Customer Reviews

Chaldean Magic its Origin and Development

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This book does not pull any punches. In the first chapter, really right away, translations of the Chaldean writings are discussed. As a reader I was a little shocked and quite impressed. Usually there has to be a good bit of discussion before such a candid look at the actual translations. Lenormant (writing in the 19th century) wasted none of the reader's time in getting to the meat of the issue and leaves the scholarly deviations for later in the book. This makes it clean, quick, and easy to take a look at how the Chaldeans viewed medicine and apotropaic magic. Adapting this for one's own use (if so inclined) would be very easy. If this book isn't in your library then you aren't really studying ancient magic.

From the 19th century comes this work on the origin and development of Chaldean magic. Right away the author introduces us to important texts and saves most of the analysis for later.

I had a lot of trouble getting into this text. The writing styles have changed a great deal since the book was originally published, and the methods have changed a great deal.

More seriously, the field has progressed a great deal since this book was written. Many of the theses are less tenable today than they were in the 19th century (in particular the thesis that the fire of the Zoroastrian alter is of Chaldean rather than Indo-Iranian origin). Therefore the book should be read with a certain degree of scepticism. Much of the book is spent comparing and contrasting Chaldean tablets with Egyptian and Finno-Ugric works.

However, there are interesting elements to the book nonetheless, and it does challenge the reader in important ways. The translations of the tablets are worth reading in their own right. Moreover its often worth pondering older theses to see if they have actually been superceded.

On the whole, I'd recommend this work but not without caveats.