Grimoires and ManuscriptsA website by Studio Esoterico CornelioClassic grimoires
Grimoires are among the most mysterious and least understood books in European history. This section presents them as objects of study: texts copied, reworked, printed, banned and translated over many centuries. From the Clavicula Salomonis of Renaissance manuscripts to the seventeenth-century English Lemegeton with its five parts, from the Ars Notoria of the medieval schools to the Liber Iuratus attributed to Honorius of Thebes, from the Picatrix born in al-Andalus to the Munich Handbook of necromancy, each article reconstructs the dating, attributed author, structure, circulation and editions of a work. Room is also given to the French popular booklets, from the Grand Grimoire to the Petit Albert, to the Arbatel printed in Basel, the Book of Abramelin, the Heptameron and the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. Legends are presented as legends and uncertain attributions as such. You will find no operational instructions here, only the history of how these books were born, travelled and reached us.
1.Clavicula Salomonis: the history of the Key of Solomon
The Clavicula Salomonis from Greek treatises and Italian Renaissance manuscripts to Mathers's 1889 edition: dating, structure and circulation.
2.The Lemegeton, the Lesser Key of Solomon and its five parts
The Lemegeton, a seventeenth-century English compilation in five parts: the Sloane and Harley manuscripts, its printed sources and its modern fortune.
3.Ars Goetia: the history of the catalogue of seventy-two spirits
The Ars Goetia, first part of the Lemegeton: from Weyer's Pseudomonarchia daemonum (1577) to Reginald Scot and the 1904 Mathers and Crowley edition.
4.Theurgia-Goetia: the spirits of the compass and Trithemius
The Theurgia-Goetia, second part of the Lemegeton, and its debt to the Steganographia of Trithemius, a treatise on cryptography disguised as magic.
5.Ars Paulina: the art attributed to Saint Paul and the angels of the hours
The Ars Paulina, third part of the Lemegeton: Paul's rapture to the third heaven, the angels of the hours and of the zodiac degrees, and its sources.
6.Ars Almadel: the wax tablet and the four altitudes
The Ars Almadel, fourth part of the Lemegeton: late medieval origins, a name of probable Arabic descent, the four altitudes and their angelic princes.
7.Ars Notoria: prayers and figures for acquiring knowledge
The Ars Notoria, a medieval Solomonic text for learning the liberal arts: the notae, Thomas Aquinas's condemnation, John of Morigny and the editions.
8.The Grand Grimoire and the Dragon Rouge: a chapbook best seller
The Grand Grimoire, also known as the Dragon Rouge: false dates, phantom publishers, the figure of Lucifuge Rofocale and circulation through chapbooks.
9.Grimorium Verum: the «true grimoire» of Alibeck the Egyptian
The Grimorium Verum, falsely dated Memphis 1517: its eighteenth-century origin, links to the Italian Clavicula, the infernal triad and its redactions.
10.Arbatel de magia veterum: the book printed in Basel in 1575
The Arbatel de magia veterum, printed anonymously in Basel in 1575: its forty-nine aphorisms, the seven Olympic spirits, its Paracelsian milieu and fortune.
11.The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin: history of a manuscript
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin: German manuscripts, the 1725 printing, the French version Mathers translated in 1898 and the question of authorship.
12.The Enchiridion of Pope Leo: prayers, legend and popular print
The Enchiridion attributed to Pope Leo III and, legend says, given to Charlemagne: its content, the dating of editions and the line between devotion and magic.
13.The Petit Albert: secrets of natural magic in early modern France
The Petit Albert, a collection of natural and cabalistic secrets printed from the early 1700s under false imprints: its content, censorship and spread.
14.The Grand Albert: Albertus Magnus and the fortune of his apocrypha
The Grand Albert and its sources, the Liber aggregationis and De secretis mulierum: from medieval Albertine apocrypha to French popular booklets.
15.The Heptameron attributed to Pietro d'Abano: history of an attribution
The Heptameron or Magical Elements attributed to Pietro d'Abano: the Paduan physician and his trial, the angels of the days, and its printed fortune.
16.Liber Iuratus Honorii: the Sworn Book of Honorius of Thebes
The Liber Iuratus Honorii, a late medieval text of ritual magic: its prologue, the British Library manuscripts, the vision of God and the critical edition.
17.The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses: from Stuttgart to the world
The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses: from German magical manuscripts to Johann Scheible's 1849 edition and its spread in America, the Caribbean and Africa.
18.Picatrix: from the Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm to the court of Alfonso X
The Picatrix, an Andalusian treatise on astral magic known in Arabic as Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm: author, sources, the 1256 translation, readers and modern editions.
19.The Munich Handbook of necromancy: manuscript Clm 849
The Munich Handbook, manuscript Clm 849 of the Bavarian State Library: a fifteenth-century manual of necromancy edited by Richard Kieckhefer in 1997.
20.The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy: an Agrippan apocryphon
The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, printed at Marburg in 1559 under Agrippa's name: Weyer's denial, its contents and Robert Turner's 1655 translation.