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[DEMONOLOGY AND MAGIC]. A Conjuration Manual, in Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy, late 17th century]
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[DEMONOLOGY AND MAGIC]. A Conjuration Manual, in Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy, late 17th century]
A rare fragment from a 17th-century manual on conjuration of spirits for a budding practitioner of ritual Solomonic magic, including detailed instructions on how to conjure a spirit into a crystal or a bottle, and how to prepare a dead man's head for the purposes of incantation.
220 x 145mm. 16 leaves, foliation 1-16 followed here, likely a fragment of a larger manuscript, 15-18 lines, 3 sigils (marginal dampstaining throughout, especially to opening leaf, edges frayed and thumbed, opening leaf with 6 holes affecting a few words of text, a few wormholes on other leaves, some words scrubbed or crossed out). Contemporary pasteboards (soiled and frayed).
Content: ‘Ad habendum sp[irit]um in Christallo’: instructions on how to conjure a spirit into a Crystal ff.1-5v; ‘Experimentum Capitis mortui’: an experiment to summon a spirit using a dead man’s head ff.6-11v; ‘Seq[ui]t[ur] Lice[n]tia I[n]scripti Sp[ir]iti’ ff.12-12v; ‘Ad habendum sp[irit]um in Ampulla’: how to conjure a spirit into a bottle ff.12v-16v.
A testament to the continued and vibrant interest in occultism and Rosicrucian philosophy in the 17th century, this fragment from a practical spellbook, illustrated with Solomonic sigils, contains invocations and incantations that would have been very familiar to the Elizabethan magician, astrologer and mathematician John Dee (1527-1608/9). The first of these is a spell that is designed to summon a spirit into a 'chrystallo', or a reflective, polished surface. Dee used a number 'chrystalla', or ‘shew-stones’ as scrying devices to summon visions of spirits and demons and carry out his occult research into the world of spirits, among which a rock crystal ball and an obsidian mirror (now London, British Museum 1966,1001.1). Dee often worked with the medium and convicted criminal, Edward Kelley: the two men held séances in England and on the Continent between 1583 and 1589.
A rare fragment from a 17th-century manual on conjuration of spirits for a budding practitioner of ritual Solomonic magic, including detailed instructions on how to conjure a spirit into a crystal or a bottle, and how to prepare a dead man's head for the purposes of incantation.
220 x 145mm. 16 leaves, foliation 1-16 followed here, likely a fragment of a larger manuscript, 15-18 lines, 3 sigils (marginal dampstaining throughout, especially to opening leaf, edges frayed and thumbed, opening leaf with 6 holes affecting a few words of text, a few wormholes on other leaves, some words scrubbed or crossed out). Contemporary pasteboards (soiled and frayed).
Content: ‘Ad habendum sp[irit]um in Christallo’: instructions on how to conjure a spirit into a Crystal ff.1-5v; ‘Experimentum Capitis mortui’: an experiment to summon a spirit using a dead man’s head ff.6-11v; ‘Seq[ui]t[ur] Lice[n]tia I[n]scripti Sp[ir]iti’ ff.12-12v; ‘Ad habendum sp[irit]um in Ampulla’: how to conjure a spirit into a bottle ff.12v-16v.
A testament to the continued and vibrant interest in occultism and Rosicrucian philosophy in the 17th century, this fragment from a practical spellbook, illustrated with Solomonic sigils, contains invocations and incantations that would have been very familiar to the Elizabethan magician, astrologer and mathematician John Dee (1527-1608/9). The first of these is a spell that is designed to summon a spirit into a 'chrystallo', or a reflective, polished surface. Dee used a number 'chrystalla', or ‘shew-stones’ as scrying devices to summon visions of spirits and demons and carry out his occult research into the world of spirits, among which a rock crystal ball and an obsidian mirror (now London, British Museum 1966,1001.1). Dee often worked with the medium and convicted criminal, Edward Kelley: the two men held séances in England and on the Continent between 1583 and 1589.
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