David Frankfurter, Ph.D. (1990) Princeton University, is Professor of Religion at Boston University. A scholar of ancient religions, Frankfurter is the author of Religion in Roman Egypt (Princeton, 1998); and Christianizing Egypt (Princeton, 2017), as well as many articles on magic and popular devotion.

This volume seeks to advance the study of ancient magic through separate discussions of ancient terms for ambiguous or illicit ritual, the ancient texts commonly designated magical, and contexts in which the term magic may be used descriptively.