![ESOTERIC -- ROW, William the younger [compiler/scribe]. "On Magick & c, Compiled from Ancient Mss by William Row the Younger" [on verso of 'title': "Compiled from Ancient MSS in the British Museum by William Row the Younger"]; second 'title' immediately succeeding the first: "The Science of Theurgy". London: 1830. 4to (230 x 190mm), handwritten/decorated in ink throughout, 273 numbered pages, frontispiece diagram, 15 large or full-page diagrams, other diagrams within text, along with tables of mystical symbols and assorted spells and invocations, 4 pages of index (light browning, occasional spotting). Contemporary half red roan and marbled boards decorated on upper and lower cover with pentagrams and other mystical symbols (binding worn, backstrip partially detached and missing 2" section). Provenance: George Oakley Fisher (bookplate); Ethel Wieland (neé Archer).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2008/CSK/2008_CSK_05309_0345_000(035717).jpg?w=1)
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ESOTERIC -- ROW, William the younger [compiler/scribe]. "On Magick & c, Compiled from Ancient Mss by William Row the Younger" [on verso of 'title': "Compiled from Ancient MSS in the British Museum by William Row the Younger"]; second 'title' immediately succeeding the first: "The Science of Theurgy". London: 1830. 4to (230 x 190mm), handwritten/decorated in ink throughout, 273 numbered pages, frontispiece diagram, 15 large or full-page diagrams, other diagrams within text, along with tables of mystical symbols and assorted spells and invocations, 4 pages of index (light browning, occasional spotting). Contemporary half red roan and marbled boards decorated on upper and lower cover with pentagrams and other mystical symbols (binding worn, backstrip partially detached and missing 2" section). Provenance: George Oakley Fisher (bookplate); Ethel Wieland (neé Archer).
AN EXCEPTIONALLY COMPREHENSIVE AND WELL-PRESENTED MANUSCRIPT 'MAGICK' BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY OF A MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF ALEISTER CROWLEY. Before the growth of esoteric publishing in the late 1800s, manuscript books such as this one -- usually copied from material in the Library of the British Museum -- were the only means of disseminating arcane knowledge among the cognoscenti. This example, in a neat and legible hand, is in English throughout apart from occasional Hebrew phrases. Among the spells described are a means 'Of cursing the Spirits for Non-appearance', 'A licence to the Spirits to depart' and a spell 'To see in thy Sleep whatsoever thou shalt desire'. The full-page diagrams include 'The Solar System as applied to the Angelic Spheres', 'The Celestian & Spiritual World' and Solomon's Seal and Pentagon. There are keys to 'The Holy Letters of the Angels' and 'The Magical Characters of the Planets' amongst other arcane matters.
This book was bought by a relative of the consignor from Ethel Wieland (née Archer), a close associate of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) and wife of Crowley's publisher, Eugene Wieland. Ethel Wieland was a member of Crowley's mystical Order, the A.'A.', and contributed poems to his journal, The Equinox, published by Eugene Wieland. Crowley referred to Ethel Wieland as 'the Queen of Constancy', and they remained on good terms until his death.
AN EXCEPTIONALLY COMPREHENSIVE AND WELL-PRESENTED MANUSCRIPT 'MAGICK' BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY OF A MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE OF ALEISTER CROWLEY. Before the growth of esoteric publishing in the late 1800s, manuscript books such as this one -- usually copied from material in the Library of the British Museum -- were the only means of disseminating arcane knowledge among the cognoscenti. This example, in a neat and legible hand, is in English throughout apart from occasional Hebrew phrases. Among the spells described are a means 'Of cursing the Spirits for Non-appearance', 'A licence to the Spirits to depart' and a spell 'To see in thy Sleep whatsoever thou shalt desire'. The full-page diagrams include 'The Solar System as applied to the Angelic Spheres', 'The Celestian & Spiritual World' and Solomon's Seal and Pentagon. There are keys to 'The Holy Letters of the Angels' and 'The Magical Characters of the Planets' amongst other arcane matters.
This book was bought by a relative of the consignor from Ethel Wieland (née Archer), a close associate of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) and wife of Crowley's publisher, Eugene Wieland. Ethel Wieland was a member of Crowley's mystical Order, the A.'A.', and contributed poems to his journal, The Equinox, published by Eugene Wieland. Crowley referred to Ethel Wieland as 'the Queen of Constancy', and they remained on good terms until his death.
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