Acta Ethnographica 37. (1991-1992)
1991-92 / 1-4. szám - Learned Demonologies And Popular Mythologies Origins And Patterns Of The Witches' Sabbath - György Endre Szőnyi: Conjuror, sorcerer, witch Courtly and university contexts in late Renaissance Central Europe
266 GYÖRGY ENDRE SZÛNYI It is well known that while Renaissance science got into conflict with the conservative medieval universities, it tried to reorganize itself in private academies that were not depending on the church institution. Ihe rivalry of the universities and the academies show a clear-cut power struggle and this was in close connection with the patronage system of the Renaissance. While the universities enjoyed royal endowments they were also subject to church supervision and eventually local government control. Gn the other hand, the private academies were totally independent except the influence of the royal or aristocratic patron, many of which themselves were eccentric characters. Consequently, they quickly became reservoirs of various kinds of free thinkers, enthusiasts, unorthodox scientists . In Hungary and Transylvania, where there was no university thus the institutionalized rivalry was much less dominant, and where the whole period of the 16th century can be characterized by anarchy and political decline, quite naturally gathered a colorful and international layer of interconfessionals and heterodox intellectuals. It was partly the intellectual curiosity of the patrons - in harmony with the general mood for esoteria of the Mannerist period - partly their greed for gold that they ventured at supporting all kinds of wandering theologians, doctors, astrologers and alchemists. As it is well known, the greatest of all these weird courtly menageries in Central Europe was that of Rudolf II in Prague, but also Stephen Báthory's court in Cracow, and the seat of the Tran-22 sylvanian Princes attracted this kind of folks. One of the most extraordinary characters of this class was Dr. John Dee, the English mathematician and conjuror who extensively travelled in Central Europe and enjoyed the hospitality and protection of a number of royal and aristocratic courts. His younger years are well documented by monographs - it is known that he studied at Cambridge (1542-1547), then, after some time of Continental studies around 1550 he lectured at the University of Paris. During his continental studies he got acquainted with the hermetic philosophy of the Italian and French neoplatonists and became more and more interested in the occult. Being a scientist, and also a neoplatonist philosopher and religious enthusiast, quite naturally, he had to face the accusation of sorcery and witchcraft already in his early university years. First in 1547, still in Cambridge, where he constructed a mechanical stage effect for a student performance at Trinity Hall. He managed to fly up an actor, "where at was great wondring, and many