The Transmission of Magical Knowledge in the Graeco-Roman World

Studies in Honour of Richard L. Gordon

Book cover: The Transmission of Magical Knowledge in the Graeco-Roman World

Extent: 338 pages

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Series: Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beitrage

Language: English

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(December 2026)

ISBN: 9783515132121

6.69 x 9.49 inches

Price: $104.00

Richard L. Gordon is one of the most influential scholars working in the field of ancient magic over the last two decades.Within the eighteen essays collected in this volume, a diverse group of historians, epigraphers and papyrologists pay tribute to his work by elucidating the transmission of magical knowledge in the Graeco-Roman world, starting with its earliest origins and stretching to Late Antiquity and beyond.

Under this general umbrella, contributors explore a series of central questions, such as the evolution and transmission of these rituals through formularies and different magical artefacts (curse tablets, magical figurines and amulets) as well as the agents involved in these rituals. The volume concludes with an interview with the honorand that sheds light on his extraordinary career.