Medicine, Magic and Art in Early Modern Norway

Conceptualizing Knowledge

Ane Ohrvik

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781137467416
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137467423
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Traces conceptual ideas of knowledge in Norway from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries

Assesses how magic and medicine were viewed as practical and sacred in early modern Europe

Utilises a wide range of early modern manuscripts from 1650 -1850, known as Black Books

© The Author(s) 2018

Ane OhrvikMedicine, Magic and Art in Early Modern NorwayPalgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magichttps://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46742-3_1

Begin Abstract

1. Finding Knowledge

Ane Ohrvik¹

(1)

University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

End Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century F. C. Mülertz was minister in Moland in Telemark County. At this time the villagers were complaining of a man living in Moland who was notorious for his sorcery and for owning a Black Book. The minister decided to ease the villagers’ torment and put an end to the sorcerer’s practice . One day, while the Black Book owner was away from home, Mülertz instructed two assistants to collect the book from his house. From that day on, the Black Book entitled Cyprian correct Free Arts published and printed in Wittenberg Anno 1509 remained in Mülertz’ keeping until his death.¹ At some point Mülertz must even have regarded the book as his—not as a confiscated object in his custody—as he added ‘Belongs to F. C. Mülertz’ to its inner cover .²

This study is about that Black Book (see Fig. 1.1) and about the many other books that were written in Norway during the early modern period, which were given similar titles and were part of similar practices . Their makers came from different social and cultural backgrounds and occupied very different positions, from parish ministers , military personnel, farmers, medicinal practitioners to travellers . They all shared a desire to compile and write down pieces of knowledge they found useful, resulting in individually tailored compilations reflecting each writer’s interests and needs. The books were entitled Black Book (Svartebogen) and Cyprian (Cyprianus).

Fig. 1.1

The title page of the confiscated book from Telemark. The book is in octavo format and contains sixty-eight pages of recipes, formulas, charms and advice ranging from how to cure toothache and snake bites, how to silence your enemy in court, how to be freed of all evil, how to get people to like you and how to be invisible to animals and birds. Judging by the handwriting, the book was probably written around 1800, and the owner from whom the book was confiscated may very well also have been the initial writer of the book. As is evident from the picture, the writer’s literacy skills were limited. NB MS 8640e, National Library of Norway, Oslo

These writings were given a structure and form . Remedies and recipes were structured by paragraph heading , number and chapter and sometimes presented in a lucid table of contents at the beginning or end of the book. Head titles, introductions and statements of authorship were often placed at the beginning of the book, presenting the knowledge that followed. Furthermore, the text was organised in a concrete, material form —a book—held together by an exclusive leather binding with decorative imprints or by plain soft paper covers and thread sewn through the spine. In this way, the knowledge encompassed by the books was given a concrete, material expression. How these books express themselves and are conceptualised as books of knowledge in material form and with introductory statements, constitutes the main question of this study. Based on a collection of Norwegian Black Books dated to 1650–1850 the aim is to examine how knowledge is presented.

The presentation of knowledge in the Black Books takes different forms. The books are not merely a reflection of the knowledge held by individuals in early modern Norway , and of how this knowledge was compiled and written down. They also reflect how individual writers chose to present this knowledge as material objects and texts—as books to be read. I study how these books express, articulate and conceptualise knowledge, that is, how they express themselves as texts. At the same time , I study the books from a comparative cultural and historical perspective with a view to understanding and placing them in time and space.

The articulation of knowledge in the Black Books is viewed as an authorisation strategy to empower and sanction the knowledge. Material features such as binding, format and size contribute to the authorisation process by reflecting different conceptions of knowledge. Introductory statements such as titles , prefaces and tables of contents further articulate knowledge by identifying , describing and structuring the content of the books, thus pointing towards specific interpretations of knowledge . All these elements are scrutinised in this study not with the aim of studying the formulas and recipes constituting the main body of text, but rather the authorisation of this knowledge, conceptualised through the material form and introductory textual statements preceding it. The material and textual starting point represents a threshold between the content of the books and the cultural network of knowledge practices of which the books are a part. This viewpoint enables me to focus on the articulation of these knowledge traditions and on how this connection is executed both materially and textually.

Knowledge is situated and carries references. The situating of knowledge in the Black Books is viewed through material and textual expressions pointing to past and present experiences and practices . This study illuminates these references, determines what they entail and analyses their form , meaning and function in the books. One concrete expression of this situating process is their material and literary form as books, which places the Black Books in the history of books . It is my firm conviction that the literary relationship is crucial to understanding why Norwegian Black Books appear as they do, their authorisation strategies and how knowledge is presented.

Manuscripts, Books and Black Books

The terms manuscript, book and Black Book will all be used as references to my material. I acknowledge that their meanings differ and could be seen as contradictory, so I will briefly explain how the terms are understood and used here.

A manuscript is defined by the handwritten text it contains. My material is thus classified as manuscripts, since they only comprise of handwritten texts, which differ from texts that have been produced using a printing press. While a manuscript can represent anything from a single piece of paper to a collection of many, a book is defined by its cohesive nature, comprising a set or collection of sheets, either blank or inscribed in some way, fastened together to hinge the sheets at one side.

Within the field of book history research, definitions of what constitutes a book are often narrower (see discussion below). They often presuppose a certain dissemination of the book, which is mostly related to whether it is printed or not. Additionally, the number of authors and subjects of a text may influence its definition . Such demarcations would make it difficult to define my material as books. However, I find such understandings of what constitutes a book both anachronistic and meaningless with regard to the present corpus . They were made as books by their makers , conceived of as books by their users and, perhaps most importantly, referred to and called books by their owners. Co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Finding Knowledge
• 2. Knowledge Cultures
• 3. Making Knowledge
• 4. Attributing Knowledge
• 5. Identifying Knowledge
• 6. Situating Knowledge
• 7. Instructing Knowledge
• 8. Organising Knowledge
• 9. Conceptualising Knowledge
• Back Matter