Defining nature’s limits: Prosecuting magic in sixteenth-century Italy
Presenter: Neil Tarrant
Published: July 2013
Age: 14-19 and upwards
Views: 1205 views
Tags: science
Type: Lectures
Source/institution: Royal Society
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Magic and science have traditionally been considered to have little in common. Yet for many sixteenth-century intellectuals, including churchmen, practising magic was based upon highly sophisticated knowledge of the natural world. For ecclesiastical censors the key issue was determining which magical practices were ‘natural’ and which required the assistance of demons. In this lecture I argue that attempts to define legitimate magical practices required determining which phenomena were naturally possible, and this in turn helped to demarcate the acceptable limits of scientific expression.