The Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia is the ultimate grimoire--the absolute foundation of ceremonial magic. The true source of the Key of Solomon, it is arguably the most significant magical text in the world. For the first time ever, this extraordinary work has been translated from the original Greek into English, allowing magic scholars worldwide to finally access its treasures. The translator, Ioannis Marathakis, is a native born Greek academic with an extensive knowledge of ceremonial magic. Unlike the abridged Latin translation, this groundbreaking work is the complete text, now arranged in its proper order.

Throughout history thousands of people have been fascinated by the grimoire the Key of Solomon. This is the original Greek book of magic that was the source of the Key of Solomon, and in turn the ancestor of most of the grimoire-based ceremonial magic practised in Europe and the US today. This title presents a translation of this book.

This book explores a series of powerful artifacts associated with King Solomon via legendary or extracanonical textual sources. Tracing their cultural resonance throughout history, art historian Allegra Iafrate delivers exciting insights into these objects and interrogates the ways in which magic manifests itself at a material level. Each chapter focuses on a different Solomonic object: a ring used to control demons; a mysterious set of bottles that constrain evil forces; an endless knot or seal with similar properties; the shamir, known for its supernatural ability to cut through stone; and a flying carpet that can bring the sitter anywhere he desires. Taken together, these chapters constitute a study on the reception of the figure of Solomon, but they are also cultural biographies of these magical objects and their inherent aesthetic, morphological, and technical qualities. Thought-provoking and engaging, Iafrate’s study shows how ancient magic artifacts live on in our imagination, in items such as Sauron’s ring of power, Aladdin’s lamp, and the magic carpet. It will appeal to historians of art, religion, folklore, and literature.

In The Wandering Throne of Solomon: Objects and Tales of Kingship in the Medieval Mediterranean Allegra Iafrate analyzes the circulation of artifacts and literary traditions related to king Solomon, particularly among Christians, Jews and Muslims, from the 10th to the 13th century. The author shows how written sources and objects of striking visual impact interact and describes the efforts to match the literary echoes of past wonders with new mirabilia. Using the throne of Solomon as a case-study, she evokes a context where Jewish rabbis, Byzantine rulers, Muslim ambassadors, Christian sovereigns and bishops all seem to share a common imagery in art, technology and kingship.

One of the lengthier grimoires of the medieval period, the Ars Notoria, commonly referred to as the Notary Art of Solomon, promises the reader a series of orations, prayers, and invocations, which may be used to secure the favor of the christian god, enhancing the memory, eloquence, and general academic capability of the one performing such rituals. Originally its own text, based on even older sources not yet fully documented, this text is commonly wrapped up into the Lesser Keys of Solomon along with such works as the Ars Goetia- some editions of the latter omit this work. Prayers contained herein invoke not just the god of christianity, but Jesus Christ and various angelic powers as well.

Limited leather quarter bound collector's edition. Solomonic magic is a major part of the grimoire tradition. This volume is about the methods of Solomonic magic used in Alexandria and how they have been passed via Byzantium (the Hygromanteia), to the manuscripts of the Latin Clavicula Salomonis and its English incarnation as the Key of Solomon. Jewish techniques like the use of pentacles, oil and water skrying were added along the way, but Solomonic magic (despite its name) remained basically a classical Greek form of magic. Amazingly, this transmission has involved very few changes and the technology of magic has remained firmly intact. The emphasis in this book is upon specific magical techniques such as the invocation of the gods, the binding of demons, the use of the four demon Kings, and the construction of the circle and lamen. The requirements of purity, sexual abstinence, and fasting have changed little in the last 2000 years, and the real reasons for that are explained. The use of amulets, talismans and phylacteries or lamens is outlined along with their methods of construction. The structure of a Solomonic evocation puts into perspective the reasons for each step, the use of thwarting angels, achieving invisibility, sacrifice, love magic, treasure finding, and the binding, imprisoning and licensing of spirits. The facing directions and timing of evocations have always been crucial, and these too have remained consistent. Practical considerations such as choice of incense, the timing of the cutting of the wand, utilisation of rings and statues, use of the Table of Evocation, or the acquisition of a familiar spirit are also explained. Techniques of Solomonic Magic is thus a follow on book from Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. This volume is based on the magicians own handbooks rather than the opinions of theologians, historians, anthropologists, sociologists or legislators. The emphasis is on what magicians actually did and why. Tools used by magicians in 7th century Alexandria, 15th century Constantinople and 19th century London are very much the same. More than 70 illustrations (many in colour) of magical equipment like the wand, the sword, wax images and magical gems, drawn from a wide range of manuscripts are reproduced and examined. This is the most detailed analysis of Solomonic magic, from the inside, ever penned.

Looks at the life and legacy of King Solomon, describing his temple, the nature of his wisdom, and his biblical writings.

This volume brings into being the field of Byzantine intellectual history. Shifting focus from the cultural, social, and economic study of Byzantium to the life and evolution of ideas in their context, it provides an authoritative history of intellectual endeavors from Late Antiquity to the fifteenth century. At its heart lie the transmission, transformation, and shifts of Hellenic, Christian, and Byzantine ideas and concepts as exemplified in diverse aspects of intellectual life, from philosophy, theology, and rhetoric to astrology, astronomy, and politics. Case studies introduce the major players in Byzantine intellectual life, and particular emphasis is placed on the reception of ancient thought and its significance for secular as well as religious modes of thinking and acting. New insights are offered regarding controversial, understudied, or promising topics of research, such as philosophy and medical thought in Byzantium, and intellectual exchanges with the Arab world.

This book is an investigation into the sphere of production and use of two related bilingual magical handbooks found as part of a larger collection of magical and alchemical manuscripts around 1828 in the hills surrounding Luxor, Egypt. Both handbooks, dating to the Roman period, contain an assortment of recipes for magical rites in the Demotic and Greek language. The library which comprises these two handbooks is nowadays better known as the Theban Magical Library. The book traces the social and cultural milieu of the composers, compilers and users of the extant spells through a combination of philology, sociolinguistics and cultural analysis. To anybody working on Greco-Roman Egypt, ancient magic, and bilingualism this study is of significant importance.