The Magical Art

First and foremost, this is a practical work, combining earlier texts to provide a working manual which would influence subsequent works like the Grimorium Verum and Grand Grimoire. Heavily footnoted and with gorgeous colour illustrations, this work is essential reading for practitioners and students of the grimoire tradition. The value of a grimoire manuscript may be seen in what it continues from the past, and what it adds from its unique synergy of material. Sitting firmly in the Solomonic stream of grimoires, The Magical Art (Welcome MS 983) is an early eighteenth-century French text which includes material from the Heptameron and the Key of Solomon, along with unique material not found elsewhere. The inclusion of the first known examples of material from the Grimorium Verum, one of the most popularly worked grimoires of today, further adds to the significance of this work. The influence of Christian rather than Jewish Kabbalah stands out as a unique feature, as seen in the use of the Pentagrammaton and the psalm annotations of the German polymath Athanasius Kircher (creator of the modern Tree of Life image). Another significant figure referenced in this grimoire is the French alchemist and magician Arnaldus de Villa Nova. Among the numerous spirits listed is a curious national 'Spirit of France', and the archangel Uriel is also found in an operation of onimancy (skrying on the fingernail), harking back to the divinations of the ancient world.