At some point in the 1400s, Saint Antonius of Florence got a haircut.
He sought the services of a local barber-surgeon named Master Peter, who was presumably honored to cut the prelates hair. But a ways into his grooming, the Saint-to-be started to wonder. Master Peter could not read Latin. How could a lay-florentine barber-surgeon learn to cut hair and heal the sick with such skill? Master Peter told Antonius that he had purchased a “book of surgery” from some cistercian monks, and it was from this book that he had learned the arts of healing. The saint asked to see the book, and the barber complied.
The archbishop found a book full of healing arts, but also the incantations, formulas, and signs of the wicked magical arts. So he took the book with him, and burned it in the fire of the cloister of San Marco. According to one witness account, the air in the cloister turned dark and fearsome. The citizens and nobles in attendance clung to the archbishop. He told them not to be afraid. The book contained malicious incantations, and the air would return to normal once it was fully burned in the cleansing fire. Later, a mass was held in celebration of the demons’ purgation. Incidentally, the writings of St. Antonius of Florence would go on to influence the particular misogyny of the Malleus Malleficarum. [2]
It is clear that a great many texts went the way of Master Peter’s book of Barber-mancy. History has lost many a text to inquisitorial fires. But from scant accounts like these, we get a sense for the contents and character of these lost medieval grimoires.
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