Magia Posthuma

On several occasions, particularly on the periphery of the Habsburg Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, dead people were suspected of being revenants or vampires, and consequently dug up and destroyed. Some contemporary authors named this phenomenon Magia Posthuma. This blog is dedicated to understanding what happened and why.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

As Bram Stoker put it...



Posted by Niels K. Petersen at 09:52
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Labels: art, Bram Stoker, Christopher Frayling, documentary, Dracula, fiction, Frankenstein, Fuseli, Gothic horror, Nightmare, vampire books, vampire cinema, vampire movies

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Magia Posthuma is the title of a book written by the Catholic lawyer Karl Ferdinand von Schertz in 1704. In the book von Schertz examines the case of a spectre that roamed about and harmed the living. Several of these cases were known in Moravia where von Schertz published his book, as well as in neighbouring areas. Only two decades later, a similar case was investigated by Austrian officials in North Eastern Serbia. The local people called the spectre a vampire. This incident inspired the deacon Michael Ranft to publish a study on the mastication of the dead. Just a few years later, in 1732, another case of vampirism was investigated in Serbia. Reports of this investigation were published throughout Europe with the consequence that the interest in vampires exploded. Vampires became the topic of numerous learned articles and books. Cases of magia posthuma or vampirism, however, kept occurring. In 1755 empress Maria Theresa aided by her court physician Gerard van Swieten began passing laws against the exhumation and destruction of corpses as well as other acts of superstition. Within decades, however, vampires caught the imagination of poets and authors of gothic fiction. Subsequently popularized by Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel Dracula and numerous movies, vampires have become part of everyday modern mythology, but the historical and cultural background has not yet been fully explored and understood. In fact, the modern conception of the vampiric count bears little or no resemblance to the revenants of the 18th century, and several modern books rather obscure than enlighten us on the early modern European revenants and vampires. This blog is an informal and personal contribution to the enterprise of exploring and understanding what happened and why.

Further reading regarding this blog

  • Magia posthuma: a weblog approach to the History of the Central and East European Vampire Cases of the 18th Century (published in Augustynowicz & Reber: Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie (2011))
  • My favourite vampire books
  • These apparations have given risen to a little work ...
  • Vampyrens historie: magiaposthuma.dk

Selected posts

  • A.D. 1344 according to Neplach
  • An autobiographical note
  • Another bogus documentary
  • Baron Vordenburg's Library
  • But my interests lie elsewhere...
  • Draculas Vettern
  • H-sonderauftrag
  • Internet resources
  • Joh. Frid. Glaser's tale of horror
  • Keyworth and the uniqueness of the vampire
  • Kottwitz and Kucklina
  • Languages and barriers
  • Let's save Dracula!
  • Magia posthuma and the shepherd from Blov
  • Observing, understanding and participating
  • So sie vampyri nennen...
  • Some notes on the conference on Vampirism and Magia Posthuma
  • Strange histories
  • Sturm und Völker 40th anniversary
  • The historical context of vampire beliefs
  • The rationality of the strange past
  • The secret capital of vampire theory
  • The spectre Mævia
  • Visum et Repertum
  • Welcome to Magia Posthuma

Selected works

  • Acten-mässige und Umständliche Relation von denen Vampiren oder Menschen-Saugern (1732)
  • Argens, Jean Baptiste de Boyer: Lettres juives Tome V (Lettre CXXV) (1736)
  • Argens, Jean Baptiste de Boyer: The Jewish Spy Vol. IV (1766)
  • Bilfinger, Georg Bernhard: Elementa Physices cum Disqvisitone de Vampyris (1742)
  • Born, Ignaz: Briefe über mineralogische Gegenstände, auf seiner Reise durch das Temeswarer Bannat, Siebenbürgen, Ober- und Nieder-Hungarn (1774)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Dissertations sur les apparitions des Anges, des Demons & des Esprits et sur les Revenans et Vampires (1746)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Dissertations sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires II (1749)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Gelehrte Verhandlung der Materi von Erscheinungen der Geisteren, und denen Vampiren (1752)
  • Calmet, Augustin: The Phantom World (1850)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Traité sur les apparitions des esprits, et sur les vampires, ou les revenans (1759)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Traité sur les apparitions des esprits, et sur les vampires, ou les revenants Tome I (1751)
  • Calmet, Augustin: Traité sur les apparitions des esprits, et sur les vampires, ou les revenants Tome II (1751)
  • Cauz, Constantin Francois de: De Cultibus Magicis eorumque perpetuo ad Ecclesiam et Rempublicam habitu Libri Duo (1771)
  • Commercium litterarium (1732)
  • Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection
  • Delrio, Martin Antonio : Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex (1617)
  • Fortis, Alberto: Travels into Dalmatia
  • Fortis, Alberto: Voyage en Dalmatie (1778)
  • Francisci, Erasmus: Der Höllische Proteus (1690)
  • Fritsch, Johann Christian: Eines Weimarischen Medici muthmassliche Gedancken von denen Vampyren, oder sogenannten Blut-Saugern (1732)
  • Garmann, C. F.: De Miraculis Mortuorum I (1670)
  • Garmann, C. F.: De Miraculis Mortuorum II (1670)
  • Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 2 March 1732
  • Harenberg, Johann Christoph : Vernünftige und christliche Gedancken Uber die Vampirs oder Bluhtsaugende Todten (1733)
  • Hexenvorschung Quellen at Historicum.net
  • Hájek, Václav: Kronyka ceská (1819)
  • I. An otiosi diutius vivant, an laboriosi? II. An Sanguisugorum, Vampyrs dictorum, actio sit supernaturalis, an naturalis? (1732)
  • Kornmann, H.: De Miraculis Mortuorum (1610)
  • Kramer, Heinrich: Malleus Maleficarum (1580)
  • Lambertini, Prospero: De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et de Beatorum Canonizatione (1743, 1777)
  • Linzbauer, Franc. Xav.: Codex sanitario-medicinalis Hungariae (1852-56)
  • Mayer, A. U. & Swieten, G. van: Abhandlung des Daseyns der Gespenster, nebst einem Anhange vom Vampyrismus (1768)
  • Nowosadtko, Jutta: Der "Vampyrus Serviensis" und sein Habitat (Arbeitskreis Militär und Gesellschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit e.V. (8 Heft 2) (2004)
  • Pohl, J. Christopher: Dissertatio de hominibus post mortem Sangvisvgis, vulgo sic dictis Vampyren (1732)
  • Ranft, Michael: De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis (1725)
  • Ranft, Michael: De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis (1728)
  • Ranft, Michael: De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis (1728) - Google Books
  • Ranft, Michael: Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern (1734)
  • Rohr, Philip: De masticatione mortuorum (1679)
  • Rzaczynski, Gabriel: Historia naturalis curiosa Regni Poloniae (1721)
  • Stebler, Franz Anton Ferdinand: Sub vampyri, aut sanguisugae larva (Acta Academia Naturae Curiosae, 1737
  • Stock, Johann Christian: De Cadaveribus sangvisvgis Von denen so genannten Vampyrer oder Menschen-Saugern (1732)
  • Summers, Montague: The Vampire in Europe (1929)
  • Tallar, Georg: Visum Repertum Anatomico-Chirurgicum oder Gründlicher Bericht von den sogenannen Blutsäugern, Vampier etc. (1784)
  • Tournefort, Pitton de: Relation d'un voyage du Levant Tome I (1742)
  • Travels of three English Gentlemen, from Venice to Hamburgh, being the grand Tour of Germany, in the Year 1734, The, in The Harleian Miscellany vol. iv (1755)
  • Valvasor, J. W. v.: Des Hochlöblichen Hertzogthums Crain Topographisch-Historischer Beschreibung Fünftes Buch Zweyter Theil (1689)
  • Vampirismus Anthologie at Kakanien Revisited
  • Visum & Repertum, Über die so genannten Vampirs oder Blut-Aussauger (1732)
  • Vogt, Gottlob Heinrich : Kurtzes Bedencken Von denen Acten-maeßigen Relationen Wegen derer Vampiren, Oder Menschen- Und Vieh-Aussaugern (1734)
  • W.S.G.E.: Curieuse und sehr wunderbare Relation, von denen sich neuer Dingen in Servien erzeigenden Blut-Saugern oder Vampyrs (1732)
  • Wienerisches Diarium 21. Juli 1725
  • Zedler, Johann Heinrich: Grosses vollständiges Universallexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste (1731-54)
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