Politics and magic in Castile (13th century): a transcultural phenomenon

ABSTRACT Conceiving history as interconnected and intertwined may open our analytical perspectives and help us move away from a compartmentalized writing of history. This paper builds on this premise to consider the phenomenon of transcultural entanglements at the court of Alfons X of Castile (c. 13th). In order to do so, it draws a comparison between the Picatrix, a work on philosophy and magic, which was translated by the monarch’s court, and one of his normative work, the Setenario. It analyses the many different temporalities which intersect so that new historical experiences could be formed, and how these experiences were instrumentalized to serve the political interests of Alfons X. Finally, it proposes the concept of historical vortexes as a tool for the analysis of transcultural entanglements.