Defining nature’s limits: Prosecuting magic in sixteenth-century Italy

View 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.