Technologies, Arts, Magics, Experience: Troubling the Boundaries

Abstract

At the beginning of his encyclopaedic Compendium Maleficarum, Francesco Maria Guazzo outlined three kinds of magic. Natural magic consists in “a more exact knowledge of the secrets of Nature” and of the ability, by skilfully harnessing this knowledge, to “effect marvels which to the ignorant seem to be miracles and illusions.” Mathematical magic makes use of the principles of “Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy” to a similar purpose; Guazzo gives the example of Archimedes’s fabled defence of Syracuse by means of carefully placed mirrors that, concentrating the sun’s light, set the invading Roman galleys aflame. Finally, prestidigital magic produces illusory wonders through sleight of hand, misdirection, acrobatic skill. Thus Guazzo would disagree with Arthur C. Clarke’s (in)famous declaration that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but his disagreement trends in the opposite direction from what one might initially suppose. For Guazzo, magic isn’t just “indistinguishable” from advanced technology or