NEW BOOK:

Paul Magdalino, Maria Mavroudi, The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (la pomme d'or, 2008)

This volume represents the first attempt to examine occult sciences as a distinct category of Byzantine intellectual culture. It is concerned with both the reality and the image of the occult sciences in Byzantium, and seeks, above all, to represent them in their social and cultural context as a historical phenomenon.
The eleven essays demonstrate that Byzantium was not marginal to the scientific culture of the Middle Ages, and that the occult sciences were not marginal to the learned culture of the medieval Byzantine world.

Contents:

Paul Magdalino, Maria Mavroudi, Introduction.

Maria Mavroudi, Occult Sciences and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research.

Katerina Ierodiakonou, The Byzantine Concept of Sympatheia and its Appropriation in Michael Psellos.

Paul Magdalino, Occult Sciences and Imperial Power in Byzantine History and Historiography.

Maria Papathanassiou, Stephanos of Alexandria: a Famous Byzantine Scolar, Alchemist and Astrologer.

Michèle Mertens, Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium.

David Pingree, The Byzantine Translations of Masha’alla’s Works in Interrogational Astrology.

William Adler, Did the Biblical Patriarch Practice Astrology? Michael Glykas and Manuel Komnenos I on Seth and Abraham.

Anne Tihon, Astrological Promenade in Byzantium in the Early Palaiologan Period;

Joshua Holo, Hebrew Astrology in Byzantine Southern Italy.

Charles Burnett, Late Antique and Medieval Latin Translations of Greek Texts on Astrology and Magic.

George Saliba, Revisiting the Astronomical Contacts between the World of Islam and Renaissance Europe: the Byzantine Connection.