Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe

230 Pages·2021·13.428 MB·English

by  Mark A Waddell

|
Magic, Science, and Religion in Early
Modern Europe
FromtherecoveryofancientritualmagicattheheightoftheRenaissance
to the ignominious demise of alchemy at the dawn of the Enlightenment,
Mark A. Waddell explores the rich and complex ways that premodern
people made sense of their world. He describes a time when witches flew
through the dark of night to feast on the flesh of unbaptized infants,
magiciansconversedwithangelsorstruckpactswithdemons,andastrol-
ogerscastthehoroscopesofroyalty.Groundbreakingdiscoverieschanged
the way that people understood the universe while, in laboratories and
coffee houses, philosophers discussed how to reconcile the scientific
method with the veneration of God. This engaging, illustrated new study
introduces readers to the vibrant history behind the emergence of the
modernworld.
mark a. waddell is Associate Professor at Lyman Briggs College,
MichiganStateUniversity.
New Approaches to the History of Science and Medicine
This dynamic new series publishes concise but authoritative surveys on
the key themes and problems in the history of science and medicine.
Books in the series are written by established scholars at a level and
length accessible to students and general readers, introducing and
engagingmajorquestionsofhistoricalanalysisanddebate.
Other Books inthe Series
BarbaraHahn,TechnologyintheIndustrialRevolution
JohnGascoigne,ScienceandtheState:FromtheScientificRevolution
toWorldWarII
Magic, Science, and
Religion in Early Modern
Europe
mark a. waddell
MichiganStateUniversity
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DOI:10.1017/9781108348232
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Title:Magic,science,andreligioninearlymodernEurope/MarkA.Waddell,
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Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY,USA:CambridgeUniversity
Press,[2021]|Series:Newapproachestothehistoryofscienceandmedicine|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020037936(print)|LCCN2020037937(ebook)|
ISBN9781108425285(hardback)|ISBN9781108441650(paperback)|
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Subjects:LCSH:Magic Europe History.|Religionandscience Europe History.
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For Maggie

Contents
List of Figures page viii
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
1 Hermeticism,theCabala,andtheSearchforAncientWisdom 13
2 Witchcraft and Demonology 44
3 Magic,Medicine, and the Microcosm 75
4 ANew Cosmos:Copernicus, Galileo,and theMotion of
the Earth 102
5 Looking forGod in the Cosmic Machine 135
6 Manipulating Nature:Experiment and Alchemy in the
Scientific Revolution 161
7 ANew World? The Dawnof the Enlightenment 189
Conclusion 203
BibliographicalEssays 209
Index 217
vii
Figures
1.1 Portrait ofMarsilio Ficino by Francesco
Allegrini, 1762. page 14
1.2 The Roman Empire at its height inthe second
centuryCE. 18
1.3 Engraving of Hermesor Mercurius Trismegistus from
Pierre Mussard,Historia Deorum fatidicorum, 1675. 26
1.4 A seventeenth-century depiction ofthe Arbor
Cabalistica. 34
1.5 Title page from The Tragicall History of the Life
andDeath of Doctor Faustus by Christopher
Marlowe, 1636. 38
1.6 Portrait ofJohn Dee, c.1580. 39
1.7 Dee’sHieroglyphicMonad. 41
2.1 Sixteenth-centuryGerman engravingof witchesbeing
burned alive. 46
2.2 “The Witches” by Hans Baldung Grien, 1510. 54
2.3 The Devil addressinga gathering of witches from
Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium
Maleficarum, 1626. 64
2.4 Witches performingthe osculum infameor
shameful kiss. 66
2.5 The Devil directing witches to trampleon
the cross. 67
2.6 “The Sabbath,” a nineteenth-century depiction of an
early modern witches’ sabbath, 1849. 68
3.1 Sixteenth-centuryengraving of a barber-surgeon
removing a tooth. 79
3.2 A physician examining a urine flask, from an
1849 reproduction of a fifteenth-century
engraving. 80
viii
ListofFigures ix
3.3 Title page from De humani corporisfabrica by
Andreas Vesalius,1543. 82
3.4 Man as microcosm, from Robert Fludd, Utriusque
cosmi ... historia, c.1617. 84
3.5 Zodiacsigns and their astrological associations with
different parts of thehuman body, from Joannes
Ketham, Fasciculus Medicinae,1495. 87
3.6 Asixteenth-century portraitof Theophrastus
Bombastus vonHohenheim, or Paracelsus. 90
4.1 AdepictionofthegeocentriccosmosfromPeterApian,
Cosmographia,1539. 106
4.2 A1643 woodcut depicting epicycles and deferents. 110
4.3 Portraitof NicolausCopernicus, c.1515. 112
4.4 Asixteenth-century depiction of theCopernican
cosmos with the Sun at its center. 114
4.5 JohannesKepler’s model of thesolar system from his
Mysterium Cosmographicum, 1596. 121
4.6 Engraving of Galileo Galilei, c.1640. 123
4.7 Galileo’ssketchesof the surface of the Moon from his
Sidereus nuncius,1610. 126
5.1 Portraitof Pierre Gassendi, 1658. 139
5.2 Portraitof René Descartes,c. 1630. 143
5.3 The Cartesian universe from Descartes’s
Epistolae,1668. 145
5.4 The mechanicaltransmission of sensation, from
Descartes’s Opera Philosophica,1692. 152
6.1 Anineteenth-centuryengravingofFrancisBacon. 165
6.2 GeorgeVertue’s1739engravingofRobertBoyle. 172
6.3 “The Alchemist”by Philipp Galle, 1558. 176
6.4 The alchemist inhis laboratory, from MichaelMaier,
Tripus Aureus,1618. 179
6.5 An engravingfrom MichaelMaier’sAtalanta
fugiens,1618. 181
6.6 Portraitof Isaac Newton,1689. 184
Acknowledgments
MaggieOslerintroducedmetothehistoryofideasinanundergradu-
ate course at the University of Calgary called, “Magic, Science, and
Religion.”Morethantwentyyearslater,Iwrotethisbookinaneffort
to fascinate and inspire others as she did me. I think she
would approve.
The students in my LB 327A course at Michigan State University
waded through an earlier draft of this book as we discussed the
foundationsofmodernscienceinthefallof2018.I’mgratefultothem
for helping meimprove it in many ways.
My thanks also go to Lucy Rhymerand Emily Sharp at Cambridge
UniversityPressfortheirinvaluableassistance,andtotheanonymous
reviewers who provided thoughtful feedback at various stages of
this project.
Finally,andalways,IthankMattforhispatience,love,andsupport.
x