RR Spotlight Dr. Andrea Franchetto - Rituals of Perceptual Presence: How Ritual Makes Spirits Real

https://vimeo.com/1128812664?fl=ip&fe=ec This conversation with Dr. Andrea Franchetto explores Rituals of Perceptual Presence: Space, Material Culture, and Efficacy in Late-Medieval Learned Magic, a study of how medieval ritual magic was designed to make the invisible perceptible. Rather than purely symbolic acts, these rituals used space, objects, and sensory cues to help practitioners see, hear, and feel supernatural beings—what the researcher calls “culturally postulated superhuman agents.” The discussion examines the paradox of incorporeal corporeality, the role of ritual spaces, and how experiential knowledge shaped practitioners’ authority. It also introduces the “Spectrum of Presence,” a framework mapping different modes of ritual encounter, from imaginative to sensory and embodied forms of interaction with the supernatural.