Word Eaters: Graphophagy in the Early and High Middle Ages (Mini-Monographs in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 6)

Syrups made from sacred words dissolved in water, cups with inscribed letters, and mysterious symbols traced on food―graphophagy, the ingestion of words, was real and widespread, yet scarcely studied within the medieval European context. This volume reveals how people consumed texts for therapeutic, ritual, and devotional purposes between late antiquity and the high Middle Ages. It explores remedies hidden in the margins of manuscripts, traces of ingestion in grimoires and medical texts, and charms echoing from Egypt to Scandinavia to illustrate that eating words was neither irrational nor exotic: it was a coherent ritual strategy that transformed ink and parchment into powerful tools for acting upon reality.

Andrea Maraschi, Ph.D. (2013), University of Bologna, is an assistant professor of medieval history at Pegaso University. His research interests include the history of food and magic. His latest monograph is entitled A tavola con i demoni. Cibo e magia nell’alto medioevo (2026).