History: History of Magic

See Schedule of Courses for specific titles. Prerequisite: Three hours of History.

Prereq: 3 hours History PACE students with permission and override Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations

How was magic defined in the medieval period? How was it different from religion or empirical sciences? Who were practitioners of magic? Was it always a persecuted activity? This course gives a broad overview of the history of magic in northern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, and all around the coast of the Mediterranean Sea – a region which will allow us to explore magical cultures from Latin, Jewish and Arabic traditions, as well as Celtic and North African magics. Our study will proceed chronologically from late antiquity through about 1500. We will end with a short unit on how the history of magic is still relevant today. Through weekly readings and discussions, short writing assignments and a research-based creative project, students will learn how to encounter and interpret magic as a historian. This course may not make you believe in magic, but it will certainly convince you of how its deep history in the medieval world still manifests in our modern times.