FILOLOGIA GERMANICA – GERMANIC PHILOLOGY Supplemento 2 - 2021. Incantesimi e formule magiche nella tradizione manoscritta germanica medievale / Charms and Magic Formulas in the Medieval Germanic Manuscript Tradition

Abstract

The volume collects contributions devoted to charms and magical formulas of the medieval Germanic tradition, studied in the light of the relationship with the manuscript context that handed them down and the historical-cultural milieu of which they are produced. The approach to charms and magical formulas of the Germanic world has developed on an evolutionary path that has from time to time favoured perspectives of different scientific categories, and has been faced on philological, linguistic, semantic-pragmatic, semiotic and historical-literary basis. The essays gathered in the volume offer different examples – but at the same time linked by some themes and a common purpose – of the magical literary tradition of the West and North Germanic world, with particular attention to the rituals of charms and magical formulas. The detailed examination of lesser known texts, as well as the re-examination of known texts of which a new interpretation is proposed, allows us to glimpse the breadth of the study horizon of magical literature.