Medieval magic. Visual history of witches and sorcerers. Zotov S.O., Harman D.D.

A woman flying on the night sky riding on a broomstick. A gray -bearded old man with a staff wrapped in a long cloak. These images of sorceress and wizards appeared in modern culture under the influence of medieval images-and most of our fantasy universes are based on ideas about the magic prevailing in Western Europe in the XIV-XVII centuries. In this book we will talk about the visual sources of an imaginary magical world. How did the artists portray famous sorcerers and sorceresses of the past? What role did iconography play in witch hunt? And why did thousands of magicians throughout Europe followed the instructions of illustrated make -ups, witchcraft books? This study will lead us to images that are easily recognized today by films, music and computer games: a magic wand and a witch's broom made of fantasy, a satanic pentagram of horror films and a black goat from rock music. Thousands of years of medieval magic have not sunk into oblivion, but left a deep mark in modern culture.

Dilshat Harman - candidate of art history, senior researcher at the Center for Visual Studies of the Middle Ages and the New Age of the Russian State University. Specialist in the European Art of the Middle Ages and New Age. Zotov is a doctor of the University of War from the University (Great Britain), a junior researcher at the library of the Duke of Augustus (Germany). Specialist in iconography and the history of alchemy.