The Medieval Anti-Faust: Stories, Rituals, and Self-Representations in the Flowers of Heavenly Teaching

Claire Fanger

Jump to Content

Chapter 2 The Medieval Anti-Faust

Stories, Rituals, and Self-Representations in the Flowers of Heavenly Teaching

In: Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

Author:

Claire Fanger

Claire Fanger
Search for other papers by Claire Fanger in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 43–67

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466005_004

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

This chapter considers how medieval fictions about practitioners of nigromancy (black magic) illuminate the more personal story of magic and redemption found in the memoir of an actual practicing medieval magic user. The magician in question is John of Morigny, the fourteenth-century Benedictine author of a mixed text of prayers, rituals, and visionary autobiography called The Flowers of Heavenly Teaching,. What can narratives of nigromancers broadly available in late medieval culture tell us about how the medieval magic user—especially the one who actually summoned demons on purpose—grasped his role in his family and monastic community, or his relation to God in the dispensation? By juxtaposing narrative patterns, the chapters shows how available narratives are integrated into John’s self representation. Any individual, like John, who moves either to reject or to adopt or take ownership of any form of esoteric knowledge, such as nigromantia, actively negotiates its values and categories in ways that are not predetermined by other institutional judgements, but intersects with them in unpredictable ways very much informed by available stories.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004466005/BP000003.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

Series: Aries Book Series, Volume: 30

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004466005

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Sep 2021

Subjects

Front Matter

Back Matter

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	1337	921	127
Full Text Views	33	10	0
PDF Views & Downloads	52	13	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 2 The Medieval Anti-Faust

Stories, Rituals, and Self-Representations in the Flowers of Heavenly Teaching

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics