New Approaches to Popular and Learned Traditions of Magic in Medieval Europe

Beyond the Trachtenberg Paradigm: New Approaches to Popular and Learned Traditions of Magic in Medieval Europe - Dr Katelyn Mesler. Part of the Workshop 'Science versus popular culture in medieval Jewish society' on 9 November 2015, organised by the ERC Calendars Project at the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, UCL. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/research/research-pro/calendars-antiquity-middle-ages Whereas traditional approaches to Jewish magic have often relied on references from rabbinic writings or historians' own evaluations of particular magic as popular or learned, I propose two alternative methods of assessment. First, I argue that accessibility is a key issue, and that the circulation of magical writings can reveal whether they remained within specialized circles or were accessible to a wide range of readers. Second, I suggest that some Christian legal records preserve reliable evidence of medieval Jews' engagement with magic.