סמינר המכון להיסטוריה ופילוסופיה של המדעים והרעיונות ע"ש כהן

Katelyn Mesler

Mandel Fellow, Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center, Hebrew U

Conjuring up Jewish Magic: The Role of Jews and Judaism in Fourteenth-Century Sorcery Trials

Among the sorcery trials of the late Middle Ages are more than forty cases in which the defendants were Jews, converts from Judaism, Christians who claimed to have acted with Jewish accomplices, and even Christians who pretended to be Jews. The surviving records, mostly from Spain, Southern France, and Italy, sometimes include recorded testimony of Jews or Christians and thus provide remarkable evidence for aspects of medieval thought and Jewish-Christian relations. This paper will introduce the records of some of the key trials of the fourteenth century in order to explore how medieval Christians conceived of Jews’ use of magic, what role these conceptions played in sorcery trials, and how Christians’ understandings of “Jewish” practices may have shaped the ways in which they viewed their own.

התכנסות לקפה וכיבוד קל בשעה 17:45, ליד חדר 449

יו"ר: פרופ' יוסי שוורץ

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