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Libra Esoterica

Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France

text and context of Laurens Pignon's Contre les devineurs (1411)

by Jan A. Veenstra, Jan R. Veenstra & Laurentius Pignon

  • First published:
  • 20th century
  • Language: English

Description

Description from OpenAlex (opens in a new tab)

The magicians and astrologers who frequented the courts of Burgundy and France during the reign of Charles VI to render their dubious services to king and nobles, induced friar Laurens Pignon OP to write a treatise called Contre les devineurs (1411) which he dedicated to John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy. This book presents a critical edition of the treatise and tries to reconstruct its historical and intellectual context by examining the role of magic and astrology at court. By means of theological and philosophical arguments which he derives from Aquinas, Pignon demonstrates the dangers and deficiencies of divination. In three appendices editions of supplementary documents are supplied: a confession of a court-magician, two divinatory texts and a fictional prognostication on the house of Burgundy.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Astrology, Divination and oracles, and Ritual magic and grimoires.

  • Ritual magic and grimoires

    Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the title, “Magic” in the description, “Magic” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Magic”· in title
    • “Magic”· in description
    • “Magic”· in subject
    • “Magic”· in edition title
  • Astrology

    Retained metadata contains “Astrology” in the description and “Astrology” in the subject metadata.

    • “Astrology”· in description
    • “Astrology”· in subject
  • Divination and oracles

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex and wellcome matched “divination”. Retained metadata contains “Divination” in the title, “Divination” in the description, “Divination” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “divination”· via OpenAlex
    • “divination”· via Wellcome Collection
    • “Divination”· in title
    • “Divination”· in description
    • “Divination”· in subject
    • “Divination”· in edition title

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

2 editions cataloged here.

OpenAlex scholarly book record

1997-12-01—English—Unknown

text and context of Laurens Pignon's Contre les devineurs (1411)

Wellcome Collection bibliographic record

xii, 433 pages ; 24 cm.

1998BrillEnglish
  • 9004109250
Catalog record

Subjects

29 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
openalex:W573851162
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved