She applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era, and reported the following:
I was sceptical when asked to take part in the Page 99 Test for Love Spells and Lost Treasure: how could one page, taken at random, reasonably encapsulate the point of a whole book? In the end, though, I admit that I was pleasantly surprised. The page opens with the heading ‘Sales and Marketing’ and, despite how uninspiring this probably sounds, does centre on a major theme throughout the book. One of the key findings of my research is that magicians in premodern England were treated as a form of trader, selling a coveted and skilled ware to ready customers. Page 99 lists a number of ways in which service magicians plied their trade, and particularly the importance of word of mouth for finding potential clients. To quote directly from the opening paragraph:Follow Tabitha Stanmore on Twitter.…how did magicians find their clients and advertise services? Many seemed to have relied on word of mouth and recommendations. Others, particularly itinerant cunning folk, actively sought out clients by knocking on doors or even creating their own business. Either way, an important part of service magicians’ repertoire was their ability to promote their successes and build strong reputations.People dealing with everyday yet urgent problems – chronic diseases, love-sickness, poverty – had limited directions to turn in the pre-modern period, but magic was definitely one option. Magical practitioners claimed to be able to cure illnesses that left trained doctors stumped, and find hoards of treasure buried in fields. The temptation to control one’s fate made spells an attractive solution, so people often turned to someone with supernatural powers for help. As page 99 relates, though, knowing which magician to approach – or even how to find one – was not always a straightforward task. People had been warned by generations of stories and Church warnings that magicians were sinister people who, at best, might trick you out of your money, and at worst could send you on a path to Hell. In the hope of finding an honest, reliable practitioner therefore, many potential clients relied on an intermediary to introduce them to the right wizard for their needs.
The use of intermediaries to move between cunning folk and their customers emphasises the delicate relationship – and market – in which magicians were acting. To come recommended suggests a long-standing reputation for reliable services: in short, that the magician was trusted by at least some people in their community. But when one’s business relies almost entirely on the good will and positive impression of a small, local population, the situation is necessarily fragile. Failing to perform the magic commissioned could easily damage one’s reputation, and the consequences from there could be severe. At the milder end, a magician’s business could dry up; at the more extreme, it could mean being reported to the authorities.
There’s much more to the book than this, but the themes certainly come through in the Page 99 Test.
--Marshal Zeringue
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