Anna Jedličková

Construction of the Identity of a Learned Magician in Arbatel (1575) and Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy (1559) and Its Relation to Demonology

During fourteen and fifteen centuries in increasing amount originated manuscripts devoted to ritual magic with focus on getting into contact with variety of spiritual beings. In sixteenth century were published several newly emerged anonymous printed books on ritual magic influenced by medieval manuscripts such as Arbatel: Of the Magic of the Ancients and apocryphal Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. Both texts were part of learned culture similarly to medieval magical manuscripts. During late medieval period were manuscripts on ritual magic spread in learned and mostly clerical environment of universities. Analysis of both texts suggests that this environment had in sixteenth- century widened and that it also included scholars who did not necessarily need to have university education. This shift corresponds to increasing influence of patronage during renaissance period under which were employed scholars or experts who could gain their knowledge from tutors or schools for craftsmen independent from universities. Another change concerns shift from late medieval emphasis on inherent power of Christian ritual to emphasis on inherent power of citations from Bible in sixteenth-century with lesser emphasis on other parts of Christian worship. Those shifts can be viewed as preconditions of independent western esoteric identity.