Centuries before Neo instantly mastered Kung Fu in The Matrix, medieval scholars found a shortcut to years of difficult study: a magical manuscript that promised to fast-track advanced learning. Anne Lawrence-Mathers investigates the Ars notoria, its supposed powers, and the demonic influence it had upon some users. From the thirteenth century on, this anonymous work promised, through diagrams, incantations, and arcane rituals, to rapidly transmit to scholars the total knowledge of anything they might need. Condemned by church authorities, the 56 extant manuscripts nevertheless testify to the seductiveness of that offer.

Unlike diagrams in other magical texts, those in Ars notoria supposedly work almost like religious icons, offering direct contact with benign supernatural forces. The rituals are presented as extremely pious, with texts identified as prayers and alien words claimed to preserve names of angels. The advantages offered are relatively virtuous: contact with spiritual beings and full knowledge of university subjects.

St Thomas Aquinas condemned it specifically in his Summa theologiae, calling the "art" both "unlawful and futile." He argued its signs lured humans into compact with demons. Yet the number of surviving copies, and the fact it was copied in religious institutions until the medieval period's end, show the church lacked interest or ability to stamp it out.

The earliest known manuscript, now in Yale University Library, was likely produced at the University of Bologna for a university master. Advanced training was necessary: the "triumphals" must be repeated on eight days within a lunar month, followed by "specials" covering the trivium and advanced subjects like Philosophy, Medicine, and Theology.