WHEN YOU CALL MY NAME: Spirit Conjuring in Early Modern English Manuscripts

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2021-06-30
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en
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This thesis provides a parallel edition of four early modern English manuscripts on spirit conjuring. These manuscripts are the following: London, British Library, Sloane MS 3853; London, British Library, Sloane MS 3850; London, Wellcome Library, MS 110; and Manchester, Chetham’s Library, MS Mun.A.4.98. The excerpt which forms the main focus of this edition is an experiment on spirit conjuring, which consists of a prayer, a set of instructions with an invocation, and a conjuration. Due to the scope of the thesis, the conjuration is not included in this edition. The experiments are compared to each other and it is clear that the experiments in MSS Sloane 3853 and Wellcome 110 are very closely related. The experiment is placed within the Thesaurus Spirituum book II chapter 1. Possible reasons for this placement are explored by looking at the linguistic context, function, and contents of the prayer. The linguistic context shows that the prayer is not originally part of the Thesaurus Spirituum. The function of the experiment, namely conjuring spirits, fits very well with the contents of book II chapter 1 of the Thesaurus Spirituum. The contents of the experiment focus on obedience, bonding, and possibly stolen goods through the demons Asmodeus and Egepea. These contents fit book II chapter 1 of the Thesaurus Spirituum as well. The function and contents could therefore form a possible explanation for the placement of the experiment. By providing this parallel edition, the texts become available to the public and opportunities for further research on early modern English manuscripts and spirit conjuring are created.
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