Magic in Western Culture - Copenhaver, Brian P.; - Prospero Internet Bookshop

Magic in Western Culture

From Antiquity to the Enlightenment
 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date of Publication:
 
Normal price:

Publisher's listprice:
GBP 34.99
Estimated price in HUF:
17 892 HUF (17 040 HUF + 5% VAT)
Why estimated?
 
Your price:

14 314 (13 632 HUF + 5% VAT )
discount is: 20% (approx 3 578 HUF off)
Discount is valid until: 31 December 2024
The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.
Click here to subscribe.
 
Availability:

Estimated delivery time: Expected time of arrival: end of January 2024.
Not in stock at Prospero.
Can't you provide more accurate information?
 
  Piece(s)

 
Short description:

This richly illustrated and groundbreaking book treats magic as a classical tradition with foundations that were distinctly philosophical.

Long description:
The story of the beliefs and practices called 'magic' starts in ancient Iran, Greece, and Rome, before entering its crucial Christian phase in the Middle Ages. Centering on the Renaissance and Marsilio Ficino - whose work on magic was the most influential account written in premodern times - this groundbreaking book treats magic as a classical tradition with foundations that were distinctly philosophical. Besides Ficino, the premodern story of magic also features Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Aquinas, Agrippa, Pomponazzi, Porta, Bruno, Campanella, Descartes, Boyle, Leibniz, and Newton, to name only a few of the prominent thinkers discussed in this book. Because pictures play a key role in the story of magic, this book is richly illustrated.

'Brian P. Copenhaver's Magic in Western Culture is a towering achievement in the field of intellectual history that is evidently the product of years - or decades, one suspects - of its author's immersion in the primary sources. In spite of its focus on the history of magic, this book is in fact&&&160;essential reading for students of the history of ideas, the history of philosophy, the history of medicine, the history of science and even students of&&&160;art history, since Copenhaver places great stress on the significance of images in both the development and the dismemberment of the western magical tradition. It would be a shame if the book's readership were confined to historians of magic, since its significance is so much more far-reaching.' Francis Young, Reviews in History
Table of Contents:
Part I. Introduction: 1. The scruples of J. G. Frazer; 2. Magic as a classical tradition and its philosophical foundations; Part II. Mageia: 3. Ancient philosophy in Ficino's magic I: Plotinus; 4. Ancient philosophy in Ficinio's magic II: Neoplatonism and the Chaldaean Oracles; 5. Ancient philosophy in Ficino's magic III: Hermes and Proclus; 6. Scholastic philosophy in Ficino's magic; 7. Data: a tale of two fish; Part III. Hermetica: 8. Hermes the theologian; 9. Hermes domesticated; 10. Hermes on parade; Part IV. Magic Revived and Rejected: 11. How to do magic, and why; 12. Nature, magic, and the art of picturing; 13. The power of magic and the poverty of erudition; 14. Disenchantment; Part V. Conclusion: 15. Who killed Dabholkar?