Bibliothecae Arcanae: The Private Libraries of Some European Sorcerers

Author(s): W. R. Jones
Source: Journal of Library History, Philosophy, and Comparative Librarianship, Vol. 8, No. 2
(Apr., 1973), pp. 86-95
Published by: University of Texas Press
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Arcanae:

Bibliothecae

The

Private

of

Some

Libraries

European

Sorcerers

and
with
charms,
balls,
Along
crystal
of
images
sorcerers
some ancient
also used
books.
Those

wax,

who assembled private

generally

catered

libraries of occult literature

to urban

clientele

and

university

audiences^ The books ranged from

conjuring
to phar
to astrological
literature
manual
texts. The contents of the libraries
macological
interests and pretended
reveal the professional
competency

of

Renaissance

and

Reformation

magicians.

86

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By W. R. Jones
Dr. Jones
University
Hampshire.
University

who
from the handful of scholarly magicians,
to urban
and
clienteles
catered
university
audiences, and who assembled private libraries of

The image of the sorcerer, crouched among books

has circulated
of magic in his laboratory-study,
widely through European literature and art in the
myth of Dr. Faust us.* Although the Faust legend
was mainly the product of imagination, modern
historians appreciate the fact that magicians and
and early
sorcerers actually existed in medieval
modern Europe and that their neighbors credited
them with possessing
powers for
extraordinary
good or evil. At the historical center of the idea of
sorcery was the village wizard, called a "cunning
man" in England, who served the peasants and
townspeople of pre-modern Europe by making and
the
foretelling
selling
love-spells and charms,
future,

divining

sickness,

curing

the

and

persons,
missing
instruments
of

crystal balls,
frequently,

his

of lost or stolen
treasure-trove.*

craft

were

images of wax

books

misfortune,

preventing

location

and

occult

magicians

The

contents

of

these

can

occa

of

his

time."*

The

Roman

historians,

Suetonius and Dio Cassius, reported the whole-sale

destruction
of books of magic by the Roman

property,
the

government

ligatures,

lead, and,

literature.

from surviving catalogs

sionally be reconstructed
and the citations of titles in the judicial records of
the time. These sources, augmented with examples
of books of magic preserved
in libraries and ar
chives and the lists of proscribed books compiled by
the enemies of magic, reveal the professional
in
terests and pretended
of European
competency
and Reformation.
magicians of the Renaissance
The literature of European magic is very old.
Horace mentioned
the libros carminum of the

and

Among

charms,

is Chairman, Department
of History,
New
of New Hampshire, Durham,
He
has a PhD.
from Harvard
in medieval history.

on

orders

of

who

the

Emperor

Augustus,

feared
their
subversive use A
probably
Although much of this literature disappeared from
Europe during the cultural decline of the early
middle
ages, from the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries
forward
individual
texts
magical
were imported into the Christian West from the
Byzantine, Muslim, and Jewish communities of the
sources stimulated
world. These
Mediterranean
the growth of European
traditions of literary
in
occultism, which reached a peak of development
the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.

less

of magic.

the eras of the Renaissance

and
During
more
Reformation
there occasionally
appeared
exalted practitioners
of magic, who,
like the
mythical Faustus, combined occult interests with
in
various
scientific
and
pseudoscientific
and
intellectual
Social, economic,
vestigations.
differences separated the humble village wizards,
who did not need books, writing, or even literacy,
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Journal

of Library History

source

The

excellence

par

was

demonology

the book

or

were

of which

at

tributed to the authorship of King Solomon or to

other mythical magicians like Enoch, Apollonius of
Sub
Tyana, Virgil, Cyprian, or Simon Magus.
sequently, Albert us Magnus, Roger Bacon, Peter
of Abaiio,
John
Cornelius
Henry
Agrippa,
and a host of "necromantic" popes
Trithemius,
were added to the roster of alleged authors df
books

of magic.

These

practicing magicians,

the

manuals

instruction

offering

called

contemporaries

were

books

Occasionally the titles or contents of specific

books were identified. In 1527, for instance, the
former English Benedictine, William
Stapleton,
acquired from another cleric two books for use in
divining the location of buried treasure. These
were a Thesaurus spirituum, probably a conjuring

European

"conjurations"

versions

many

"experiments,"

of

of

an

elaborate

of

compendium

lore,

(Ars

in

cantations, rites, and diagrams, dated back to the

ancient period and continued to appear in many
as

versions

manuscript

as the

late

seventeenth

and

eighteenth centuries.^
The judicial records of the later middle ages
report the circulation and use of conjuring manuals,
although frequently their titles were not given and
it is difficult to identify particular works. In 1371,
for

instance,

Southampton,

was

arrested

a severed

human

sorcerer
and

England,

the

penance

was
as a "hill-digger")
the market
around

(known
of marching

of Ely and Cambridge bearing

black
and

art

Hermes

containing

head

figures;

six metal

engraved;

a chart

plates
with

sheet

with

hexagonal

with

diverse
and

wax

seals,

and

inscribed
mysterious
"certen

the

to

"seals"

or Toz

Graecus

conjure

of

magic?treatises
pyromancy,

Grecus

hydromancy,

An

demons.^

necromancy,
and

ec

in 1290 condemned
of divination
and
geomancy,
and

chiromancy,"

by

In his Speculum
title several astrological tracts.^
a
denounced
astronomiae
Albertus
Magnus
and astrological
number
of books of magic
demonology, including five attributed to Solomon's
authorship;*" and at the beginning of the sixteenth
Benedictine
abbot of
century John Trithemius,
in German,
identified
seventy-two
Sponheim

given
places

strange

and
magical
characterized

figures

pentagonal

a crystal,
ground,
a stool,
scepter,
pots,
bookes."**
lattyn

on

or

"images"

figures and characters; and a gilded wand," which

the accused, Robert Barker, had allegedly used to
search for buried wealth.^ Another professional
sorcerer, William Wycherley, was accused in 1539
the
to detect
circle"
"Solomon's
of using
and
of lost or stolen property
whereabouts
and in 1590 the secret meeting
buried treasure;^
sorcerers was
a
of
Elizabethan
of
gang
place
discovered by the authorities, who found several
circles
magical
some
red cock,

Tot

Trismegistus,

clesiastical commission in Paris

in general terms "all books

exorcisms

circles,

a hexagonal

conjurations;

to the

attributed

herbalism,

and the
(the Egyptian divinity Thoth), Ptolemy,
mysterious Picatrix taught the use of astrological

in

"a book, and a roll of

characters,

and

numerology,

secretorum,

immensely popular
theor>, alchemical

Philosophy.*3
The invocation of spirits was often combined
at
with astrological prediction. Various works
authors such as
tributed to real or mythical

and a book of magic in his possession were seized

1419 an English sorcerer, Rich
and destroyed.^In
was
of possessing magical
accused
ard Walker,
a
of
beryl stone (useful for
paraphernalia consisting
conjuring demons and divining), two small yellow
wax images, and two books of magic filled with
conjurations and drawings.** In 1466 a diviner of
treasure-trove

Secreta

The seventeenth
philosopher, Aristotle.^
William
century English astrologer,
Lilly, who once
became involved in an outlandish scheme to get
rich quick by divining the location of treasure
buried in Westminster Abbey,
in his
confessed
a
to
of
Ars
owned
the
copy
autobiography
having
notoria, pawned with him for forty shillings, and to
being acquainted with another work of incantatory
magic, the pseudo-Agrippa's Fourth Book of Occult

in what

magical

the

Greek

notoria).5 Some of the more famous of them, like

the Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis), which
was

of

copy

which was a very old and

medieval work of astrological

for

art"

"notory

and

manual,

works,

astrological
as

"vain,"

"ignorant,"

he

which
and

"super

stitious."^

The records of the Spanish inquisition show that

such books were actually used for superstitious and
illegal purposes. The personal library of one ac
cused

de

Jeronimo

sorcerer,

contained

Liebana,

several books of conjuring and astrology: a copy of

a work

called

Libro

sacro,

which

may

have

been

an

Book" ascribed to the

mythical Spanish magician, Honorius, and later to
IIIr? the book of Toz Grecus,
Pope Honorius
condemned by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth
in the sixteenth; and a
century and Trithemius
edition

of

the

"Sworn

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Bibliothecae

Arcanae

Kill' t^^^^HSi^^^&J^^B^HI^BH^nK^BE^H^^^^^^^H

?!>, HI. FAUST IN HIS STUDY,WATCHING A MAGIC DISK- (IMS)

Dr.

Faustus,

Jeronimo de San Juan. His occult library included a

copy of the Images of Apollonius; a treatise called

Spanish version of the popular work of astrological

which taught how
called Picatrix,
demonology
be manipulated
and
could
astrological
images
free captives,
"to drive
invoked
away mice,
spirits
an army
render
into a town,
either
throw
buildings
or impede
of them,
the
the erection
safe and stable

of wealth, making

acquisition
someone,
water,
weather
making
divided

curing

scorpion's
animal
form,

assuming
and preventing
the

stars

fall

or

causing

on
walking
rain
in dry

it in rainy weather,
sun
and moon

or Eschemanphoras

Semphoras

and

the Book

of

the

Angel Raziel to Adam, two works condemned by

Trithemius; the Key of Solomon; Trithemius' own
work on cryptography;
and Agrippa's book on
occult philosophy.^

the king angry with

sting,

by Rembrandt

etching

During

the

sixteenth

and

seventeenth

centuries

the reading of explicitly demonological works like

those criticized by Albertus Magnus
and John
Trithemius was combined with the study of books
of astrology, which portrayed the field as a "pure

[and!
appear

The
of
combination
into many
parts."
was
in the
with
also represented
sorcery
astrology
the ex-Carmelite
books
of another
wizard,
Spanish

science,"
The

not

expansion

the
requiring
of astrological

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invocation
research

of

spirits.
the

during

Journal

of Library History

period created an extensive

early modern
pseudoscientific

scholarship

body of
on

represented,

the

and

calendars,
of

treatises

learned

on

its higher
levels,
of professional
army

and,
an

This relatively

astrologers.

sometimes

literature,

in

innocuous astrological
with

mixed

of

popular
of which

some

tables,

the

among
especially
of
small
collections

acquired
editions

lower

clergy,

of

renditions

very old originals. This was the point that Gabriel

the

Harvey,
make

when

was
of Spenser,
described
sarcastically
friend

poet
he

tables

rolls,

and

instruments..

of

of popular
the means

beyond

"Christian

Lilly,

London

English

owned

only

two

books.**

These

and

iudiciis,

as

German

an

astrological

calendar

of

the

positions
Such

of

the

low-level

bibliographical
formance

and

individuals
of

nations

according

literature

astrological

of a variety

basis

of supernatural

and

of

astrologer

things,.

.sundry

and binding

spirits

to know
.figures
or alive or whether
he

them;..
dead

the love of any

to obtain

wife;

and

like matters.*"

other

John

Bowckeley,

Justice

and

in 1570

was

accused

and Thomas

of practicing

of the Mint,

The Commissary
books

who

also

of the Oxford

habits

John Southcot

Treasurer

dley,

was

research

the reading

by

scholar,

who

scientific

reputable

before

the

Stan

sorcery.

of Oxford had seized Bowckeley's

of

"estromancy,
a witness
deposed

and

gematry,
to having

seen

alcamistrye,"
the accused

at Oxford "lowkyng upon a booke made by John

who wretyth
of
Baptist a Porta Neappolitanus

the

provided

was

and

the original French

in 1550; and (4) various

diverse

loosing
a man
be

another

revealed

genre

to

in

The combination of conjuring and divination with

naturall

for the per

feats.

and

more

stars.

and conceptual

for

of raising

has

compiled such a calendar for the period 1595 to

1630. 3 Both were standard reference works in the
field of "judicial" astrology, which predicted the
future

conjuration

woman

were

by David
Origanus,
astronomer
and

"Ephemerides"
mathematician

seized

as:

such

conjurations
whether

a version of the medieval

Arabic astrological
treatise by Haly (Haly Heben Rodan), titled De
known

was

Warde,

a physician

formulae

them

disap

astrologer-diviner,

from whom he had learned the art of

using astrology to divine the location of lost or
goods,

editions.

figures to know how long one shall live and

whether they shall obtain the treasures hoped
for; figures to know things lost; a book of

Arise Evans,
stolen

William

Ferrerius),

magical

and

his

reported

astrologer,"
that
the

pointment

the

modern

early

library

astrological

professor,

(Augerius

were

these
diviners

practicing

William

fortune-tellers.

even

But

astrology.
of many

in

perpetuated

who published
Toulouse,
edition of his book at Lyons

.Erra

Pater, their hornbook; the Shepherd's Kalendar,

their
their primer; the Compost of Ptolemeus,
All of
their New Testament."^
Bible; Arcandam,
the books listed by Harvey were non-demonological
works

calculating

reprinted several times during the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries; (3) an English translation of
The Judgment
of Nativities
by Ogier Ferrier

these books: "These be their great masters and in

this manner their whole library, with some old
parchement

extensive

bridge

to

trying
some

by

an accused sor
1591 from Stephen Trefulacke,
the following:
cerer, who surrendered
(1) two
(2) a work of judicial astrology
Ephemerides;
entitled Arcandam,
which had been translated
from the French by the sixteenth-century
Cam

evanescent
cheap,
calendars
and

astrological
were
modern

them

in a large number of printed

Europe
more

was

and

combats,

pharmacological,

alchemical, and medical treatises, often figured in

the libraries of the more literate magicians.
In Tudor
and
Stuart
diviner
England
astrologers,

about

questions

the numerical equivalent of their names.^

This
kind of popular astrology derived authority from
its alleged association with Greek philosophers or
saints, had been used by the
early Christian
Romans
to predict the results of gladiatorial

lower levels, in innumerable editions of astrological

almanacs

answer

and

its

In 1564

wherin

magyge

perymentes

as well

The
thinges."**^
Battista
Porta's

the Northern Court ofHigh Commission ordered the

confiscation of the books of a certain John Betson,
an English sorcerer, who had allegedly used them
to recover lost property.** They were identified as
copies of Plato's Sphere and Pythagoras' Sphere?
versions of a very old kind of astrological literature
which purported to predict the future of individuals

guise

of

Magia

was

copy

naturalis,

scientific

sixteenth-century

condemned

latter

were

there

of metalles

treatise

ex

soundry

as
of
which

of

other

Giovanni
was

sometimes

for promoting demonic magic under the

natural

magic.*?

In contrast to the majority of wizards, diviners,

and "cunning" people who did not own books or
needs of their
who satisfied the bibliographical
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Arcanae

Bibliothecae

and

charms,

or one

conjurations
the
few

were

tables,

a few tattered

with

profession

illustrious

and by purchase on the continent.^

Although nothing came of this ingenious scheme,
Dee himself collected a large private library.
The surviving catalogs of his manuscript
and
book collections show his acquaintance with most of
the fashionable
literary sources of Renaissance

of spells,

copies
or two

monasteries

astrological

scholar-magicians

who collected sizable research libraries. One of the

earliest of these was the fifteenth-century French
and

magus

interests

with

church.

the

de

Simon

astrologer,

unusual

was

Simon

whose

Phares,

got him into trouble

eventually

magic?cabalistic,

by the archbishop of Lyons, who confiscated his

library of astrological literature. Simon appealed to
the Parlement de Paris, which ordered the faculty
of the University of Paris to examine his books. Out
the faculty
of two hundred separate volumes,
identified seven as objectionable and urged their
destruction.

were:

These

astrology,

books

divinatory
on

Judaeus

Abraham

Albumasar;

astrologer,

of

nativities; John of Spain's Isagoge; a treatise by

William of England on the diagnosis of disease from
the

of

inspection

Peter

urine;

trans

of Abano's

on
lation of a work by the pseudo-Hippocrates
and Firminus de Bellavalle's
lunar prognostication;
to the
book of weather
According
forecasting.^
de Paris, Simon had
report of the Parlement
confessed at Lyons to having divined thefts, buried
treasure, and men's thoughts. On March 26, 1494,
Simon was condemned as a relapsed heretic and his
entire library was cited as contrary to the faith.
the court and the
close
ties with
Simon's
for whom

aristocracy,

he had

books.

examples
was
a

and

Stuart

of the

erudite

astrologer,

noted

a wide

served

Dee

abroad.??0

De

His

from

derived

magician

or medium

and

account

in manuscripts
conversations
"certain

"mascot,"

good

Uriel.

for
of

Dee

these

angels,"
was

references

heptarchia

were,

in Casaubon

however,

to other

collectaneorum

mystica

as a major

consulted

of

powers

sessions

purporting
between
the

books

books?a

and

a Booke

The Book of
of Supplications
Enoch was an immensely popular textbook of
to the Old Testament
hero,
magic attributed
Enoch, which throughout the middle ages had been

his

a series

these

and Invocations.3"

alchemical
studies
and his
friendship with Edward Kelley, who
"scryer"
seances.
An

found

has

the attention

and

presorved
of
transcripts

investigators
their
spirit

and

home

as Dee's

spiritualist
has been
be

at

audience
as

reputation

astrological
protracted

attracted

interests

John

mathematician,
whose
bibliophile,

and

spiritualist,

serious scientific
of

"Doctor"

Elizabethan

more

provided

England
wizard.

According

experiments.^*

of

Three

Bohemia.^

and may
probably saved him from punishment
even have obtained the restitution to him of his
Tudor

occult

a short while later.

re-materialized
mysteriously
were
a
of
Book
the
copy
of Enoch; a volume
They
titled 48 Claves angelicae, reputedly written in the
"Angelick language," with an interlinear English
translation; and a "Book of my gathering of the
thirty Aires, and entitled Liber scientiae." One of
the modern editors of Dee's catalog of manuscripts

as astrologer,

served

in various

library

and

used his

to reports of contemporaries
like the scholar and
theologian, Meric Casaubon, who recorded the
experiments of Dee and Kelley, and Elias Ashmole,
who acquired many of Dee's books and papers, Dee
certain books in his spiritualist
in
employed
a
said
Dee
Ashmole
that
possessed
vestigations.
"booke of Spirits" and an inlaid table for conjuring
them; a Liber Enoch; and a work titled Liber
scientiae terrestris auxiUi & victoriae, filled with
diagrams and names of spirits.^ A transcript by
Kelley of the Book of Enoch and Dee's holograph
in the
copy of the Liber scientiae are preserved
British Museum's Sloane collection.^ A document
by Casaubon
composed by Dee and preserved
details
Dee's
additional
concerning
provides
collection of occult literature. According to this
in full, Dee
report, which has been published
burned twenty-eight books of magic in the spring of
resident
in
1586, while he and Kelley were

of several works by the Arab

consisting

and Hermetic;

Neoplatonic,

from other evidence we know that Dee

as a diviner

denounced

to

teach

the

divination,

two

heptarchia

including
an arden

source

of

on

information

the

of angels and spirits and their abilities

secrets

of

nature,

and occult
mystica,

magic,

The De

pharmacology.^

Liber

scientiae,

to

astrology,
48

Claves

angelicae, and the otherwise unidentified "Booke of

Supplications and Invocations" were transcripts of
his conversations with the spirit world and manuals

bibliophile, who once addressed a plea to Mary

Tudor asking her endorsement of his plan to create
a royal library and manuscript
collection from
materials to be acquired from disbanded English

of

instruction

The records

for

conducting:

of the Spanish

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seances.

inquisition are very

Journal

of Library History

helpful

in acquiring

libraries

of

Master

information

scholar-magicians.
de Velasco,
Amador

who

the

concerning
One

of

was

arrested

was

these

as

sorcerer in Vallodolid on July 17, 1576.^ Amador

had enjoyed a lucrative practice among the better
families ofMadrid, for whom he prepared amatory
spells, told fortunes, and administered magical
cures.

In

Juan

summer

the

of

who

de Contreras,

Alonso

"sorcerer's

1576

served

as

was

tried,

Amador

apprentice."

was

Amador

by a young colleague,

to the authorities

denounced

a sort

of

found

have been Peter of Abano's Latin

of the
of the astrological
treatise
aben
Abraham
(2) a
Ezra;^
twelfth-century Jew,
book of "fortunes" (Suertes) attributed to the Arab
and,(3)
astrologer, Haly Heben Raghel or Rodan;^
a work called "Almanzor," which probably dealt
He also owned the
with
judicial astrology.^
French
medical secrets by the sixteenth-century
(Mizaldus);^ works
astrologer, Antoine Mizauld
on poisons (a subject closely related to sorcery) by
a certain "Ferdinand Partitas" and the early fif
which may
translation

guilty, and exiled by decree of the church on April

18, 1578. Prior to his disappearance he petitioned
the judges for the restitution to him of his library,
in Vallodolid. The
which had been confiscated
contents

of Amador's

can

library

be

the

St.

Valentine

physician,

Gabriel

of

della

Pico

the

of

the

(4)

Mirandola;^

treatise

astrological

against

tracts

was

which

one other

Spanish

be

on

a work

astrological
related

The

Trismegistus.*"

owned

images
arts

by

by
of

and

Codes,

John

ab

Amador
cestry:

of

Jean

possessed
(1) a book

Taisner

and

three

works

entitled

of

least

Hermes

Indagine?

Scot.'*'
eastern

were

books

a paper

the

containing

names

and

the

rationalize

and

dignify

most

superstitions.

books

owned

by

inAmador's
another

library figured
a French

sorcerer,

a compatriot

and the
Cristobal

mathematician-astrologer,

Rodriguez, to divine the location of buried treasure

and to practice other occult arts.^ Following their
arrest in 1636 a search of the apartment of one of
a cache of unlawful
the conspirators disclosed
work called
books consisting of pseudo-Lullian
On
Giuntini's
Francesco
treatise,
Codicillus;
Erasmus
the Revolutions
of Nativities;
Judging
Reinhold's Prutenic Tables, which was a summary
of the astrological calculations of Copernicus;^"
a
Philip Lamberg's Tabulae motuum caelestium;
work (vaguely identified) by the famous Danish

chiromancy

Michael

to

used

Spanish

popular reference works which had already been

put on the Index of prohibited reading?and by the
treatises

him

man, who had joined with

in
(palmistry) and physiognomy were represented
Amador's library by the works of Andreas Corvus,
Bartholomaeus

with

among

famous

at

Roger

a copy of
were
sources
and

obscure

Several

Several of the works

(6) several

and

naturaer3

operibus;
Ancient

de

outrageous

thirteenth-century

magician;^

of Damascus.

John

about

Italian, Guido Bonatti, whom Dante had put in the

(5) Jean Ganivet's Amicus
eighth circle of Hell;^
medicorum,

Solomon.

of

Key

secretis

attributes of God, a prayer to the Virgin, and

another paper inscribed with "Chaldean" words de
an
mucho signification* Amador was obviously
his
successful
and
learned
wizard;
exceptionally
literature could
library shows how pseudoscientific

criticism

the

de

secretorum;

in
salud humana; De
Compendia
and herbal
a Spanish medical
terrogationibus;
a Tesoro de pobres; and a
work called El Porque;
book entitled Bibliotheca
sacra, dealing with the
the "eight grades of
and
birth"
of
Christ's
"image
the Virgin." In addition, Amador owned a copy of
Pythagoras' Sphere; and he confessed to carrying

the Milanese

and

Nabod,

Pirovano,

secretis

Lull's De

Epistola

cited:

and papers, some of which had been taken as

evidence against him by young Contreras. Among
his printed books judicial astrology was strongly
work of
represented by: (1) the sixteenth-century
the French astrologer and Calvinist Claude Dariot,
iudicia facilis
Ad astrorum
(2)
introduction*
Francesco Giuntini's (Junctinus') book On Judging
the Revolutions
of Nativities f* (3) the defense of
by the German
astrology
composed
judicial
mathematician,

Secreta

by editions of the works of Cato,

represented
Varro, Columella, Pliny, Boethius, Josephus, and

notebooks

of manuscript

number

indeterminate

Bacon's

a version

Ardoino;^**

pseudo-Aristotelian

Raymond

reconstructed

list of books
handwritten
from a sixteen-page
compiled for his defense and from other citations in
the
the court record.^
This catalog constitutes
most detailed record which has survived of a
sorcerer's library and it shows the
professional
habits
of a man who seems actually to have
reading
been guilty of the crimes alleged against him.
Amador owned over forty books, in addition to
an

the

Sante

author,

teenth-century
of

astronomer,

Tycho

"Rutilius Bencase;"

an

"Abraham-Aben-Harris,"

planum

ac

nativitatis

Brahe;

an

almanac

by

a certain

a book entitled Astrolabium

tractatus,

92

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which

may

have

Arcanae

Bibliothecae

been

Johann

printed
astrological
Engel's
a book called Summa astrologica y
predictions;^
an
arte "to teach how to make
predictions;"
a
Jean
of
medical diagnostic
nature;
Epitome
which Amador de
Ganivet's Amicus medicorum,
had also owned; Albertus
Velasco
Magnus'
Speculum astronomiae; and the published work of
the

cleric,

Spanish

and

mathematician,

astronomer,

Institutes
Munoz, entitled Arithmetical
requisite for Learning Astrology
on
Some Spanish
sorcerers
relied entirely
of magic.
Because
of the
books
manuscript
of authentic
premium placed on the possession
Jerome

texts

the

of

major

manuscripts passed from hand to hand over several

and one English book descended to
generations;
the fourth generation of readers.^ Jaime Manobel,
a Spanish sorcerer who was arrested in 1590, was
found to own a notebook filled with
"Judaeo
cabalistic"
invocations and bits of astrological,
medical, and magical lore useful for a variety of
occult purposes.^
Similarly, Antonio de la Fuente
y Sandoval, the royal offical and silk merchant who
was seized by the inquisition in 1600, was accused
of having paid a certain Roman cleric to consecrate
a book for him and of possessing a Solomonic work
on images and a manual for fortune-telling called
Las

suertes

The

apostoUcas.

notorious

of

arguments

its

stone;

philospher's

and judicial astrology;

geomancy
occult

an

and

fate
that

discovery

of the Key

he

the

was
also

among

popular

of diviners

copies

of

a treatise

the magical

book

course

among

possessed

cerers

The

Spanish

was

magic

the

European

charcoal

one

two

it.

according

diviners

fire
to

asphyxiated

in an attempt
rites

contained

themselves

to conjure
in the

over

"cunning"

never

people

them,

possessed

was

the

conjuring

manual.

From

the

thir

ancestry,

which

associated

astrological

society

encouraged

diviners,

fortune

tellers, and hucksters of potions and spells to

of bibliographical materials.
acquire a variety
Usually these were inexpensive editions of popular
astrological calendars and tables, which were used
in crude ways to predict private fortunes or locate
lost goods. A handful of great scholar-magicians,
like John Dee inEngland and Amador de Velasco in
Spain, were sufficiently erudite and prosperous to
assemble impressive collections of occult literature,
comprising, together with conjuring manuals like
the Key of Solomon and ancient fortune-tellers'
handbooks
like Plato's Sphere,
some relatively

Both the practice of magic and an enthusiasm for

reading books of magic endured into the modern
In the winter
of 1715 two German
period.^
amateur

treatise

nineteenth-century

prediction with the invocation of spirits. The in

vention of printing, the growth of literacy, and the
of books circulating on all levels of
multiplication

copy

owned

and

or Muslim

of

since

magicians,

century forward there also circulated a

large body of astrological literature, often of Greek

latter was apparently

said to have

things,

teenth

and

by

a manuscript

other

a considerable
nevertheless,
body of magical
literature did exist and was employed for various
occult purposes. The principal source of European

prosecution,

sealed

Murrell,

Although books were never necessary for the

performance of most magical tasks and although
the majority of medieval
and early modern sor

on the

seals

James

man,"

"cunning

manual.

on

power

of

of his

probably

of Solomon.

group

and

illustrated

During

diagrams.^

Medrano's

very

of gems

properties

names;

sixteen-page

Peter

alchemist,

of astrology, physiognomy, and phrenology by J. T.

an edition of the New
Tables of the
Hacket;
Motions of the Planets published in 1728; books of
herbal
several
issues
of Raphael's
recipes;
astrological almanac for the period 1806 to 1850;
and a manuscript
"Book of Magic
and Con
jurations," which appears to have been a conjuring

was

tract

Victorian

deceased

arrested and his manuscript

library confiscated.
an alchemical work
on the
This
comprised
a

famous

who had supported himself as a healer,

for
tune teller, and exorcist
in his home town of
Hadleigh, Essex, was found a trunk filled with
manuscript and printed materials.**' It contained,

magician

advocates,

the

Casanova,

Milanese

seventeenth-century

alchemist, Diego Alfonso de Medrano, who was

said to disavow belief in astrology because of the
contradictory

Giacomo

a work called Instructions

Mora; the Picatrix;
concerning Planetary Hours, which may have been
Peter of Abano's Heptameron;
and a book of
as
identified
the
conjuring,
Lemegeton or Lesser
6$
Finally, among the effects of a
Key of Solomon

some

manuals,

conjuring

Solomon.

memoirist
and charlatan, confessed to owning a
small library of occult literature, comprising the
a
Key of Solomon; the Zekor-ben or Zekerboni,
to the obscure
attributed
conjuring manual

demons

pseudo-Faust's

of Hell, the pseudo-Agrippa's Fourth

Harrowing
Book of Occult Philosophy,
and the Key
of
93

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Journal

of Library History

to Butler, Ritual Magic, pp. 103,125, Gilles de Rais'

personal sorcerer, Prelati, and Benvenuto Cellini
both used versions of the Key of Solomon to

sophisticated astrological, alchemical, medical, and

texts. During the fifteenth, six
pharmacological
centuries
teenth, and seventeenth
professional
lawful and unlawful
wizards employed various
sources* of different levels of scientific value, in the
practice of their trade. The significance of this
development was not that the average village
was

wonder-worker

to

able

use

the

British Museum
magical

G. L. Kittredge,

Old and New England (Cambridge, Mass., 1929).

The best discussion of the cunning man is in Keith
Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New
York, 1971), pp: 212-52; also A. D. J. Macfarlane,
in Tudor and Stuart England
(New
Witchcraft
York and Evanston,
1970), pp. 115-30.

1963),

p.

102,

n.

*"B. Alberti

and

256-63;

her

{S vols.;

article,

zur Geschichte

Ritual

hechicerias

Los
de

[Tribunates de Toledo y Cuencal

13,

n.

Cos

pp.

Hart,

de
processos
tula
la Nueva

33;

11, 821. The Spanish version

24 (London, 1962).

Institute,

de

pp.

34

of

of His Life and Times,

54-55.

pp.

*^For
VI,

Magic,

p.

hechicerias,

296.

p.

see

Origanus,
60-61.

Thorndike,

History

of

of Magic,

p.

of Magic, I, 682-84.
and the Decline ofMagic,

p.

and theDecline

*^Thomas, Religion
276.

^Thomas,
302.

For

History
Religion

Arcandam,

see Thorndike,
on

p.

II, 283-89; Butler,

89-99.

*^William
Lilly's History

p. 80.

"Observations

hechicerias,

^Quoted by Thom as, Religion and the Decline

Magic,

^Thorndike,

**W. H.

de

Processos

*^Estopanan,
35.-:

230.

Witchcraft,
%ittredge,
V
207!
9Ibid:, p.
211.
10Ibid., p.

Magie

to be-a

of the Warburg

64 (1953), 445

of Magic,

schwarzen

A German
work.
thirteenth-century
of the Arabic
has been made
translation
by
original
He 11mlit Ritter
and Martin
Plessnerv
"Picatrix";
von Pseudo-Magriti,
das Zieldes
Studies
Weisen,

(Madrid, 1942), p.

and the Decline

und

of Magic,

ofMagic,

f9History

8.

Thomas, Religion

weissen

History

Magic,

claims

Cirac
Estopaiian,
en la inquisicion

1890-99), X, 640-42.
ein Versuck
Pqnsophie:

Processor

^?Estopanan,

Thorndike,

^A discussion of the Solomonic corpus (but with

a confused chronology) is provided by E. M. Butler,
Ritual Magic (New York, 1959), pp. 47-99. See also
SebastiaTi

der

Episcopi,
ed. by August

omnia,

1936), pp. 55-65.

(Stuttgart,

62.."

D.

Ratisbonensis
Opera

Borgnet (39 vols.; Paris,

^'Will-Erich Peuckert,

New
York,
1923-58),
see K. M.
examples,
1962),
{London,
pp.
Seventeenth
"Some

Century' Books of Magic," Folklore,

of

Thesaurus

267-78.

II,

'ibid.,

Magni

Praedieatorum,

4.

English
Team

see

secretorum,

Ordinis

*See Lynn Thqrndike's discussion of "Solomon

and the Ars Notoria," A History
of Magic and
Science
Experimental
some
For
II, 278-89.
Pale
Hecate's
Briggs,

ascribed

astrology.

%orace,
Epodes, xvii, 4, cited by Julio Caro
trans, by
of the Witches,
Baroja, The World
0. N. V. Giendinning
(Chicago, 1964), p. 27.
*A. A. Barb, "The Survival of Magic Arts," in
The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in
the Fourth Century, ed. by Arnaldo Momigliano
(Oxford,

57-64.

pp.

3853, a collection

Sloane MS.

*3Dictionary of National Biography, ed. by Sir

Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee (22 vols.; Ox
ford, 1921-22), XI, 1137-41; William Lilly's History
of His Life and Times from the Year 1602 to 1681
written
to Elias Ashmole,
by Himself...
Esq.
(London, 1822), pp. 76, 83.
** Thorndike,
History of Magic, II, 214-28.
Charles
Lea, A History
of the
^Henry
Inquisition of theMiddle Ages {3 vols.; New York,
1888), III, 438. Lea errs in saying that the books
condemned by the Paris commission did not include

in

Witchcraft

210; Hart,

Documents,"

"experiments,"

Secreta

*See E. M. Butler, The Myth

of the Magus
(Cambridge and New York, 1948).
and
of popular magic
the varieties
%or
see

some

spirituum to Robert the Turk and Roger Bacon,

Thorndike, History ofMagic, II, 808, n. 4. For the

abstruse

FOOTNOTES

tools,

on

110,

pp.

Witchraft,

^Kittredge,
"Observations

learning of philosophers and scientists (which was

seldom the case), but, rather, that the superstitions
of the peasantry were drawn into the speculative
systems of the European intelligentsia.**

magician's

demons.

conjure

some

g7Hart,
391.

Documents relating to Magic in the Reign of Queen

40 (1866), 397. According
Elizabeth;* Archaeohgia,

see

History

"Observations

^Thorndike,

History

ibid.,

p.

238;

for

Ferrier,

of Magic, VI, 478-80.

on

some

of Magic,

94

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents,"

VI, 418-21.

p.

Arcanae

Bibliothecae

^Thorndike,
his

544-61.
see

for whom

occult,

Francesco

and fancier of

^Listed

30Dictionary of National Biography, V, 721-29.

See the recent biography by Peter J. French, John
Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus (London,
1972),

esp.

Hearne,

Johannis,

monachi Glastoniensis,
rebus Glastoniensibus

Chronica sive historia de

(2 vols.; Oxford, 1726), II,

of Dee's

catalog

collection

manuscript

has

been published twice: The Private Diary of Dr.

John Dee, and the Catalogue of His Library of
ed.

Manuscripts,

James

by

Orchard

edition.

33Elias
Ashmole
ed.
with
(1617-1692),
biographical introduction by C. H. Josten (5 vols.;
Oxford, 1966) III, 1272-73; IV, 1298.
^Brit. Mus. Sloane MS. 3189; Sloane MS. 3191,
fols.

H.

"An

Josten,

Unknown

in

Chapter

Ritual

Magic,

pp.

Sloane

copy,

MS.

the

fols.

1-13.

See Julio Caro Baroja,

e
Vidas magicas
inquisicion (2 vols.; Madrid, 1967), I, 135-51; and
Processos

Estopanan,

Vidas

^Baroja,

de

magicas
Processos

"^Estopanan,

hechicerias,

de

11-38.

pp.

e inquisicion,

I, 267-308.

hechicerias,

pp.

16

21.
^Thorndike,

of Magic,

History
VI,

129-33.

^Ibid.,

VI,

119-20,

uIbid.,

II,

*5Ibid.,

V,

hechicerias,

p.

VI,

^Thorndike,

History

"^'Estopanan,

Processos

^Thomas,
n.

230,

ibid.,

Processos

de

Religion

and the Decline

II, 214-28.

hechicerias,

pp.

p.

ofMagic,

p.

Processos

de

hechicerias,

23.

p.

see

the

books

of Miguel

Perez

de Huesca,

26-27.

pp.

^Const^ntin

La

Bila,

Croyance

au

la magie

owned

magic

by

private

persons,

see

the

of

catalog

Ratinck's
W.
Amplonius
Schum,
library,
Beschreibendes
verzeichniss der Amphnianischen
zu Erfurt (Berlin, 1887),
handschriften-sammlung
pp. 800 (No. 14), 806 (No. 54); the occult library of
the Marquis of Villena, see Lea, History
of the
Inquisition, III, 489-90; the books of magic owned
by Lord John Somers, see Catalogue of Additions
to the Manuscripts
in the British Museum
in the
Years MDCCCC-MDCCCCV
(London, 1907), pp.
and,

on a lower

the

level,

of

copies

the Key

Ritual

Butler,

Magic,

p.

135.

For

p.

154.

pp. 218-25.
Casanova's

account,

see

Giacomo de Casanova, Chevalier de Seingault,

History of My Life, trans, by Willard R. Trask (4
vols, in 8; New York, 1966-69), IV, 200-1.

de

hechicerias,

n.

p. 28,

hechicerias,

1.

Ibid.,
Processos

of Magic,

see

superstition,

of Solomon and the Constitution of Honorius, "in

the infernal library of an illiterate Swabian

105-6.

^Eric Maple, "Cunning Murrell: A Study of a

Nineteenth-Century
Cunning Man in Hadleigh,
Essex,"
71
Folklore,
(1960), 37-43; Arthur
"A Wizard
of Yesterday,"
Morrison,
Strand
Magazine, 20 (1900), 438.

12

13; and Thorndike, History ofMagic, V, 55-56; VI,

147; V, 50-65; V, 65-66; V, 580-88; II, 331; VI, 164.
-^Thorndike, History of Magic, II, 877-78.
*9Ibid., Ill, 308, 589.
^Estopanan,
17.

de

tf5Butler, Ritual Magic,

Estopanan,

and

XVIII?
siecle en France
(Paris, 1925); Butler,
Ritual Magic, pp. 154 ff. For examples of books of

159.

de

science

Processos

^"Estopanan,

825-40.
159;
28.

38.

67.

peasant,"
V,

n.

Bencase.

183-86;

mIbid.,

19,

Marie Boas, The Scientific Renaissance: H50-1630

(New York, 1962), pp. 166 ff.
57Thorndike,
V, 344-47.
of Magic,
History
Thorndike does not list works by Lamberg or

sorcerer,

268-69.

3678,

p.

Ibid., p. 24.
62
Ibid., pp. 24-25.
63
Ibid., p. 27; for the combination of lawful and
proscribed literature in the library of an accused

36Private Diary, ed. by Halliwell-Phillipps,

p. 89.
^7Thorndike, History ofMagic, I, 340-47. The 48
Claves angelicae,
1584 at Cracow,
dated
is
preserved in Sloane MS. 3191, fols. 1-13 and inAsh
mole's

of

61

Life of John Dee," Journal of the Warburg and

Courtauld Institutes, 28 (1965), 249-57; see also
Butler,

See

sigillis.

ofMagic, VI, 3-6. For the

History

association

^Estopanan,

14-31v.

^C.

5%horndike,
close

Halliwell

Phillipps (London, 1842), pp. 65 ff.; M. R. James,

Lists ofManuscripts formerly Owned by Dr. John
Dee (Oxford, 1921). Peter French has promised a
new

De

hechicerias,

Ibid., p. 21.
55
Ibid., p. 28.

490-95.
^The

de

54

&

confratris

as

Amador

by

Processos

Estopanan,

40-61.

pp.

^Thomas

Partitas.

154.

VI,

ibid.,

51Thorndike, History
of Magic, VI, 216.
52Ibid., V, 472-73; but Thorndike does not list

was

Barozzi

Italian bibliophile

sixteenth-century
the

ofMagic> IV, 549; and, for

History
pp.

biography,

??Thomas, Religion

17, n.

and the Decline

229.

95

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

of Magic,

p.