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[PSEUDO-SOLOMON], Clavicules de Salomon, in French, a cabalistic and amuletic manuscript on paper [France, 18th century]
Details
Pseudo-Solomon
[PSEUDO-SOLOMON], Clavicules de Salomon, in French, a cabalistic and amuletic manuscript on paper [France, 18th century]
A handsome manuscript copy of Les Clavicules de Salomon, one of the great classics of the caballistic arts, richly illustrated with sigils, pentacles and computational tables for the use of the budding magician.
205 x 155mm. i + 117 + iv leaves, complete, contemporary pagination 1-233 followed here, 14 lines in a French cursive script, 57 diagrams, sigils, pentacles and tables in green and red ink (occasional marginal thumbing, else in excellent condition). Contemporary mottled calf gilt (edges and spine scuffed).
Provenance: (1) Coat of arms with a rampant lion holding a sword blindstamped on p.1. (2) Pencil inscription in French on the first flyleaf attributing the text (erroneously) to the French esotericist, poet and author Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810-1875).
Content: Clavicules de Salomon, beginning 'J'ay dit en mon coeur je penetreray avec un profond respect les secrettes merveilles [...]', chapters I-XVII, pp.1-233. The text begins by describing the type of person who can carry out this 'science cabalistique', and the appropriate places and times to conduct this art ('Quels sont les lieux, et les temps propres aux operations de l'art'); it continues with the preparation of talismans, the other instruments required, the influences of the Moon and planets, the preparation of [circular] pentacles, the influences of the days and the hours, the colours proper to each planet, and various conjurations, prayers, divinations, exorcisms and spells, including ones to create dreams in which girls can see who they are going to marry (p.194), ones to summon up pleasant dreams (p.197), and ones to cast nightmares (for which one needs the blood of bats, p.199).
A number of different texts circulated in the 16th–18th centuries under the name of the Key of Solomon, or Clavicula Salomonis, based on the medieval tradition that King Solomon knew how to control demons and make them do his bidding, and recorded this secret knowledge for his son Rehoboam. Solomon's mastery of demons is a common element in later Jewish and Arab legends, and is often attributed to possession of a magic ring called the Seal of Solomon. One of the oldest surviving manuscript copies is a text in English translation, entitled The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian and dated to 1572 (British Library, Sloane 3847). A number of French manuscripts survive, all dated to the 18th century, with the exception of one dated to 1641. Three French translators are known: Pierre Morissoneau, rabbi Abognazar and Abraham Colorno. The present copy follows the text of a Clavicules at the Wellcome Collection, MS. 4656, datable to c.1725.
[PSEUDO-SOLOMON], Clavicules de Salomon, in French, a cabalistic and amuletic manuscript on paper [France, 18th century]
A handsome manuscript copy of Les Clavicules de Salomon, one of the great classics of the caballistic arts, richly illustrated with sigils, pentacles and computational tables for the use of the budding magician.
205 x 155mm. i + 117 + iv leaves, complete, contemporary pagination 1-233 followed here, 14 lines in a French cursive script, 57 diagrams, sigils, pentacles and tables in green and red ink (occasional marginal thumbing, else in excellent condition). Contemporary mottled calf gilt (edges and spine scuffed).
Provenance: (1) Coat of arms with a rampant lion holding a sword blindstamped on p.1. (2) Pencil inscription in French on the first flyleaf attributing the text (erroneously) to the French esotericist, poet and author Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810-1875).
Content: Clavicules de Salomon, beginning 'J'ay dit en mon coeur je penetreray avec un profond respect les secrettes merveilles [...]', chapters I-XVII, pp.1-233. The text begins by describing the type of person who can carry out this 'science cabalistique', and the appropriate places and times to conduct this art ('Quels sont les lieux, et les temps propres aux operations de l'art'); it continues with the preparation of talismans, the other instruments required, the influences of the Moon and planets, the preparation of [circular] pentacles, the influences of the days and the hours, the colours proper to each planet, and various conjurations, prayers, divinations, exorcisms and spells, including ones to create dreams in which girls can see who they are going to marry (p.194), ones to summon up pleasant dreams (p.197), and ones to cast nightmares (for which one needs the blood of bats, p.199).
A number of different texts circulated in the 16th–18th centuries under the name of the Key of Solomon, or Clavicula Salomonis, based on the medieval tradition that King Solomon knew how to control demons and make them do his bidding, and recorded this secret knowledge for his son Rehoboam. Solomon's mastery of demons is a common element in later Jewish and Arab legends, and is often attributed to possession of a magic ring called the Seal of Solomon. One of the oldest surviving manuscript copies is a text in English translation, entitled The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian and dated to 1572 (British Library, Sloane 3847). A number of French manuscripts survive, all dated to the 18th century, with the exception of one dated to 1641. Three French translators are known: Pierre Morissoneau, rabbi Abognazar and Abraham Colorno. The present copy follows the text of a Clavicules at the Wellcome Collection, MS. 4656, datable to c.1725.
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