![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4318-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tThe Magic Books: A History of Enchantment in 20 Medieval Manuscripts<\/p>\n
By Anne Lawrence-Mathers<\/p>\n
Yale University Press
ISBN: 978-0-300-24443-4<\/p>\n
Medieval people were interested in accessing secret knowledge like magic, divination and astrology. This book examines over 20 works from the period that deals with these topics, revealing what they say (and what they show) about these topics.<\/p>\n
Excerpt:<\/p>\n
Luxury manuscripts, produced for those who held power in both Church and state, attest to the real presence \u2013 and practice \u2013 of magic in the medieval world\u2019s centres of knowledge and government. Astrology, chiromancy, divination, prognostication, ritual magic, angel magic and geomancy are all revealed in these manuscripts\u2019 strikingly beautiful, fascinating and strange illuminations. And these manuscripts, many of them now digitised, provide a rich resource for exploring the history of magic in medieval culture.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who is this book for?<\/p>\n
This book will find a few different groups of interested readers \u2013 magic and manuscript culture being the main two, but even those studying astrology, astronomy and monastic sign language. This is a more in-depth book that one might imagine, with a strong focus on the individual manuscripts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt adds up to a fascinating story in a handsome volume\u2026 A learned and affectionate study of hidden knowledge.\u201d ~ Kirkus Reviews<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The Author<\/p>\n Anne Lawrence-Mathers<\/strong><\/a> is a Professor at the University of Reading, where she researches medieval magic, science and medicine. Check out Anne\u2019s article, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts: A Beginner\u2019s Guide<\/strong><\/a>, which introduces her new book.<\/p>\n You can learn more about this book from the publisher\u2019s website<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n You can buy this book on Amazon.com<\/a> | Amazon.ca<\/a> | Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Subscribe to Medievalverse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Magic Books: A History of Enchantment in 20 Medieval Manuscripts By Anne Lawrence-Mathers Yale University PressISBN: 978-0-300-24443-4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[63291,63292,3444,77,63293,63294,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-147394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-2025-books","9":"tag-astrology-in-the-middle-ages","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-magic-in-the-middle-ages","13":"tag-medieval-manuscripts-and-palaeography","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}