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Course begins January 13, 2025
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Live sessions with the instructor every week
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Sessions from 1:00 - 3:00pm Eastern U.S. Time
Week 1
THE ORIGINS OF MAGIC
We'll investigate the roots of magical practices and trace their journey during late antiquity into Western Christendom. What does “magic” mean? Where did it originate? Who were its inventors or early practitioners? How did the growing Christian Church respond to and cope with magical beliefs?
Week 2
A CLASH OF POWERS
Dive into the clash between Christian miracles and magical powers in early medieval society. Even though the Church branded magic as the devil’s work, people just couldn’t resist its allure. What made magic so tempting, and how did it survive in such hostile territory?
Week 3
EATING YOUR WORDS
One of the most enduring magical practices from the medieval world is graphophagy — that’s the fancy term for eating or drinking written or spoken formulas. We’ll trace this peculiar custom through the centuries and go manuscript-hunting for evidence of people literally consuming their magic words.
Week 4
THE POWERS OF THE HUMAN BODY
Cannibalism might be one of society's biggest taboos today, but in medieval times, the human body could be seen as a goldmine for magic. We’ll dig into the gritty world of anthropophagy and explore how this practice popped up in both folk and natural magic.
Week 5
THIRSTY FOR MAGIC
In a world at the mercy of the weather, you could pray to God for rain…or call on a rainmaker. This class dives into weather magic in early medieval Europe. We’ll uncover how people tried to control the skies, from elaborate rituals to ward off storms to charms for summoning rain.
Week 6
MAGICAL WORDS IN SCANDINAVIA
Runes, sagas, laws, and chronicles — they’re all bursting with stories of Norse magic. Up in Scandinavia, where Christianity showed up fashionably late and people held onto their ancient gods longer, shedding the old magical ways was more challenging than in other places. In this final class we’ll explore why, in this chilly corner of the world, words held a unique and potent power.
Meet Your Instructor
Andrea Maraschi
Andrea Maraschi has a PhD in Medieval History (University of Bologna), and has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iceland. He teaches Anthropology of Food at the University of Bologna and is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bari. His research interests touch, among other things, on the history of food, the history of magic, and the history of medicine. His latest monograph, co-written with Francesca Tasca, is entitled Food, Heresies, and Magical Boundaries in the Middle Ages (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).