Iamblichus | Heterodoxology

Patterns of Magicity: A review of Defining Magic: A Reader (eds. Otto & Stausberg; Equinox, 2013) – part 1

[This blog post is a little milestone: it is the first official review of a book sent to me by the publisher for being reviewed directly at Heterodoxology. (Yes, publishers, I am open to suggestions like that!) Since the book was of great interest to me, and touches on issues that occupy me at the moment – and since the blog format allows me to say whatever I want and as much of it as I’d like – it has ended up more like a review article than a book review. Hence I will publish it here in three parts. The full pdf version (only slightly modified) is available from my Academia page. For convenience and ease of sharing. So on we go!]

Review: Bernd-Christian Otto and Michael Stausberg (eds.) Defining Magic: A Reader. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2013. 281 pages.

[Part 1 of 3]

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on February 1, 2014 at 8:27 am Comments (4)
Tags: academic publishing industry, Agrippa, Ambrose Bierce, Apollonius of Tyana, Aquinas, Bernd-Christian Otto, Byzantine Empire, Chaldean Oracles, copyright, Defining Magic: A Reader, definitions, E. B. Tylor, Enlightenment, Equinox Publishing Ltd., Ernesto de Martino, Ficino, Freud, Gerardus van der Leeuw, goeteia, Goetia, grimoires, Henri Hubert, hermetica, Horton, Iamblichus, J. G. Frazer, John Dee, Lazzarelli, Lévi-Strauss, Leach, Liber Iuratus, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, mageia, magic, Malinowski, Marcel Mauss, Mary Douglas, Michael Stausberg, neoplatonism, oracles, pharmakeia, Pico, Proclus, Reformation, Rodney Stark, Suda, Tambiah, The Devil's Dictionary, Theurgy, Weber, witchcraft

Ex-BPH books on auction in Rome

Ex-BPH incunables for sale in Rome.

In June I wrote that some of the more expensive books and incunables that belonged to the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (Ritman Library), which was dissolved almost a year ago, surfaced at an auction in London. As Brooke Palieri at the 8vo blog noted then, the auctioned material included the 1st edition of Marsilio Ficino’s translation of Corpus Hermeticum, which used to be one of the gems of the Ritman collection.

Now it appears that other items are very soon (October 11) to be auctioned in Rome, by Bloomsbury Auctions. The BPH items on sale seem to include later 15th century editions of the Hermetic texts, alongside first editions of Iamblichus, Plotinus (in Ficino’s translation – may go for up to € 25,000), early editions of Pico’s works, and much more. Scroll around on the page, and if you have a few (or many) thousand euros to spare this is the chance to get some rare and exotic esoteric books.

Again, this piece of news comes from Brooke Palmieri and the 8vo blog. Big thanks.

This blog post by Egil Asprem was first published on Heterodoxology. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.