Timeline

875: Thabit ibn Qurra and the Sabian milieu

c. 875, Harran and Baghdad: Thabit ibn Qurra works within Arabic scientific and philosophical networks later associated in Latin reception with astral image theory. The connection matters for medieval magic scholarship because Latin attributions to Thabit helped frame image magic as learned natural philosophy rather than merely illicit ritual.

1140-1160: Secretum Secretorum enters Latin learned culture

c. 1140-1160, Iberia and the Latin West: The pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum circulates in Latin as a flexible vehicle for princely counsel, physiognomy, medicine, astrology, and hidden knowledge. Its importance for medieval magic lies not in being a grimoire, but in showing how political advice, natural philosophy, and occultized secrets could travel under Aristotelian authority.

1250-1270: Albertus Magnus treats minerals and occult natural powers

c. 1250-1270, Cologne and the Dominican schools: Albertus Magnus discusses stones, minerals, and hidden natural powers in works such as De mineralibus. The episode matters because scholastic natural philosophy offered categories for unusual effects that could be treated as natural rather than demonic, shaping later debates over natural magic and occult properties.

1250-1300: Latin Picatrix enters western learned culture

c. 1250-1300, Iberia and the Latin West: The Arabic Ghayat al-hakim circulates in Latin as the Picatrix, transmitting a large body of astral image theory, ritual timing, planetary correspondences, and philosophical justification. Modern scholars treat this translation history as central to the Arabic-Latin formation of learned magic.

1300-1400: Ars Notoria and angelic learning circulate in manuscripts

c. 1300-1400, western Europe: Ars Notoria manuscripts transmit prayers, diagrams, and ritual schedules promising divinely assisted learning. The tradition complicates simple oppositions between piety and magic because its procedures often present themselves through Christian prayer while attracting suspicion from theologians and ecclesiastical authorities.

1350: John of Morigny reworks the Ars Notoria

c. 1350, northern France: John of Morigny composes and revises a visionary and ritual work that transforms Ars Notoria materials through Marian devotion, monastic autobiography, and claims of correction. Claire Fanger's work has made this case central for understanding how medieval ritual learning could be simultaneously devotional, visionary, and suspect.

1456: Hartlieb writes the Book of All Forbidden Arts

1456, Bavaria: Johannes Hartlieb writes the Buch aller verbotenen Kunst for a princely milieu, classifying and warning against prohibited arts, witchcraft, divination, and magical practices. The text matters because it joins vernacular advice, moral instruction, and late medieval concern with illicit knowledge before the full consolidation of early modern witchcraft theory.

1456: Johannes Hartlieb writes on prohibited arts

1456, Bavaria: Johannes Hartlieb composes advice literature for princely readers on forbidden arts, witchcraft, and magic. The work is significant because it joins courtly counsel, medical learning, and moral warning at a moment when late medieval categories of witchcraft and ritual magic were being systematized.

1923: Thorndike publishes the first volumes of A History of Magic and Experimental Science

1923, New York: Lynn Thorndike publishes early volumes of A History of Magic and Experimental Science, establishing a vast documentary frame for the entanglement of magic, natural philosophy, astrology, and experimental inquiry. Later scholars have revised Thorndike's evolutionary assumptions while continuing to rely on the scope of his evidence.

1998: Forbidden Rites published

1998, University Park, Pennsylvania: Richard Kieckhefer publishes Forbidden Rites, an edition and study of a fifteenth-century necromancer's manual. The book becomes a landmark for studying medieval ritual magic as manuscript practice, learned clerical culture, and historically specific textual compilation.

2008: Benedek Lang publishes Unlocked Books

2008, University Park, Pennsylvania: Benedek Lang publishes Unlocked Books, shifting attention toward Central European manuscript libraries, ownership, and codicological evidence. The study broadens medieval magic scholarship beyond famous Latin treatises toward the practical survival of learned magic in library collections.