Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti's visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.

Fabrizio Conti (PhD, Central European University, 2011) teaches Western Civilization, Medieval, Renaissance, and Religious Histories, as well as Magic and Witchcraft at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. A graduate in the Humanities from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" with certificates from the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology in Rome and the School of the Vatican Secret Archive, Fabrizio is particularly interested in researching cultural fractures and changes within long-term historical structures and patterns. The history of magic and witchcraft is, from this point of view, particularly inspiring as it situates itself at the crossroad of different times, domains, and mindsets. Fabrizio has taught Medieval Christianity and Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe at the Ohio State University in 2015, and he has lectured in a number of other universities in Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Besides that, he has worked in the catacombs of Rome as a docent and in the Vatican Secret Archive as an archivist. Fabrizio is currently involved in historical TV documentary series ranging from the ancient civilizations and Roman warriors to the mysteries of the Knights Templar. He is the author of "Witchcraft, Superstition, and Observant Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual Debate in Renaissance Milan," which was published by Brepols in 2015.