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Religion du Livre, le christianisme présente maintes situations quotidiennes, sacramentelles ou imaginaires où l’écrit s’investit et rayonne de sacralité. Il s’agit ici d’examiner, dans le champ de la chrétienté européenne et les milieux des clercs lettrés, les formes d’usage sacré du livre et de l’écrit, hermétisme et rites magiques inclus. Deux questions guident l’exploration du double caractère (sacramentel-saint/ magique-diabolique) attribué à l’écrit : comment les livres, les rouleaux et les lettres s’investissent de propriétés sacrées, positives ou négatives en fonction de leur contenu et de leur contexte d’utilisation ; et comment l’écriture, en tant qu’acte de communication, devient un médium permettant d’établir le contact avec des êtres surnaturels, de conclure des pactes avec eux et d’en recevoir des messages.

Writings and pacts with the devil. Religious uses of writing in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times Christianity, being a “ religion of the Book” , implies a number of everyday, sacramental and imaginary contexts in which writing gains and radiate sacrality. We examine the communication phenomena related to specific “ non ecclesiastic” figures in the “ champ religieux” of European christianity, and other forms of the sacral use of books and writing in learned ecclesiastic context, including secret books of hermetism and ritual magic. The sacramental/saintly and the magical/diabolical character ascribed to writing will be explored from two angles. In a first round of inquiry, we examine how books, scrolls, letters — i.e. written materials as physical objects — were ascribed a positive or negative propensity according to their content and the contexts where they were used. Secondly, we would present some cases where writing, as an act of communication, became a medium to approach supernatural agents, conclude agreements and receive messages from them.