Presses and Grimoires: Printing Magical Books in Venice and Lyon

The invention of printing with movable type did not do away with the magical manuscript, but it profoundly changed its role. From the late fifteenth century, occult philosophy, astrology, natural magic and prophecy reached booksellers' counters in hundreds of identical copies. The more openly ritual texts, on the other hand, mostly went on circulating by hand. Two cities carried particular weight in this story: Venice, the book capital of Europe, and Lyon, the great printing centre of southern France.

Venice, capital of the book

Around 1500 Venice had more printing houses than any other city in Europe. Aldus Manutius worked here, renewing the format and typefaces of the book, and here classics, medical texts, astrological treatises and almanacs were printed. Many works linked to the magical and natural tradition also appeared in Venice, such as the editions of Peter of Abano and, in the mid-sixteenth century, the hugely successful books of secrets, starting with those attributed to Alessio Piemontese in 1555.

The city was also a great market for manuscripts. The trials of the Venetian Holy Office, preserved in the State Archives, show that copies of the Key of Solomon and other ritual texts were bought, lent and transcribed by priests, physicians, soldiers and artisans. The printed book and the manuscript notebook lived side by side: often the latter copied passages from the former, adding figures and prayers that no printer would have dared to publish.

Lyon and the rue Mercière

Lyon, a city of fairs and bankers, was in the sixteenth century the second printing centre of France after Paris. The workshops were concentrated along the rue Mercière and produced books of law, medicine and literature and a great quantity of almanacs and prognostications. It was in Lyon, at the shop of Macé Bonhomme, that the first edition of the Prophéties of Nostradamus appeared in 1555, destined for a success that endures to this day.

The name of Lyon is also linked to the Opera of Cornelius Agrippa, circulated in editions bearing on the title page the imprint «Lugduni, per Beringos fratres», that is, by the Beringen brothers. Not all scholars are convinced that those editions were really printed in Lyon, and the formula was later taken up and parodied by the clandestine publishers of French grimoires, who used it as a false address.

Censorship and hidden circulation

The spread of printed books alarmed the religious authorities. The Index of Prohibited Books promulgated by Paul IV in 1559 and the Tridentine Index of 1564 condemned works of magic and divination, with a specific rule devoted to the occult arts. For printers and booksellers the risk became real: seizures, fines, trials. Many texts therefore remained in manuscript form, or were printed with false details or without the printer's name.

The history of magical books between Venice and Lyon reveals a delicate balance between market and control. Printing made occult philosophy and the secrets of nature accessible to many, while the most feared rituals took refuge in manuscripts and clandestine networks. This double track explains why, even today, many famous grimoires are known to us mainly through handwritten copies or late editions.