“Spain As Egypt’s Alternative: Impacts and Influences of Translated Magical Texts” session organized by Veronica Menaldi for the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo.
- Location: Kalamazoo, MI
- Date: 7-10 May 2020
- Submit 250-350-word abstract and Participant Information Form by 15 September 2019.
- Contact: Veronica Menaldi ([email protected]) and David Porreca ([email protected])
- Call for Papers:
DESCRIPTION:The twelfth/thirteenth centuries gave Mediterranean Arabic magical and astronomical knowledge a new life in Western Christendom. Many hired Jews under clerical and royal patronage in theToledo School of Translators translated these, often Aristotelian or Hermetic, texts into Latin and Castilian. While Egypt remained a predominant magical hub, Spain quickly rose as an alternative attracting many new students, so to speak, who could either more easily travel southwest or had limited to no Arabic linguistic skills. In part due to these translations, Spain became an intermediary of knowledge transmission and integral part of both Mediterranean and European networks.Some of the most famous translations include Andalusi Maslama Ibn Al Qurtubi’sGhÄyat al-ḤakÄ«mor as it became known in Europe, thePicatrix; Bagdadi ThÄbit Ibn Qurra’s translatedDe Imaginibus; and theAlfonsine Tables, among many other manuals on stones and herbs as well as astrological texts.This panel therefore invites papers that address the lasting impact these translations had on Iberian society and literature both while these translations were being produced and the centuries that followed. As such this panel attracts both Iberian, Mediterranean, and Magic literary and historian scholars allowing for a truly interdisciplinary conversation.
Societas Magica and IMANA co-sponsored panel at Kalamazoo 2020