Ars Magica (Nerea Riesco novel)
Encyclopedia
Ars Magica is the second novel of Spanish
author Nerea Riesco, first published on May fourth 2007. Its rights are sold for translation in Italian
, German
, polish
, Portuguese
, Russian
and Romanian
.
. All points to a murder committed by the Devil
and its followers. The region is being scourged for months by the sorcerers, even if the precedent year eleven people were burned alive in a sorcery trial. The people are scared. To appease them the Santo Oficio
decides to promote a grace
edict to forgive those who admit their agreements with the Devil. The severe inquisitor
Alonso de Salazar y Frías is in charge to apply the edict by covering the region. But what nobody knows is that Salazar doesn't't trust anymore in sorcery or spells and, even worst, he doesn't trust in the Devil any more, because he has lost his faith
. To reveal the mystery of the witches, Salazar will use the anatomy studies from Leonardo da Vinci
, forensic technics he learned in Rome, apothecary
knowledge to analyse magical ointments... he finally will base his investigation on verifiable facts to establish factual truths instead of suppositions.
Meanwhile, a young woman called Mayo from Labastide-d'Armagnac
, who was, following her birth statements, the bastard daughter of the Devil and a mortal woman, travels selling spells. Mayo lost her female companion because this one was arrested during the last auto-da-fé
, even if she wasn't condemned. To find her, Mayo decides to follow the steps of Salazar, whom she protects with her spells, even if he doesn't suspect anything about her beneficial actions.
During their journey, both will face the diabolical powers which will obstruct their plans, the lack of faith and the death of those they love.
s, invisibility techniques, solution
s to lose the vellus hair, recipes to temporarily transform into animal shapes... all the remedies appearing in Ars Magica are a part of the Spanish lore, transmitted generation after generation, and draw their origins deep back in time. The spells and ritual magic were really used at that time, and nowadays some people still use them, even if they ignore their origin. Ars Magica ("the art of magic" in Latin) is then not only a novel but also a book of spells.
what was called the auto de fé
de las brujas ("the witches' auto-da-fé"), where eleven people in the Navarre region were condemned to burn. But this auto-da-fé wasn't enough to appease the people's fears, who pretended to continue suffering about the Devil deeds.
One of the inquisitors in charge of the case, Alonso de Salazar y Frías, was sent to the region a year after that auto-da-fé with the intention to promulgate a grace edict which forgave the devil followers if they admitted their guilt.
Salazar interrogated, investigated and compiled information about the sect. This information (for which he was later called "the witches' advocate") denied all what to the moment was thought about sorcerers, to the point that he even said there weren't sorcerers or bewitched until it was talked or written about them.
The resulting file of his investigations took more than 5,000 sheets of paper, all of them bound in eight volumes which, incomprehensibly, never were published. So, this way, the innovative Salazar was almost forgotten for historical record. The documentation was put aside in a basement until it was discovered by American
historian Henry Charles Lea
. He mentioned then this documentation on his 1906 work about the Spanish Inquisition. Salazar became worldwide famous and in 1941 the Englishman
Charles Williams
dedicated his book Witchraft to Salazar (to the immortal memory of Alonso de Salazar y Frías).
founded the inquisition courts
in 1231. Dominicans
and Franciscan
s were in charge of the organisation, conceived to maintain under control those who refused to live under the Catholic Church's rule.
Unlike in other countries the Spanish Inquisition wasn't submitted to the direct authority of Rome. Rather than that it was ruled by a general inquisitor
, designated by the King of Spain. This way the Spanish Inquisition became one of the organs of the state, serving it, and the clerics who directed this organ were also public servants. So the Spanish Inquisition didn't apply punishments, but decided about the punishment that the regular civil authority usually had to apply.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
author Nerea Riesco, first published on May fourth 2007. Its rights are sold for translation in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
.
Synopsis
Spain, early 17th century. A woman is found lifeless in SantestebanDoneztebe
Doneztebe-Santesteban is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:*...
. All points to a murder committed by the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
and its followers. The region is being scourged for months by the sorcerers, even if the precedent year eleven people were burned alive in a sorcery trial. The people are scared. To appease them the Santo Oficio
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
decides to promote a grace
Divine grace
In Christian theology, grace is God’s gift of God’s self to humankind. It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to man - "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" - that takes the form of divine favour, love and clemency. It is an attribute of God that is most...
edict to forgive those who admit their agreements with the Devil. The severe inquisitor
Inquisitor
An inquisitor was an official in an Inquisition, an organisation or program intended to eliminate heresy and other things frowned on by the Roman Catholic Church...
Alonso de Salazar y Frías is in charge to apply the edict by covering the region. But what nobody knows is that Salazar doesn't't trust anymore in sorcery or spells and, even worst, he doesn't trust in the Devil any more, because he has lost his faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
. To reveal the mystery of the witches, Salazar will use the anatomy studies from Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, forensic technics he learned in Rome, apothecary
Apothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
knowledge to analyse magical ointments... he finally will base his investigation on verifiable facts to establish factual truths instead of suppositions.
Meanwhile, a young woman called Mayo from Labastide-d'Armagnac
Labastide-d'Armagnac
Labastide-d'Armagnac is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France.It hosts Notre Dame des Cyclistes.-See also:*Communes of the Landes department...
, who was, following her birth statements, the bastard daughter of the Devil and a mortal woman, travels selling spells. Mayo lost her female companion because this one was arrested during the last auto-da-fé
Auto-da-fé
An auto-da-fé was the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition or the Portuguese Inquisition had decided their punishment, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed...
, even if she wasn't condemned. To find her, Mayo decides to follow the steps of Salazar, whom she protects with her spells, even if he doesn't suspect anything about her beneficial actions.
During their journey, both will face the diabolical powers which will obstruct their plans, the lack of faith and the death of those they love.
The spells
Every chapter's title in the novel refers to a spell or magical formula conceived to resolve a particular problem. Reading the book the reader progressively discovers love potionLove potion
Love potion may refer to:* In folklore, mythology, or works of fiction, a love potion may refer to a type of potion designed to create feelings of love towards a person* Lappish Hag's Love Potion, an alcoholic drink* The Love Potion, a painting...
s, invisibility techniques, solution
Solution
In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of only one phase. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solvent does the dissolving.- Types of solutions :...
s to lose the vellus hair, recipes to temporarily transform into animal shapes... all the remedies appearing in Ars Magica are a part of the Spanish lore, transmitted generation after generation, and draw their origins deep back in time. The spells and ritual magic were really used at that time, and nowadays some people still use them, even if they ignore their origin. Ars Magica ("the art of magic" in Latin) is then not only a novel but also a book of spells.
The actual story
In marked contrast to what happened in the rest of Europe, in Spain the Inquisition didn't show a particular interest on persecuting witchcraft. Nevertheless, on November the 6th 1610 was celebrated in LogroñoLogroño
Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...
what was called the auto de fé
Auto-da-fé
An auto-da-fé was the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition or the Portuguese Inquisition had decided their punishment, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed...
de las brujas ("the witches' auto-da-fé"), where eleven people in the Navarre region were condemned to burn. But this auto-da-fé wasn't enough to appease the people's fears, who pretended to continue suffering about the Devil deeds.
One of the inquisitors in charge of the case, Alonso de Salazar y Frías, was sent to the region a year after that auto-da-fé with the intention to promulgate a grace edict which forgave the devil followers if they admitted their guilt.
Salazar interrogated, investigated and compiled information about the sect. This information (for which he was later called "the witches' advocate") denied all what to the moment was thought about sorcerers, to the point that he even said there weren't sorcerers or bewitched until it was talked or written about them.
The resulting file of his investigations took more than 5,000 sheets of paper, all of them bound in eight volumes which, incomprehensibly, never were published. So, this way, the innovative Salazar was almost forgotten for historical record. The documentation was put aside in a basement until it was discovered by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian Henry Charles Lea
Henry Charles Lea
Henry Charles Lea was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist. Lea was born and lived in Philadelphia.-Parents:...
. He mentioned then this documentation on his 1906 work about the Spanish Inquisition. Salazar became worldwide famous and in 1941 the Englishman
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Charles Williams
Charles Williams (UK writer)
Charles Walter Stansby Williams was a British poet, novelist, theologian, literary critic, and member of the Inklings.- Biography :...
dedicated his book Witchraft to Salazar (to the immortal memory of Alonso de Salazar y Frías).
The witches
The Pope Gregory IXPope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...
founded the inquisition courts
Medieval Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition and later the Papal Inquisition...
in 1231. Dominicans
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
and Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
s were in charge of the organisation, conceived to maintain under control those who refused to live under the Catholic Church's rule.
Unlike in other countries the Spanish Inquisition wasn't submitted to the direct authority of Rome. Rather than that it was ruled by a general inquisitor
Grand Inquisitor
Grand Inquisitor is the lead official of an Inquisition. The most famous Inquisitor General is the Spanish Dominican Tomás de Torquemada, who spearheaded the Spanish Inquisition.-List of Spanish Grand Inquisitors:-Castile:-Aragon:...
, designated by the King of Spain. This way the Spanish Inquisition became one of the organs of the state, serving it, and the clerics who directed this organ were also public servants. So the Spanish Inquisition didn't apply punishments, but decided about the punishment that the regular civil authority usually had to apply.