Orientalism and Magic in Moorish Toledo

• In Event: Iberian Orientalism: Turks, Corsairs, and Moriscos against a Shifting Spain

Abstract

In this presentation I will look at Gonzalo Torrente Ballester’s presentation of Renaissance Moorish Magic and its influence on Vatican intellectualism during the 16th century. A critical aspect of this study is Torrente’s parodic representation of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (1604–21) as a practitioner of Moorish Necromancy, an occult art form that the Cardinal learned from Muslim magicians in the “Oriental” city of Moorish Toledo. Torrente presents Cardinal Aldobrandini, a generous patron of the arts, as a custodian of the prisca theologia and as a catalyst for the transmission of knowledge from the antique world. In La saga/fuga de J.B. Aldobrandini serves as pathway to Moorish Toledo; to the Arab city that rivaled Rome, a city beaming with Science, Art, and Culture, and the direct heir to the “forbidden” knowledge stemming from the antique world

Author

• Neringa Pukelis, Lewis University