Richard Kieckhefer is Professor of Religion and History at Northwestern University and an acknowledged expert on medieval magic and witchcraft. His publications include European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500 (1976), Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany (1979), Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and Their Religious Milieu (1984), and Magic in the Middle Ages (1990).
“Forbidden Rites lays a solid foundation for future research on
this topic and establishes a very high scholarly standard.”—Frank
Klaassen Canadian Journal of History
“Forbidden Rites, in illuminating the continuities between the
orthodox and the illicit, greatly enriches our knowledge of this
period in which necromancy flourished.”—Jane E. Jenkins ISIS
“This book is enormously important. Building on his previous work,
especially Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), the author
develops his formative insights into the subject of religion and
magic in the late Middle Ages and also offers an edition of a
truncated, therefore authorless and titleless, fifteenth-century
manuscript (in Munich Clm 849) of a magical handbook.”—Jeffrey
Burton Russell Church History
“This book provides a vivid and detailed picture of medieval
magical practice from the inside. With his edition of the Latin
text and thorough analysis which accompanies it, Professor
Kieckhefer has made accessible the aims, intents, and mentalities
of the medieval necromancer.”—Gillian Pritchard Medieval
History
“Forbidden Rites opens a window onto aspects of late-medieval
religion and culture that have often been hidden in the shadows.
The material is fascinating, the arguments compelling. . . . All
told, this is one of the most important works on late medieval
magic from one of its most perceptive historians.”—Rudolph Paul
Almasy Sixteenth Century Journal
“I was captivated . . . by Forbidden Rites, part of an excellent
series under the rubric Magic in History; with wonderful wit and
succinct contextual insights, Richard Kieckhefer has edited a
German wizard’s grimoire, packed with spells for Prospero-like
conjurations of phantom banquets and castles in the air, as well as
complicated charms, many involving hoopoes, against all manner of
ills.”—Marina Warner Times Literary Supplement
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