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Tag: renaissance

The Mermaid Isles Project

Posted on September 12, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“A thousand fathoms down our home; Daughters we of the pathless deep, sprung from the ever dancing foam.”  –from The Mermaids by Edith M. David (1873). Mermaids, it would seem, have been shoaling around the sunless depths of the human psyche since the time of the ancient Mesopotamians. From the very beginning, marine humanoids were associated…

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Doctor Torralva, The Arch-Magician of Castile

Posted on April 5, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

“Remember the true story of the licentiate Torralva, whom the devils carried through the air, riding on a cane…”  -from The life and exploits of the ingenious gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, vol. II, by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Charles Jarvis (1749). According to tradition, the first person on the Iberian Peninsula to make…

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The Secret Arts of Early Modern Treasure Hunters

Posted on March 19, 2017March 19, 2023 by TheCustodian

“It is well known that until the nineteenth century, treasure seeking was steeped in magic.” -Professor Johannes Dillinger “A very deep meaning lies in that notion, that a man in search of buried treasure must work in utter silence ; must speak not a word, whatever appearance, either terrific or delightful, may present itself.” –from…

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John Evans, The Sinister Astrologer of Fetter-Lane

Posted on March 3, 2017October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

ODD TRUTHS: JOHN EVANS, THE SINISTER ASTROLOGER OF FETTER-LANE “He was the most saturnine person my eyes ever beheld…” -from History of His Life and Times by William Lilly (1715) There is a guilty pleasure in picturing the early modern era as a time of taboo-defying dynamos and charismatics. Personalities like Giovanni Pico, Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, and John Dee…

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A Fifteenth-Century Ghosthunter

Posted on December 23, 2016October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

ODD TRUTHS: A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY GHOSTHUNTER “This man [Alexander ab Alexandro] is familiar with everyone, and yet no one knows him.” -from Letter to Viglius Zuichemus by Desiderius Erasmus (1533).  Born in Naples in 1461, Alexander ab Alexandro (also known as Alessandro Alessandri) spent the first part of his life as a practising lawyer. At some point however,…

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Fantast in Focus: Daniel Harms

Posted on November 13, 2016October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

FANTAST IN FOCUS: DANIEL HARMS “They are either not mortal, or their date of life is indeterminately long; they are of a nature superior to man, and speak with contempt of human follies. By night they revel beneath the light of the moon and stars…” -from The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various…

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Islamic Magic in Malta

Posted on October 7, 2016October 8, 2020 by TheCustodian

ODD TRUTHS: ISLAMIC MAGIC IN MALTA Maltese folk magic has been studied in detail by scholars such as Francis Ciappara and Carmel Cassar. However, in 2014, a research team at the University of Exeter led by Professor Dionisius Agius, Dr Catherine Rider, and Dr Alex Mallett, recovered seventeenth-century court documents about an Egyptian slave who was accused of giving…

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