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Darrera modificació: 2015-11-19
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Mathieu, Anne, "Formules conjuratoires dans un rituel de nécromancie du XVe siècle", dins: Draelants, Isabelle - Balouzat-Loubet, Christelle (eds.), La formule au Moyen Âge, II = Formulas in Medieval Culture, II. Actes du colloque international de Nancy et Metz, 7-9 juin 2012 = Proceedings of the International Conference, Nancy and Metz, 7th-9th June 2012, Turnhout, Brepols (Atelier de recherche sur les textes médiévaux, 23), 2015, pp. 457-471.
- Resum
- This article will discuss two conjuration formulas prescribed in a necromantic ritual of the fifteenth century (Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson D. 252, f. 67rv). This ritual, or experimentum, gives procedures for raising a dead man and having him disclose the identity of a thief. The ritual is fairly complex. The necromancer must go to a grave and call the dead man three times. He must then conjure the spirit Asacel, guardian of the dead, and order him to intercede with God so that the dead man might be allowed to rise and reveal the truth. Three nights are then to elapse, during which the necromancer must sprinkle the grave with holy water. On the third night, he is to stand by the grave and conjure the dead man to rise and reveal the truth. He must then take a little earth from the grave and put it in a linen sack, together with a note indicating where and under which circumstances the theft took place. Finally, he is to place the sack on his bed and use it as a pillow. The very same night, the dead man will appear to him in a dream and tell him the name of the thief. The conjuration addressed to the dead man merely consists in a commandment, followed by the two magic names Tetragrammaton and Agla. By contrast, the formula which conjures Asacel is quite elaborate. Introduced by an imperious “Conjuro te”, it enjoins the spirit to act in the name of all that it dreads most: the God of Doomsday, the pains of hell and the many secret names of God. Also remarkable in the conjuration of Asacel is the presence of four inset formulas. Three of them are of biblico-liturgical origin, but the last one is a legal formula, which, in the fifteenth century, is mostly found in a specific type of royal letters. The differences in structure and content between the two conjurations obviously reflect a difference in status between the two addressees. Asacel is a spirit, but also the indispensable mediator between God and the necromancer, who cannot and will not act without divine permission. The dead man, as to him, is but an empty shell, in no way comparable to those dangerous, subtle prophetic spirits which are conjured in most medieval necromantic experimenta.
- Matèries
- Màgia - Nigromància
Manuscrits
- URL
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1484/M.ARTEM-EB.5.103363
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