Over the past forty years, the study of ancient, late antique, and medieval “magic” has become a burgeoning field. Scholars have benefited from the (revised) publication of substantial corpora of ancient grimoires and applied magical devices (especially amulets, curse tablets, and magic bowls),1 translations of magical materials,2 and a host of monographs, edited volumes, and essays on ancient magic and magicians.3 These studies have contributed greatly to our understanding of the nature and scope of premodern magic and its practitioners in diverse times (antiquity, late antiquity, and the medieval world), spaces (especially Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome), languages (for instance, Akkadian, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin), and religions (particularly, indigenous Egyptian religion, Greco–Roman religion[s], Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Yet most of these studies provide either a general or synthetic analysis of magical texts and practices, or confine themselves to the manifestation of “magic” at a single historical instance...
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