#Compendium of demonology and magic manuals#
#Compendium of demonology and magic full#

The pagan Germanic notion of vast subterranean treasures guarded by dragons persisted in medieval and early modern Christendom, as did the belief that such hoards could be gained by magically subduing their guardians. The folk beliefs that lend this particular strain of demonic magic its regional color have pre-Christian origins. Furthermore, when it comes to discussion of the diabolical pact, rather than reproducing the famed pact of Faust-such as we find it in certain Höllenzwang manuscripts-the opinions of the notorious witch-hunter Martín del Río are given alongside those of the Arbatel. While these arts and methods are certainly of use in magical treasure quests, none of the print or manuscript sources of A Most Rare Compendium bears any clear first-hand relation to the Höllenzwang literature for instance, the names and hierarchies of its demons are drawn chiefly from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin. Yet our manuscript claims to be a “compendium”-an epitome or abstract-of writings on nigromancy, meaning black magic in general the theme of magical treasure-hunting is referred to explicitly in only three of the compendium’s thirty-five illustrations and three times in the text.īesides generic methods for summoning demons-invocations, sigillary body painting, circle-casting, etc.-the text and illustrations of A Most Rare Compendium allude specifically to necromancy-described here as the art of summoning the dead, or of using corpses for various magical ends-and catoptromancy-described as the art of scrying with magic mirrors to communicate with the absent or dead, or to obtain sought-after objects.

Third, as an early modern German expression of the Solomonic demon-binding tradition, the Höllenzwang (“coercion of hell”) family of grimoires is principally associated with the name of Johann Georg Faust ( c.1480–1540/1), Renaissance Germany’s self-styled “fount of necromancy,” and with the coercion of diabolical powers for the purpose of obtaining the treasures they guard.

Indeed, the very title of A Most Rare Compendium suggests its creators were trading on its (absolute) rarity, which constitutes something of the work’s raison d’être.

#Compendium of demonology and magic manuals#

Our manuscript did not evolve from an earlier relative, a fact that is highly unusual for the magician’s manuals now popularly known as “grimoires.” While Heck interpreted the Compendium as a “difficult-to-access” grimoire akin to the medieval Clavicula Salomonis ( Key of Solomon), such manuals are typically compilations of textual fragments drawn from related (and similarly fragmentary) compilations.īy contrast, our manuscript is a one-off work of artifice derived principally from printed sources that its creators had to hand for instance, its extracts from the Arbatel, Ars notoria, Trithemius’s Liber octo quaestionum and Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia are all drawn from the first volume of Zetzner’s 1630 edition of Agrippa’s Opera.

#Compendium of demonology and magic full#

Second, A Most Rare Compendium is not only “most rare”-it is unique, as its creators knew full well. The psychedelic ruminations that open the main text of the work are derived from the Catholic theosopher Karl von Eckartshausen, who in his Aufschlüsse zur Magie ( Disclosures on the Subject of Magic, 1788–92) bemoans the flashbacks caused by his careless experimentation with the art of psychedelic fumigation. While the orthography of A Most Rare Compendium suggests that it is indeed Austrian, Heck’s description is problematic for a variety of reasons.įirst, the Compendium was created at a somewhat later date than that proposed by Heck, or indeed by Samuel Moorat, who suggested “circa 1775” in his catalogue of Wellcome Library manuscripts. Heck’s sales announcement describes it as an “exceedingly curious” and “artfully illustrated Höllenzwang manuscript” that “undoubtedly” originated in Austria circa 1760, and that concerns “the conjuring of spirits, chiefly for the purpose of treasure-hunting.” Heck for 1,200 Swiss francs (48 pounds sterling). We do not know who owned the manuscript before 1928, when A Most Rare Compendium was sold to the Wellcome Library by the Viennese antiquarian bookseller V.