Magic, Terror, and Politics in Fourteenth-Century Languedoc

FAIN: FT-61088-13

Jan Kathy Bulman
Auburn University at Montgomery (Montgomery, AL 36117-7088)

This project stands at the intersection of legal, intellectual, and textual history. It examines a fourteenth-century black magic trial in an ecclesiastical court in Languedoc. Because all phases of the trial are preserved, it offers an early example of the developing legal procedures used to prosecute magic and witchcraft that culminates in the witch trials of the early modern period. In his testimony, the accused describes his book of magic, the Liber juratus Honorii, which he acquired in the Catalan city of Perpignan. The Liber juratus is a fusion of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions and historians have noted the transmission of these influences from Iberia into Latin Europe during this period. The description of the book and how the accused acquired it provides an opportunity to trace the dissemination of non-Christian influences that often are difficult to document. The project will also produce a Latin edition of the trial from the fourteenth-century manuscript.