Magic or Medicine? Grimoires and Healing Amulets in Renaissance France
By Jules Larimore
Research is often my favorite part of writing historical fiction. I sometimes find such fascinating facts that can completely change my perspective. When I began research for the books in my Huguenot trilogy set in the late 17th century, I never expected “magic” to be a part of the storyline. I recently had a reviewer question why I would add it unless it was the main theme. I’ve come to realize what is and isn’t “magic” is often a matter of perspective.
While looking into the healing arts of the late 17th century, I discovered some amazing things about the traditional folk healing practices of the Cévenoles — people of the Cévennes mountains in Languedoc, (south-central France), where my stories are set. I came across a quote from the late 19th century that helped me to understand that healers who relied on the old ways were very common, even then.
“There is almost no village, even today, where we do not find one or more secret healers, (that’s the name we give them) sorcerers or diviners, with the reputation to cure all kinds of illnesses, even from a distance, by means of signs, dead ends or ridiculous formulas.”
— The Lozérien Peasant: Local Studies (Ed. 1899) by Jules Barbot
I also found numerous articles on old recipe books for healing, often referred to as grimoires, which proved charms and amulets were commonly used. This led me down a rabbit hole with my reward being a much better understanding of these practices.
When we think of “grimoire” we conjure an image of a book of magic spells. A recipe book to create everything from talismans, charms, amulets, and potions to summoning or invoking spiritual entities from angels, spirits, or deities, to protection from God or the gods. Yet, I wondered where the grimoire originated.
I learned it was only in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the increasing interest in occultism, that the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic. It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated in the early Middle Ages from the Old French word, grammaire, meaning grammar, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. It was a time of scholarly collaboration between different religions and cultures from around the Mediterranean. The European grimoires took inspiration from the ancient religions of the Near and Middle East. These were essentially recipe books for healing, including blessings written in not only Latin, but also Hebrew and Greek charakteres, or characters, none of which the common people could understand. So the term gradually became a figure of speech indicating something which was hard to understand.
The earliest known written incantations for healing and protection date back to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ancient Jews were believed to have learned magic from Moses, who learned it during his time in Egypt. There is definitive evidence of grimoire-type books used by certain early Christian sects—particularly the Gnostics.
In the Middle Ages, the production of grimoires was common in Christendom, as well as among Jews and followers of the Islamic faith. In Christianised Europe, the Church allowed the use of grimoires but divided them into two kinds: “natural magic” and “demonic magic”. Those that dealt with "natural magic" were allowed. These recorded powers found in nature, which was good since it was created by God, and they evolved into what we know as “herbals”. Those that dealt in "demonic magic" were strictly forbidden.
The Inquisition brought the suppression of people and beliefs considered heretical, and since grimoires often became the evidence needed to condemn a person, many were destroyed alongside their owners. The Renaissance brought the printing press and a rise in interest in Jewish mysticism, known as Kabbalah, so grimoires became prevalent once again, especially in France.
Medical texts in the Middle Ages and Renaissance could be divided into the learned tradition, which includes practical or philosophical treatises written in Latin, and the remedy-book genre, which includes the “materia medica” tradition. Despite the advent of the printing press, handwritten grimoires incorporating folk magic and healing remedies remained popular and were passed down through generations. This is the kind of grimoire, or herbal recipe book, that you will find in my Cévenoles Sagas where I simply referred to them as recipe books, since that is how the people of the time would have thought of them.
Within the recipe books were instructions on the use of herbal and mineral cures, and on the use of charms and amulets. The Sacrè Coeur, or Sacred Heart, made of gilded metal would have been commonly used among Roman Catholics. It was a devotional object to give thanks for wishes, prayers, or intentions that had been granted, and was worn around the neck or sewn into clothes.
In the Cévennes mountains, people often carried stones, such as the Snake Stone. Made of green and white crystalline volcanic rock and resembling the skin of a snake, they were thought to be an anecdote to snake bites or a curé for smallpox or the plague. Wolves were abundant at the time in the Cévennes, so amulets such as this wolf’s canine might have been worn by a child as a remedy for convulsions. One of the special amulets used by Amelia, the mystic healer in my novel, is a word or textual amulet. They were made using tiny handwritten scraps of parchment that could include scripture verses or prayers and placed within a small linen pouch or within cloth bandaging and placed against the area to be healed. As with the grimoires, the text often included a combination of languages such as Latin, Hebrew, and Greek charakteres.
I’ll leave it to my readers to decide; is it magic or is it medicine? Either way, I think they will find my characters who use these practices — Amelia, a free-spirited, holy-woman healer, and her grandmother, Menina Elise, a sage-femme (mid-wife) healer — both very endearing.
Find Me in the Stars:
a Cévenoles Sagas novel - Book Two of the Huguenot Trilogy
By Jules Larimore
a Cévenoles Sagas novel - Book Two of the Huguenot Trilogy
By Jules Larimore
Publication Date: 20th March 2024
Publisher: Mystic Lore Books
Page Length: 328 Pages
Genre: Renaissance Historical Fiction / Women’s Fiction
Separated by miles, connected by the stars, two healers forge their destinies in a quest for a brighter tomorrow.
Inspired by a true story, this refugee's tale of sacrifice, separation, and abiding love unfolds in the Cévennes Mountains of Languedoc, France, 1697. A sweeping adventure during the time of Louis XIV's oppressive rule and persecutions, this compelling narrative follows the intertwined destinies of two remarkable protagonists, Amelia Auvrey, a mystic holy-woman healer, and Jehan BonDurant, an apothecary from a noble Huguenot family, in a riveting tale of enduring love, faith, and the search for light in the darkest of times.
Amelia and Jehan are fierce champions of tolerance and compassion in their cherished Cévenole homeland, a region plagued by renewed persecution of Huguenots. The escalated danger forces their paths to diverge, each embarking on their own dangerous journey toward survival and freedom. The Knights Hospitaller provide protection and refuge for Amelia and her ailing sage-femme grandmother, even as they come under suspicion of practicing witchcraft. And, to avoid entanglement in a brewing rebellion, Jehan joins a troupe of refugees who flee to the Swiss Cantons seeking sanctuary—a journey that challenges his faith and perseverance. Jehan arrives to find things are not as he expected; the Swiss have their own form of intolerance, and soon immigrants are no longer welcome. The utopian Eden he seeks remains elusive until he learns of a resettlement project in the New World.
During their time apart, Amelia and Jehan rely on a network of booksellers to smuggle secret letters to each other—until the letters mysteriously cease, casting doubt on their future together. Jehan is unclear if Amelia will commit to joining him, or if she will hold fast to her vow of celibacy and remain in the Cévennes. Seemingly ill-fated from the start, their love is tested to its limits as they are forced to navigate a world where uncertainty and fear threaten to eclipse their unwavering bond.
As a stand-alone sequel to the award-winning The Muse of Freedom, a bestseller in Renaissance Fiction, Find Me in the Stars is based on true events in the life of Jean Pierre Bondurant dit Cougoussac--an unforgettable adventure where love and light endure against all odds.
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Jules Larimore
Jules Larimore is the author of emotive, literary-leaning historical fiction with a dose of magic, myth, and romance to bring to life hopeful human stories and inspire positive change. She is a member of France’s Splendid Centuries authors’ collaborative, a board member of the Historical Novel Society of Southern California, and lives primarily in Ojai with time spent around the U.S. and Europe gathering a rich repository of historical research in a continued search for authenticity.
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