Magical Charaktêres in the Carolingian World: A Ninth-Century Charm in MS Vat. lat. 5359 and Its Broader Cultural Context
Ildar H. Garipzanov
There has been a common assumption among medievalists that the magical signs deriving from Eastern occult practices and known in Latin as caracteres first appeared Western European manuscripts with rise of “learned” magic high Middle Ages, translation relevant materials Hebrew Arabic. This paper questions this by presenting charm, hitherto overlooked, contains origin, recorded along an exorcistic incantation deviating normative Christian formulas, on final page ninth-century Carolingian legal manuscript northern Italy (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 5359, fol. 146v). Thereafter, sets unique charm within broader cultural context eighth- Europe, where both laypeople clerics continued to deploy graphic originating traditions for apotropaic healing purposes, despite repeated criticism practice discourse.
Speculum|Duo Research Archive (University of Oslo)