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Libra Esoterica

Studies on Astral Magic in Medieval Jewish Thought

by Dov Schwartz

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English

The book describes a fascinating encounter between astrology and magic, exposing how Hermetic magic seeped into Jewish literature and Jewish philosophy. Following astral magic in its convoluted course, this original work sheds new light on rationalist Jewish thought in the Middle Ages. Having attained its authority mostly from its use in medical practice, astral magic also developed a theology and provided a key to biblical interpretation. Judah Halevi, Nahmanides, and others explained the meaning and influence of the commandments according to magic-astral models and techniques, generating a new perspective within medieval Jewish philosophy. The book is intended for scholars of philosophy, Jewish thought, astrology and magic, as well as for the general public with an interest in these areas.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Alchemy and Hermeticism, Astrology, and Ritual magic and grimoires.

  • Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the title, “Magic” in the description, “Magic” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • Magic· in title
    • Magic· in description
    • Magic· in subject
    • Magic· in edition title
  • Alchemy and Hermeticism

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex matched “Hermeticism”. Retained metadata contains “hermetic” in the description.

    • Hermeticism· via OpenAlex
    • hermetic· in description
  • Astrology

    Retained metadata contains “Astrology” in the description and “Astrology” in the subject metadata.

    • Astrology· in description
    • Astrology· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

OpenAlex scholarly book record

2005-01-01EnglishUnknown

Subjects

21 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
openalex:W2791030197
Edition coverage
Openalex source record
Retrieved