Medieval Magical Objects in the Present: A Typology of Survival

Medieval practitioners of magic were largely operating in a hostile world. Magic was often done in secret, whether through concealment, dissimulation, ambiguity, or all three. People might have used ephemeral materials, such as plants or animal parts. When more durable crafted objects were needed, they could be hidden under clothing or ritually placed, such as under the threshold of a home or up a chimney shaft to protect the household. These crafted objects often came with an iconography that was ambiguous or syncretic, to give plausible deniability to their magical natures or to draw on multiple sources of power. This can make medieval magical objects in museums difficult to identify, especially when they are not obviously linked to ritual instructions in surviving medieval books.