The opening of Preface
This work has been long in preparation—ever since in 1902-1903 Professor James Harvey Robinson, when my mind was still in the making, suggested the study of magic in medieval universities as the subject of my thesis for the master’s degree at Columbia University—and has been foreshadowed by other publications, some of which are listed under my name in the preliminary bibliography. Since this was set up in type there have also appeared: “Galen: the Man and His Times,” in The Scientific Monthly, January, 1922; “Early Christianity and Natural Science,” in The Biblical Review, July, 1922; “The Latin Pseudo-Aristotle and Medieval Occult Science,” in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 1922; and notes on Daniel of Morley and Gundissalinus in The English Historical Review. For permission to make use of these previous publications in the present work I am indebted to the editors of the periodicals just mentioned, and also to the editors of The Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, The American Historical Review, Classical Philology, The Monist, Nature, The Philosophical Review, and Science.