Fifteenth-Century Medicine and Magic at the University of Heidelberg

Summary

Founded in 1385 by the Elector Palatine Karl Ruprecht during the papacy of Urban VI, the University at Heidelberg was the third institute of higher learning to be established within the Holy Roman Empire. Thirty-six years after its founding, a fifteen-year old student, Conrad Buitzruss, enrolled at the University, and during his five years in Heidelberg, Buitzruss, or “Bynczruzs” as his surname is spelled in the university's record, kept a notebook, a fascinating collection of texts that juxtapose a number of diverse subjects, and is now housed as Clm 671 in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. This notebook contains an extraordinary array of entries on medicine and magic that document supernatural beliefs and practices regarding the prevention and healing of diseases. Although Buitzruss's notes have not been edited and/or published to this day, they provide an abundance of information about remedies and beliefs which this essay intends to discuss.

Included in the manuscript's 182 folios are astronomical and astrological texts, notes on time-keeping, and most interestingly, a collection of instructions about how to fulfill domestic tasks, such as producing ink, catching fish, conserving wine, and preparing food. In addition to offering scientific texts on the “domestic arts,” Buitzruss included formulas of ritual magic in his compilation, referring both to Christian charms (which combine folk superstition and religious piety), and necromantic rituals (invoking, for example, demonic powers to accomplish ends unattainable by normal means).