1 TTHE RROLE OF MMAGIC IN THE PPAST LEARNED AND POPULAR MAGIC, POPULAR BELIEFS AND DIVERSITY OF ATTITUDES Edited by BLANKA SZEGHYOVÁ PRO HISTORIA Bratislava 2005 Published with support of International Visegrad Fund www.visegradfund.org Copyright © 2005 by PRO HISTORIA Society and Historical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences All rights reserved © Emese Bálint, Milena Bartlová, Danijela Djurišič, Juraj Gembický, Markéta Holubová, Miloš Jesenský, Miroslav Kamenický, Elisabeth Klecker, Ingrid Kušniráková, Benedek Láng, Peti Lehel, Tünde Lengyelová, Olga Lukács, Milan Majtán, Irena Malec, Julia Mannherz, Katarína Nádaská, István Petrovics, Éva Pócs, Martina Sekulová, Jana Skladaná, Blanka Szeghyová, Márton Szentpéteri, György Endre Szőnyi English translations: Martin C. Styan, Blanka Szeghyová, Lajos Szikhart Cover: Astrologers and Geomancers, illustration to the Travels of Sir John Mandeville made for Wenceslas IV, ca 1410-1420 (by permission of The British Library Ms. ADD. 24189) Printed in Prešov, Slovakia by Kušnír ISBN 80-969366-3-8 1. Series published by PRO HISTORIA Society http://www.history.sav.sk/prohis.htm THE ROLE OF MAGIC IN THE PAST Learned and Popular Magic, Popular Beliefs and Diversity of Attitudes CONTENTS Introduction....................................................................................................................6 Research Problems of Magical Texts in Central Europe .............................................11 Benedek Láng The Magic of Image: Astrological, Alchemical and Magical Symbolism at the Court of Wenceslas IV ................................................................................................19 Milena Bartlová The Occult Sciences in Early Modern Hungary in a Central European Context .........29 György Endre Szőnyi An Outline History of Alchemy in Slovakia................................................................45 Miloš Jesenský The Mystery of the Transmutation of Iron into Copper in the 16th - 18th Centuries ....58 Miroslav Kamenický Magic and Demonology in Albert Szenci Molnár’s Personal Commonplace Book....64 Márton Szentpéteri Magic Features in Johann Heinrich Alsted´s Apocalyptics .........................................73 Olga Lukács Weather Magic in the Early Modern Period as Reflected in the Minutes of Witchcraft Trials ..........................................................................................................86 Éva Pócs Servants of the Devil in Krupina................................................................................101 Milan Majtán Witch-Hunt in Szeged in the Early Eighteenth Century ............................................108 István Petrovics The Mystery of Birth: Magic, Empirical and Rational Approaches to Women’s Medicine In the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ...............................................117 Tünde Lengyelová Elements of Magical – Medicinal Practice. The Position of the Witch and Wizard in Slovakia .................................................................................................................137 Katarína Nádaská and Martina Sekulová The Mediation of Poisoning. Magic Embedded in Everyday Medical Knowledge ...151 Emese Bálint Incantations in Medical Advice and Recipes from 16th to 18th Centuries...................159 Jana Skladaná Some Aspects of the Love Magic Beliefs in Eastern Serbia ......................................168 Danijela Djurišič The Role of Black Magic in Controlling Social Balance in Moldavian Chango Villages ......................................................................................................................174 Peti Lehel Bells and Magic..........................................................................................................186 Juraj Gembický Turkish Magic and Habsburg Propaganda .................................................................200 Elisabeth Klecker Popular Piety and Magic in Hungary in the 17th Century...........................................212 Ingrid Kušniráková Magical Practices in the Books of Miracles ...............................................................218 Markéta Holubová The Supernatural and Claims of Scientificity in Russian Popular Culture, 1875- 1914............................................................................................................................227 Julia Mannherz Magic Elements in Slovak Romantic Ballads ............................................................245 Irena Malec Contributors................................................................................................................251 Gazetteer of Historical Place Names..........................................................................254 6 INTRODUCTION Magic in the past in its various forms, perceptions and definitions has been a popular subject of modern Western scholarship for a long time. In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in contrast, the issue of magic is still a rather neglected area of study. Apart from the study of witchcraft and apart from ethnologists or an- thropologists, whose research interests usually include present or recent case studies and phenomena, the subject of magic has not yet received due attention from histori- ans and other scholars of the humanities of the region. This can be partly explained by the fact that while communist policy with its stress on the class struggle preferred cer- tain topics, mainly political, economic and social history, it practically brought other fields and research interests to a standstill. This book is an outcome of an international interdisciplinary conference held on 25th – 27th October 2004 in the Congress centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in the picturesque Smolenice castle. The conference focused on the broader context of popular and learned magic in general, aimed to examine the full range of magical con- ceptions, beliefs and practices of the past and its relation to medieval and early modern science, medicine and religion. Still, the objective was broad and inclusive, rather than narrow and exclusive and it did not aim to offer one essential definition of magic. Geographically, it intended to cover the area of Central and Eastern Europe, including the territories of the present day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and countries of former Yugoslavia. As a matter of fact, these countries are represented rather unevenly, the main bulk of contributions coming from Hungarian and Slovak scholars. To some degree it was caused by the fact that coincidentally, shortly after the Smolenice conference there was another one organised in Passau with the same, though more focused theme. ∗ One of the crucial problems when dealing with historical sources is the question of their interpretation and it is not surprising that a couple of contributions are centred on it. Benedek Láng examines medieval magical texts in Central Europe, and tries to find answers to fundamental questions such as who were their authors, scribes, owners and readers; what was the character of their interest in learned magic: primary, acci- dental or purely academic; to what extent the texts represent an original intellectual production of the region and so on. On the basis of his analyses he comes to the con- clusion that in comparison with Western Europe, the milieu of the Central European universities and courts was more tolerant and that readers of magical texts belonged to neither the “intellectual proletariat” nor the “clerical underworld,” but rather to a higher and respected intellectual stratum. The problem of source interpretation is also one of the basic ones that Márton ∗ Religion und Magie in Ostmitteleuropa (Spätmittelalter und fruhe Neuzeit) organised by Thomas Wünsch from Lehrstuhl für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte Osteuropas und seiner Kulturen at Passau University on 4th – 6th November 2004. Introduction 7 Szentpéteri has to tackle, while questioning the hitherto unpublished commonplace book of Albert Szenci Molnár (1574-1634), a late Renaissance wandering scholar, Protestant theologian and poet, consisting of topoi on magic, alchemy and demonol- ogy. Szentpéteri examines the origin of a late 17th century legend presenting Szenci Molnár as a Faustian figure and tries to track down possible influence of his Loci communes in the formation of the legend. Moreover, Szentpéteri points to certain bi- ases and prejudices of scholars of Hungarian Studies towards Szenci Molnár, espe- cially to his interest in Hermeticism, magic and demonology in his youth and ques- tions their portrayal of Szenci Molnár as a Reformed intellectual who was always in- volved in late humanist issues strictly separated from questions of natural philosophy, magic or demonology. Such a strict distinction between humanism and science dates back only to the 19th century and had no real place in the late Renaissance. However, it is not only textual written sources that involve the problem of inter- pretation. As Milena Bartlová shows in her paper dealing with the period of the Mid- dle Ages, images can also be the subject of different interpretations. She comes out with the notion of the magic of the image and examines astrological, alchemical and magical symbolism of the images created at the Court of the King of Bohemia Wenceslas IV. An excellent summary of the history of the occult sciences in Early Modern Hun- gary in a Central European context and concise comparison of Hungarian with the Western scholarship