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THE LESSER KEY OF SOLOMON
Detailing the ceremonial art of commanding spirits both good and evil
Edited by Joseph H. Peterson, Kasson, MN 55944 USA March 27, 1999 Copyright 1999
Contents
Acknowledgements Introduction Notes to introduction Preface from Harl. 6483. Goetia Theurgia Goetia Ars Paulina Ars Almadel Ars Notoria
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the British Museum for allowing me to study the manuscripts firsthand, and for their help in copying the manuscripts onto microfilm.
Introduction
The Lemegeton is a popular handbook of sorcery known from the 17th century [1] in more or less the same form as I will present it. Most of the material however is found in varying forms in earlier manuscripts, and some of the material dates back as early as the 14th century or earlier [2]. Reginald Scot, in his lists of magical texts [3], mentions Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria in the same breath. He also includes a text closely related to the Goetia [4]. So the bulk of the materials were possibly collected together by 1584. The name Lemegeton is probably naively invented because of the compilers ignorance of Latin. He or she was no doubt familiar with the Clavicula Salomonis (Key of Solomon) and wanted to title this work the "Little Key of Solomon;" this became "Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis." The major texts used for this edition have been all from the British Library Manuscript collection. They include Harl. 6483, and Sloane Mss. 2731, 3825, and 3648. Harl. 6483 is probably the latest, and contains much additional material. It is dated 1712-3. Sloane 2731 is important because it has itself been compiled from multiple versions (including Sloane 3648). This text is unfortunately incomplete, and omits all of book 5. It is dated January 18, 1687. Sloane 3825 is a more complete and internally consistent text. It is also interesting in that it contains a shorter version of The Notary Art to which has been added the remaining portions as found in Robert Turners translation. I have followed Sloane 3825 for this edition except for the Ars Notoria. For the latter the manuscripts are clearly dependent on Robert Turners translation; I have therefore used his 1657 edition as the primary source. Variants from other manuscripts are noted in square brackets []. Also in square brackets are the folio numbers from Sl. 3825. I have resisted the temptation to modernise the language. The parts of the Lemegeton are as follows:
Goetia
The first book, Goetia, corresponds closely with the catalog of demons published by John Wier (or Johann Wierus) as Pseudomonarchia daemonum in his 1563 De Praestigiis Daemonum. In Wiers text there are no demonic seals, and the demons are invoked by a simple conjuration, not the elaborate ritual found in the Lemegeton.
Theurgia Goetia
This text has close parallels with book one of Trithemius Steganographia. Although the abundant spirit seals are not found in Trithemius, those few that can be found match exactly. For example, these four seals are found in Steg. I. chapter xi, dealing with Usiel and his subordinates:
Compare these with the following seals found in the Lemegeton in the section dealing with the eleventh spirit, Usiel, and his subordinates (Adan, Ansoel, Magni and Abariel):
It should be noted that Trithemius conjurations are actually his examples of hidden writing (steganography), and do not correspond with the conjurations found in Theugia Goetia. Steganographia was written in 1500, but was not published until 1608. It was, however, widely circulated in manuscript form.
Ars Paulina
The spirits in Part 1 of this book coincide exactly with those found in Trithemius Steganographia, Book 2. According to Thorndike [5], the "The Pauline art," was purported to have been discovered by the Apostle Paul after he had been snatched up to the third heaven, and delivered by him at Corinth. Robert Turner mentions a sixteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliothque Nationale [6]. Although this text is based on earlier versions, repeated mention of the year 1641 and guns, shows a late redaction. The "table of practice" has similarities with Dees "holy table". In the former the seven seals have the characters of the seven planets, which also occur in the "Magical Calendar" (published 1620, but with possible connections with Trithemius.)
Saturn
Jupiter
Mars
Sun
Venus
Mercury
Moon
The descriptions of the seals for each sign of the Zodiac are evidently abstracted from Paracelsus, The Second Treatise of Celestial Medicines, cf. Archidoxes of Magic translated by Robert Turner, 1656, pp. 136 ff.
Ars Almadel
In 1608, Trithemius mentioned a long list of books on magic, including the book "Almadel attributed to King Solomon" [7] Ars Almadel is also found in the Hebrew manuscript of the Key of Solomon, ed. Gollancz, Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh, 1914, fol 20b. Turner mentions a fifteenth-century manuscript in Florence. [8]
Ars Notoria
The Ars Notoria is a Medieval Grimoire of the Solomonic Cycle. Many Latin manuscripts are extant, the oldest are dated thirteenth century, and possibly earlier. Like Liber Juratus (also thirteenth century), the text centers around an even older collection of orations or prayers which are interspersed with magical words. The orations in Ars Notoria and those in Liber Juratus are closely related, and suggest to me a common oral tradition. The orations in both works are said to have mystical properties
which can impart communion with God and instant knowledge of divine and human arts and sciences. Older manuscripts of the Ars Notoria contain exquisite drawings, the "figures" mentioned in the text. [9] Their omission adds greatly to the confusion of the text. Not all manuscripts of the Lemegeton include the Ars Notoria, their contents listing only four books. Those that do are entirely dependant on Robert Turners 1657 edition, which is evidently his own translation from the Latin. Notes: 1. The date 1641 occurs in the text, and may indicate that its present form dates to then. 2. To this period has been dated an important text of the Solomonic literature, Liber Juratus, or The Sworn Book of
Honorius, which has important connections with our present work.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, Book 16, chap. 31 and chap. 42. Op. cit.chapter 2 consists of a translation of J. Wiers Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. See below. Magic and Experimental Science, chapter xlix, 1923, pp. 279 ff. BN 7170A. See Robert Turner, Elizabethan Magic, 1989. pp. 140-1. See I. P. Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, Chicago, 1987, p. 167. Ibid. Florence II-iii-24. For examples of the illustrations and an excellent discussion of the Ars Notoria, see the article by Michael Camille in Claire Fanger, Conjuring Spirits, Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998, pp. 110 ff.
Tyaneus only exercised the natural magic by which he perforned wonderful things. Philo Hebreus saith that true magic by which we come to the secret works of nature is so far from being contemptible that the greatest monarchs and kings have studied it. Nay amongst the Persians none might reign unless he was skillfull in this great art. This noble science often degenerates, and from natural becomes diabolical, from true philosophy turns to nigromancy, which is wholly to be charged uppon its followers who, abusing or not being capable of that high and mystical knowledge do immediately hearken to the temptations of Sathan, and are misled by him into the study of the black art. Hence it is that magic lies under disgrace and they who seek after it are vulgarly esteemed sorcerers. And the fraternity of the Rosicrucians thought it not fit to style themselves magicians, but philosophers. Thay are not ignorant empirics1 but learned and experienced physicians whose remedies are not only lawful but divine.] [100r]
Hexagram to be worn as a Lamin, from the Hebrew manuscript of the Clavicula Salomonis, (Sepher Mafteah Shelomoh):, fol. 38a.
Or. 14759
Seal of Solomon, frontispiece from British Library manuscript Lans. 1203, LES VRITABLES CLAVICULES DE SALOMON, Traduites de lHebreux en langue Latine, Par le Rabin ABOGNAZAR.
Sigilla, nempe XII signorum zodiaci, from Paracelsus, Archidoxis magicae, Liber II.
Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
The Almadel, from Gollancz, Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh, 1914, fol 20b.
Note the drawing at the bottom showing how the candles are to be constructed with feet to support the Almadel.
First note of the art of grammar, from Sl. 1712, fol. 14v.
Second note of the art of grammar, from Sl. 1712, fol. 15r.
The fourth note of rhetoric and the note of geometry, from Sl. 1712, fol. 19r:
Second, third, and fourth notes of theology, from Sl. 1712. fol 21v.