This dissertation examines the ways that books can show the place of magic in fifteenth-century English society. Specifically, I am interested in what was important about magic to people and how magic was used by people in the creation of their identities, both as individuals and within the community. As I explore these issues, I aim to demonstrate that magic freely co-mingled with non-magical texts in manuscripts. Furthermore, this mixing of magical and non-magical texts is a vital part of understanding magic’s role in the shaping of people’s identities, both public and private. Chapter one presents the results of a preliminary survey of magic in fifteenth-century English manuscripts. I clarify how I delineate between texts – magical and non-magical and between genres of magic. This chapter also uses a series of case studies to look at some of the issues of ownership that are dealt with in more detail in the later chapters of this thesis. Chapters two, three, and four look at individual manuscripts in depth. In Chapter two, I examine how a lower gentry household used their notebook to establish their place within a strata of the gentry that was increasingly interested in medical and scientific texts in the fifteenth century. Chapter three looks at the private notebook of an anonymous scribe and how its owner combines the ordinary and transgressive qualities of magic to create an identity for himself that is based on a quasi-clerical masculinity and the ludic qualities of magic. Chapter four concerns Robert Taylor’s medical notebook, which he may have used as a part-time medical practitioner, and the insight it gives into the everyday concerns of medieval people. Chapter five is an examination of the book of an early fifteenth-century Cistercian monk named Richard Dove. Dove’s notebook contains a copy of the Ars notoria, the only manuscript containing ritual magic that I study in this dissertation. I argue that Dove, unlike other monastic users of the Ars notoria, does not use the text for its spiritual benefits, but its material benefits as part of his desire to participate in a broader intellectual culture outside the monastery.

This dissertation examines the ways that books can show the place of magic in fifteenth-century English society. Specifically, I am interested in what was important about magic to people and how magic was used by people in the creation of their identities, both as individuals and within the community. As I explore these issues, I aim to demonstrate that magic freely co-mingled with non-magical texts in manuscripts. Furthermore, this mixing of magical and non-magical texts is a vital part of understanding magic’s role in the shaping of people’s identities, both public and private. Chapter one presents the results of a preliminary survey of magic in fifteenth-century English manuscripts. I clarify how I delineate between texts – magical and non-magical and between genres of magic. This chapter also uses a series of case studies to look at some of the issues of ownership that are dealt with in more detail in the later chapters of this thesis. Chapters two, three, and four look at individual manuscripts in depth. In Chapter two, I examine how a lower gentry household used their notebook to establish their place within a strata of the gentry that was increasingly interested in medical and scientific texts in the fifteenth century. Chapter three looks at the private notebook of an anonymous scribe and how its owner combines the ordinary and transgressive qualities of magic to create an identity for himself that is based on a quasi-clerical masculinity and the ludic qualities of magic. Chapter four concerns Robert Taylor’s medical notebook, which he may have used as a part-time medical practitioner, and the insight it gives into the everyday concerns of medieval people. Chapter five is an examination of the book of an early fifteenth-century Cistercian monk named Richard Dove. Dove’s notebook contains a copy of the Ars notoria, the only manuscript containing ritual magic that I study in this dissertation. I argue that Dove, unlike other monastic users of the Ars notoria, does not use the text for its spiritual benefits, but its material benefits as part of his desire to participate in a broader intellectual culture outside the monastery.

La thèse propose une reconstruction de la pensée philosophique et scientifique de Giovan Battista della Porta (1535-1615). En particulier, le travail est consacré à la reconstruction de la notion de « secrets naturels » au cœur de la pensée philosophique de Della Porta et de son projet de réforme de la magie naturelle. Comme je l’ai montré, la rationalisation du «secret de la nature» chez Della Porta est reliée d'un côté aux problèmes de démonologie, de l'autre côté à celles de l'astrologie.La recherche est divisée en quatre parties : la première est consacrée à l’historiographie et à la réception de Della Porta. Le sens de la magie naturelle est étudié du point de vue de la réception immédiate de la pensée de Della Porta, et notamment le problème posé par le statut qu’elle accorde à l’action des démons. Il s’agit aussi de montrer comment la question reste discutée dans l’historiographie récente. La seconde partie est consacrée a la relation de la pensée de Della Porta avec le milieu de l’aristotélisme napolitain. Il s’agit de comprendre la notion de « secrets de la nature » à la lumière des débats relatifs à la connaissance du singulier et de montrer que le problème du statut de la magie naturelle rencontre à Naples les discussions autour de l’épistémologie médicale et de la conception avicennienne de la « forme spécifique ». La troisième partie est consacrée à la question de la causalité et au débat relatif à l’astrologie, ainsi qu’ au sens à donner à la sympathie par laquelle est expliqué l’influx céleste. L’un des objectifs majeurs est de montrer comment Della Porta est amené à limiter le sens que Ficin a donné à la sympathie. Della Porta réinterprète ainsi la conception des « images astrologiques » d’Albert le Grand. La quatrième partie porte sur la tension entre amitié et sympathie dans le contexte de l’astrologie, pour reprendre la question de la ressemblance au cœur des traités de physionomie de Della Porta et de sa méthode de recherche relative aux « secrets de la nature ». Cette méthode s’appuie sur la notion d’une causalité qui touche non la substance, mais les accidents, c’est-à-dire des « particularités individuelles », telles que le mouvement, la couleur, la figure etc., sur lesquelles Della Porta fait reposer la connaissance du singulier. / This thesis focuses on the scientific and philosophical though of Giovan Battista Della Porta (1535-1615). In particular, the purpose of my thesis is to analyse and “reconstruct” the notion of “secret of nature” in Della Porta’s philosophy and in his project for the reformation of natural magic.As I have shown here, Della Porta’s rationalization of the “secret of nature” is connected either with demonological issues and with astrological problems.The thesis is divided into four parts. In the first part, the historiography and reception of the philosophical thought of Della Porta are discussed. The accent is put on the meaning of natural magic with particular regard to the role he assigns to demons. Here I show that the issue is still debated in the recent historiography. The second part introduces the relationship between Della Porta’s thought and the neapolitan aristotelianism. I proposed, here, to understand the notion of “secret of nature” in light of the debates related to the knowledge of “singular”. I have shown that the matter of the statute of natural magic is related to the discussions on the medical epistemology and on the Avicennean conception of forma speciei. The third part deals with the matter of causality and the debate about astrology. Also, it analyses the meaning of the concept of “sympathy”, interpreted as celestial influence. I have shown that Della Porta reinterprets the concept of “sympathy” of Ficino as well as the notion of “astrological image” of Albert the Great. In the fourth part, I studied the relationship between the concepts of “friendship” and “sympathy” in the astrological debate. Then, I studied the principle of “similarity” in Della Porta’s phisiognomy books and in his research methodology about “secrets of nature”. I have shown that this research methodology is based on a concept of causality not concerning the substance, but the “accidents”, i.e. the “individual particularities”: the movement, the color, the figure, etc. According to Della Porta, the knowledge of the singular is based on these “individual particularities”.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fumikazu Saito.pdf: 10989609 bytes, checksum: 339ee2687abdfdc808fbb99663c1ebfb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-19 / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo / This work discusses the relationship between instrument and sensorial or perceptive experience in the light of Giambattista della Porta s natural magic and the 17th century natural philosophy. It points out to factors that made of the telescope a natural magic device, by approaching to the design of Galileo Galilei s instrument. Analysis is centered on De telescopio, De refractione optices parte libri novem and Magiae naturalis libri XX by Della Porta and Sidereus nuncius by Galileu, as primary sources. This study allowed to realize that the expansion of the visual capacity achieved through instruments and devices was not merely related to philosophical strategies that would lead to mistrust naked-eye observation or mathematization of seeing by 15th century linear perspective. Among other features involved in the change of views regarding the observation of nature, the recognition of the sharper visual perception achieved through instruments was also associated to natural magic s manipulation of seeing / Este estudo discute a relação do instrumento com a experiência sensória ou perceptiva sob a perspectiva da magia natural de Giambattista della Porta e da filosofia natural do século XVII. Aponta-se, desse modo, para os indícios que fizeram do telescópio um aparato de magia natural, dialogando com a concepção do instrumento de Galileu Galilei. Foram selecionados para análise o De telescopio, o De refractione optices parte libri novem e a Magiae naturalis libri XX de Della Porta e o Sidereus nuncius de Galileu, como fontes primárias. Por meio deste estudo, observou-se que a ampliação da capacidade visual, por meio de aparatos e instrumentos, não estava apenas relacionada a certas estratégias de natureza filosófica, que fizeram desacreditar na observação a olho nu, nem à matematização do olhar proposta pela perspectiva linear do século XV. Além de outros aspectos relacionados à mudança de atitude em relação à observação da natureza, o reconhecimento de uma percepção visual mais aguda, por meio de instrumentos, estava também relacionado com a proposta da magia natural de manipular o olhar