During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries a
group of monks with occult interests donated what became a
remarkable collection of more than thirty magic texts to the
library of the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine's in Canterbury.
The monks collected texts that provided positive justifications for
the practice of magic and books in which works of magic were copied
side by side with works of more licit genres. In Magic in the
Cloister, Sophie Page uses this collection to explore the gradual
shift toward more positive attitudes to magical texts and ideas in
medieval Europe. She examines what attracted monks to magic texts,
in spite of the dangers involved in studying condemned works, and
how they combined magic with their intellectual interests and
monastic life. By showing how it was possible for religious
insiders to integrate magical studies with their orthodox
worldview, Magic in the Cloister contributes to a broader
understanding of the role of magical texts and ideas and their
acceptance in the late Middle Ages.
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