An international team of scholars from different academic disciplines address some of the most
important issues texts and objects in the study of ancient magic. The volume is divided into
three primary sections. The first part offers new approaches to some of the major theoretical
and methodological questions in the study of ancient magic. Most importantly the authors offer
a defense of the term magic as a scholarly rubric in the study of antiquity. The contributors
to the second part provide novel interpretations of some of the most significant defixiones
amulets recipes and rituals from the ancient world. The essays also engage with questions of
gender materiality visuality and scribal practice. The final section examines the
transmission of magical practice both in antiquity and in later periods. Accordingly the
chapters in this final section allow scholars to approach the study of magic over the longue
durée. By placing into dialogue the interests concerns and methods of scholars from diverse
academic fields this volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of
premodern magic.
