Magic as Power: The Influence of Marsilio Ficino on Early Modern Conceptions of the Occult
Date
2007
Authors
Oseman, Arlene
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SASMARS)
Abstract
Given the immense scholarship yielded, inter alia, by theological, anthropological, cultural, linguistic and literary studies, it is now widely recognised that Renaissance magic was accepted as an eclectic, though respected, philosophical science, painstakingly considered and practised by the most eminent scholars of the time.1 Indeed, until the advent of modern European rationalism, magic and other occult practices were deemed to have a distinguished intellectual, even sacred, pedigree, and were treated as valid elements in the histories of religion, epistemology and science.2 Thus Keith Thomas can rightfully claim that ‘For much of the period . . . magical inquiry possessed some intellectual respectability. . . . Small wonder that for the populace learning still meant magic’.3
Description
Keywords
Middle Ages -- Periodicals. Renaissance -- Periodicals. Middle Ages. Renaissance.