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Praestigiator Quidam Magicus Magdeburgi: On the Secularization of an exemplum, the Magician of Magdeburg, in Johann Weyer’s De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563 ff.)
Ist Teil von
Daphnis, 2019-10, Vol.47 (3-4), p.456-494
Erscheinungsjahr
2019
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The Magician of Magdeburg, an anecdote in Johann Weyer’s
De praestigiis daemonum,
a book renowned for its place in the witchcraft discourse, tells of an ambitious ocular delusion, the supposed upward and concatenated flight of the magician, his horse, his wife, and his maid. Weyer cites this story in every edition of his book as an
exemplum
of demonic magic, its perpetrator belonging to Weyer’s category of infamous magicians. By the nineteenth century however, full literary secularization is observed. The crucial step was the identification of the little story, under the influence of the Brothers Grimm, as a regional and urban
Sage
, hence of interest more as an example of local folklore than as an illustration of a large-scale enchantment. Owing to this new taxonomy, the sorcerer emerges as a harmless practitioner of magic and a cousin to Till Eulenspiegel.