Eros and Magic in the Renaissance

288 Pages·1987·116.42 MB·English

by  Ioan P. Culianu

EROS AND MAGIC
IN THE RENAISSANCE

loan P. Couliano
EROS AND MAGIC IN
THE RENAISSANCE
Translated by Margaret Cook
With a Foreword by Mircea Eliade
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON
© 1987 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1987
Printed in the United States of America
07060504030201 6
This book was originally published in France under the title Eros e/
magie a /a Renaissance, 1484, © 1984, Fiammarion, Paris.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Culianu, loan P.
Eros and magic in the Renaissance.
Translation of: Eros et magie a la Renaissance, 1484.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Renaissance-Psychological aspects. 2. Magic.
I. Title.
CB367.C6813 1987 133.4'094 87-10882
ISBN 0-226-12316-2 (pbk.)
8 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for
Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Translator's Note ix
Foreword, by Mircea Eliade xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
PHANTASMS AT WORK
1. History of Phantasy 3
(i) On the Inner Sense 3
Some Preliminary Considerations 3
The Phantasmic Pneuma 6
(ii) Flux and Reflux of Values in the Twelfth Century 11
Acculturation of the West 13
How a Woman . . . 21
(iii) The Vehicle of the Soul and Prenatal Experience 23
2. Empirical Psychology and the Deep Psychology of
Eros 28
(i) The Empirical Psychology of Ficino and Its Sources 28
(ii) The Art of Memory 32
(iii) The Phantasmic Eros and the Appeasement of
Desire 38
(iv) Phantasms at Work 41
(v) The Depth Psychology of Fieino 42
Descent of the Soul 42
Melancholy and Saturn 46
3. Dangerous Liaisons 53
(i) Pico della Mirandola, Continuator of Fieino 53
(ii) The Ambiguous Gods of Eros 58
Giordano Bruno, a Man of the Phantasmic Past 58
Scandal in London 60
v
yi Contents
Mnemonic Phantasms 65
Ambiguity of Eros 67
At the Heart of Bruno's Doctrine 70
Actaeon 77
Diana 79
The Parable of the Nine Blind Men 83
Circe 84
II THE GREAT MANIPULATOR
4. Eros and Magic 87
(i) Identity of Substance, Identity of Process 87
(ii) Manipulation of Masses and of Individuals 89
(iii) Vinculum Vinculorum 95
(iv) Ejaculation and Retention of Semen 99
(v) Of Magic as General Psycho sociology 102
5. Pneumatic Magic 107
(i) The Starting Point of Magic 107
(ii) "Subjective" Magic and "Transitive" Magic 108
(iii) The Conspiracy of Things 111
(iv) The Theory of Radiations 117
(v) Pneumatic Magic 127
6. Intersubjective Magic 130
(i) Intrasubjective Magic 130
(ii) Intersubjective Magic 137
Higher Presences 138
The Lures 141
Propitious Times 142
7. Demonomagic 144
(i) Some Concepts of Demonology 144
(ii) Demons and Eros 148
(iii) Witches and Demoniacs 151
(iv) Demonomagic from Ficino to Giordano Bruno 156
Classifications of Magic 156
Trithemius of Wiirzburg 162
Contents vii
III END GAME
8. 1484 179
(i) A Wingless Fly 179
(ii) Why Was the Year 1484 so Formidable? 184
9. Censoring Phantasy 192
(i) Abolition of the Phantasmic 192
(ii) Some Historic Paradoxes 195
(iii) The Controversy about Asinity 197
(iv) The Wiles of Giordano Bruno 200
(v) A Single Reformation 202
(vi) The Change in Ways of Envisaging the World 204
10. Doctor Faust, from Antioch to Seville 209
(i) The Permissiveness of the Renaissance 209
(ii) It Will Be Hotter in Hell! 212
(iii) An Exhaustive Moralism: The Legend of Faust 214
(iv) A Final Result? 222
Notes 225
Bibliography 255
Index of Names 259

Translator's Note
Because the subtitle of a section of chapter 4 reads Vinculum vinculorum
(part of the sentence later quoted in full, Vinculum quippe vinculorum amor
est), I have translated the French liens sometimes as "bonds," sometimes
as "chains," since vinculum means both. Sometimes I have chosen
"chains" to avoid a mixed metaphor when the image is to "forge
chains." Sometimes "bonds" has been used when the context calls for a
less emphatic word. Because "bond" can have a psychoanalytic con
notation, as in the reference to Freud in the text, I have tried to avoid
using it in other contexts.
In translating quotations from ancient texts, I have sought to render
the vivid charm and naivete of the originals. The prose sounds archaic,
in English as in French.
The quotations in Latin and other foreign languages can be under
stood by all readers because-with rare exceptions-they only serve to
substantiate and emphasize the text. (One exception is pornographic
and appears in Spanish only on page 204 of the original text. I have
honored the writer's discretion.)
It has been a privilege to translate this remarkable book.
MARGARET COOK
ix