Zwirnmann, Katja: Von der Magia Naturalis – Ein Grafik-Buch The roots of occidental magic reach far back into antiquity and the time of the ancient Orient. It shaped the medieval and early modern thinking of Central Europe and reached into the era of the Enlightenment. Based on the book "Geheime Unterredungen zwischen zweyen vertrauten Freunden" from 1702, which deals with the difference between magia naturalis and magia daemoniaca, the idea arose to compose magical thinking and early natural science into one graphic.
The woodcut illustrates aspects of the magia naturalis. Quotations from magical writings and scientific publications form a network in which it is not immediately recognizable which ones stand for magic and which ones for natural science; in some cases they overlap.
The text begins with the definition of magic and its types. It shows the tension of the scholars' discourse on natural and demonic magic, the witch hunts, and the projection of a 'folk magic' then and now. He continues about Johannes Kepler and his "Gründtlichen Bericht Von einem ungewohnlichen Newen Stern", describes production and distribution of magic books at the time of the Enlightenment and draws a bow to Max Weber's lecture "Progress and Disenchantment of the World" and the break of the magic tradition to modern esotericism and today's hostility to science.
ger., double book, digital print, woodcut, printed slipcase, 60p, 9.4 x 11.4 inch, Ed. of 35, num., sign., Leipzig, 2021, Request of availability back