Description:
In Clearing the Waters: A Monograph on Saint Cyprian Divination from the 17th to the 19th Century, author José Leitão unravels the mystery of Saint Cyprian's seafaring incantation.
Brief description: José Leitão is a former experimental physicist currently studying Portuguese magic and religion in the records of the Portuguese Inquisition as a PhD student at the University of Coimbra. Besides his Physics PhD (defended in 2014), he also holds a Master's degree in Religious Studies, with a major in Western Esotericism, from the University of Amsterdam (finished in 2016).His current research interest is the mapping of learned Magic in Portugal using the records of the Portuguese Inquisition. This includes both the study of the production of autochthonous magic books or the circulation of European texts and Grimoires in Portugal. As a secondary topic, he also researches expressions of folk magic and religion in this same database, particularly those focusing on the figure of St. Cyprian of Antioch.