Traces of Necromantic Divinatory Practices in the Picatrix

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article shows that some paragraphs of the famous medieval magical manual, the Picatrix, show traces of divinatory practices that can be linked to the original meaning of the term nigromantia, the divination of the dead. The Picatrix is a well-researched medieval text, but there is still much to contribute to its interpretation. It is fortunate that the author's starting point is a short (half-page) section of the otherwise long book. The content of this short text is contextualized using the whole book, its earlier Arabic version, and the entire literature on medieval magic. As far as I can see, all relevant publications are used and referenced. The author argues that in the seemingly innocent paragraph, the beheading of the animal replaces the process of sacrificing the boy, and thus the human sacrifice is replaced by an animal sacrifice. As the author puts it: "the child ceases to be a victim, but becomes only a medium." The arguments based on textual parallels and similar motifs in medieval magical sources are convincing. 

The article is a real contribution to the secondary literature on Picatrix. I recommend it for publication.

The text is well written, logical and easy to understand, but some of the phrases would benefit from a proofreading by a native speaker or an AI:

"Now, if we turn our intention back to Picatrix", "I will demonstrate that this function can be determined if we focus some basic elements of the descriptions." "What can we decipher from other accounts"

On page 7, there are 3 questions, but the 3rd is not a question. Letters in 2 and 3 have different size.

Apart from these minor language and formatting problems, the paper is ready for publication.

see above

Author Response

Thanks a lot for the remarks, I will improve the article by editing the text taking your observations into account.

Reviewer 2 Report

The essay is appreciable and its publication is recommended. The authors choose a well-circumscribed topic and offer sufficient evidence to support their hypotheses. The bibliography is essential but includes the works one would expect to find. The style of the exposition is always clear, never convoluted.

Author Response

Thanks a lot for your review.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a very interesting article on the Picatrix that provides a discussion of divinatory and necromantic rituals connected with this.

I would suggest that some moderate revisions be made however with regard to the scholarly apparatus, structure, and argument of this article, as well as some language edits before it is ready to be published. My main suggestions are below:

                1)        How the article is referred to needs to be consistent. It is  referred to variously as a “presentation” and “paper.” It is neither.

2)        For the historical section on page 1, the Valerie Flint book on early medieval magic may be helpful.

3)        For this section too, Renaissance magic is briefly mentioned, along with “restrictions.” This needs to be clarified and work on Renaissance magic, e.g., the book and articles of Frank Klaasen, the book by Paola Zambelli, and Denis Robichaud (article Renaissance Quarterly, 2017) should be consulted, amongst others.

4)        On the development of grimoires, the work of Owen Davies should be consulted.

5)        A bit more scholarly context regarding medieval astral magic would also be helpful here, e.g., the work of Michael Ryan, Dov Schwartz, Richard Kieckhefer, etc.

6)        The first section (“Defining the problem”) needs to be expanded a bit to include recent relevant scholarship and further historical context.

7)        I don’t think that titling the second section “General Remarks” works well. This lays out the aims of the article and research questions and should be labelled accordingly. I think that the beginning two sections should perhaps be restructured and combined into one or else more clearly labelled. The detailed discussion on the “experiment on children” should be in a separate section.

8)        The structure of second section is fragmented. Different questions should be combined in a paragraph together rather than one-sentence paragraphs.

9)        With regard to the “experiment on children”: what wider parallels may be found in terms of this? 

10)   For the role of the rooster, the context of medieval bestiaries should be considered. A good place to start is this:

https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastbiblio258.htm

See also, for sample sources: https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastsource258.htm

11)   On pg.7, the structure of the beginning of section 4 is confusing. Questions should be posed in paragraph form, rather than as a list. This disrupts the flow of discussion and is fragmented.

12)   Section 5, on parallels to the divinatory and necromantic rituals, should be expanded. What parallels exist in medieval examples, or even early modern ones? What do we know of the extent to which these were copied into other manuscripts, etc.? How popular were they? Did the "experiment on children" connect with contemporary and later ideas about children and their participation in magical rituals and divination, including for finding lost things, etc.?

13)   The argument could be more clearly stated at both the beginning and end. 

Some minor editing of the English language is required. This usually has to do with word choice, singular vs. plural, etc. For example, "External Evidences" (p.5). This should be read by a native English speaker.

Author Response

Thanks a lot for your relevant remarks and recommendations; I think they will be useful for my further investigation.

For remarks 2-6:

In the introduction to this article, I only wanted to put the Picatrix in a historical context. At the same time, the main focus is on the ancient and classical parallels, furthermore on elements of the given rituals, not on their mediaeval and later receptions. The book by Brian P. Copenhaver and the article by Peter Farshaw cited provide further insights into the questions you pose. On the other hand, I am planning to write another article focussing on those topics, so I will use the articles and books you recommend. I think that for the present context, the secondary literature I used for references contains all the relevant information.

Furthermore, I think a detailed analysis of Renaissance magic is not relevant for my article, but for astral magic, I will refer to the book of Nicolas Weill-Parot (Les images astrologiques…)  

Regarding your other suggestions (mainly about the structure of the article and about the bestiaries) I will improve the text taking your remarks into account. Furthermore, I think a detailed analysis of Renaissance magic is not relevant for my article, but for astral magic, I will refer to the book of Nicolas Weill-Parot (Les images astrologiques…)

Regarding your other suggestions (mainly about the structure of the article and about the bestiaries) I will improve the text taking your remarks into account.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx