The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. Ralph Merrifield, Batsford, 1987 The Daddy of them all. ‘ what is needed is an open mind and appreciation of the great diversity of human behaviour’ In 1987, Ralph Merrifield, retired archaeologist and recognised authority on Roman London, set out to publish, for the first time, a systematic review…
Grimoires, A History of Magic Books. Owen Davies, OUP 2009. ‘…for many down the millennia and across the globe no books have been more feared than grimoires.’ Thus Owen Davies introduces his exhaustive history of Magic Books, a complex and extensive survey of what, once one begins to pursue it, seems an endless road. That…
The Book of English Magic. Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate. Hodder, 2009. Fun and games for a wet weekend in lockdown (or any other time) I was slightly surprised when I first opened my copy of this book and found that it was written not by historians but by a psychotherapist (Carr-Gomm) and a man…
Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course. Roberta Gilchrist, Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2012; paperback 2018. The aim of this book, as stated on its rear cover, is to explore how medieval life was actually lived, from birth to death and covering every aspect of the life course in between. It is, as Professor Gilchrist notes…
The Trotula Edited and Translated by Monica H. Green. University of Pennsylvania Press 2001 An accessible English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine. This modest paperback book represents the pared-back core of a much larger academic work by Professor Green, who in 2001 published a hardback Latin – English translation, with the texts…