1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452972203321

Autore

Monod Paul Kleber

Titolo

Solomon's secret arts [[electronic resource] ] : the occult in the age of enlightenment / / Paul Kleber Monod

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2013

ISBN

1-299-48346-1

0-300-19539-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (457 p.)

Disciplina

130.9

Soggetti

Alchemy

Enlightenment

Magic

Occult sciences

Science - History - Miscellanea

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: What Was the Occult? -- Chapter One: The Alchemical Heyday -- Chapter Two: The Silver Age of the Astrologers -- Chapter Three: The Occult Contested -- Chapter Four: A Fading Flame -- Chapter Five: The Newtonian Magi -- Chapter Six: The Occult on the Margins -- Chapter Seven: The Occult Revival -- Chapter Eight: An Occult Enlightenment? -- Chapter Nine: Prophets and Revolutions -- Conclusion -- Manuscript Sources -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are known as the Age of Enlightenment, a time of science and reason. But in this illuminating book, Paul Monod reveals the surprising extent to which Newton, Boyle, Locke, and other giants of rational thought and empiricism also embraced the spiritual, the magical, and the occult. Although public acceptance of occult and magical practices waxed and waned during this period they survived underground, experiencing a considerable revival in the mid-eighteenth century with the rise of new antiestablishment religious denominations. The occult spilled over into



politics with the radicalism of the French Revolution and into literature in early Romanticism. Even when official disapproval was at its strongest, the evidence points to a growing audience for occult publications as well as to subversive popular enthusiasm. Ultimately, finds Monod, the occult was not discarded in favor of "reason" but was incorporated into new forms of learning. In that sense, the occult is part of the modern world, not simply a relic of an unenlightened past, and is still with us today.