table:
> http://www.esotericarchives.com/gifs/gifs.htm
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr. David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
> English Department Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
> East Carolina University Sparsa et neglecta coegi. -- Claude Fauchet
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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