Practices and Principles of Verbal Magic: Historical Sources Across Cultures

The fourth workshop of the DFG network, "Working Wonders with Words: Language and Power in the Pre-Modern World between Religion, Magic and Medicine", focuses on the historical practices of verbal magic. In order to make these (routinely) performed actions comparable across cultures, we will examine in particular the external circumstances or actions through which the texts become effective. In doing so, we make a fundamental distinction between (I.) effective speaking, (II.) effective writing and (III.) the accompanying circumstances and actions that generate effectiveness. At the same time, we are interested in the respective preparatory and accompanying circumstances and their systematization. Our aim is to develop a deeper understanding of how words, language and writing unfold supernatural effects according to the ideas of the time, and which principles of action are universal or specific. Depending on the culture and tradition, our sources include instructional texts such as recipes, ritual-magical instructions, etc. as well as the actual written artifacts used in practice. The sources also consist of eyewitness accounts such as those in court records or travelogues, and theoretical treatises, including prohibition
literature as in the case of Europe.