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
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25540406 .
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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,
catered
to urban
clientele
and
university
of
Renaissance
and
Reformation
magicians.
86
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
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,
property,
the
government
ligatures,
lead, and,
literature.
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.
Journal
of Library History
source
The
excellence
par
was
demonology
the book
or
were
of which
at
of magic.
These
practicing magicians,
the
manuals
instruction
offering
called
contemporaries
were
books
European
"conjurations"
versions
many
"experiments,"
of
of
an
elaborate
of
compendium
lore,
(Ars
in
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
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"
Tot
Trismegistus,
exorcisms
circles,
a hexagonal
conjurations;
to the
attributed
herbalism,
and the
(the Egyptian divinity Thoth), Ptolemy,
mysterious Picatrix taught the use of astrological
in
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
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
of
copy
for
art"
"notory
and
manual,
works,
astrological
as
"vain,"
"ignorant,"
he
which
and
"super
stitious."^
de
Jeronimo
sorcerer,
contained
Liebana,
called
Libro
sacro,
which
may
have
been
an
of
the
"Sworn
88
Bibliothecae
Arcanae
Kill' t^^^^HSi^^^&J^^B^HI^BH^nK^BE^H^^^^^^^H
Dr.
Faustus,
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
by Rembrandt
etching
During
the
sixteenth
and
seventeenth
centuries
[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
89
invocation
research
of
spirits.
the
during
Journal
of Library History
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
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
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
"estromancy,
a witness
deposed
and
gematry,
to having
seen
alcamistrye,"
the accused
the
provided
was
and
diverse
loosing
a man
be
another
revealed
genre
to
in
naturall
and
more
stars.
and conceptual
for
of raising
has
conjuration
woman
were
by David
Origanus,
astronomer
and
"Ephemerides"
mathematician
seized
as:
such
conjurations
whether
was
Warde,
a physician
formulae
them
disap
astrologer-diviner,
editions.
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
calculating
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
Europe
more
was
and
combats,
pharmacological,
about
questions
answer
and
its
In 1564
wherin
magyge
perymentes
as well
The
thinges."**^
Battista
Porta's
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
natural
magic.*?
Arcanae
Bibliothecae
and
charms,
or one
conjurations
the
few
were
tables,
a few tattered
with
profession
illustrious
of spells,
copies
or two
monasteries
astrological
scholar-magicians
magus
interests
with
church.
the
de
Simon
astrologer,
unusual
was
Simon
whose
Phares,
eventually
magic?cabalistic,
were:
These
astrology,
books
divinatory
on
Judaeus
Abraham
Albumasar;
astrologer,
of
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
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
consisting
and Hermetic;
Neoplatonic,
as a diviner
denounced
to
teach
the
divination,
two
heptarchia
including
an arden
source
of
on
information
the
of
nature,
and occult
mystica,
magic,
The De
pharmacology.^
Liber
scientiae,
to
astrology,
48
Claves
of
instruction
The records
for
conducting:
of the Spanish
91
seances.
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
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
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,
chiromancy
Michael
to
used
Spanish
him
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
(6) several
and
naturaer3
operibus;
Ancient
de
outrageous
thirteenth-century
magician;^
of Damascus.
John
about
Solomon.
of
Key
secretis
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:
Secreta
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
92
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
suertes
The
apostoUcas.
notorious
of
arguments
its
stone;
philospher's
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
treatise
nineteenth-century
copy
owned
and
or Muslim
of
since
magicians,
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,
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,
was
tract
Victorian
deceased
famous
magician
advocates,
the
Casanova,
Milanese
seventeenth-century
Giacomo
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
Journal
of Library History
wonder-worker
to
able
use
the
British Museum
magical
G. L. Kittredge,
1963),
p.
102,
n.
*"B. Alberti
and
256-63;
her
{S vols.;
article,
zur Geschichte
Ritual
hechicerias
Los
de
n.
Cos
pp.
Hart,
de
processos
tula
la Nueva
33;
24 (London, 1962).
Institute,
de
pp.
34
of
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.
89-99.
*^William
Lilly's History
p. 80.
"Observations
hechicerias,
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.
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,
der
Episcopi,
ed. by August
omnia,
(Stuttgart,
62.."
D.
Ratisbonensis
Opera
New
York,
1923-58),
see K. M.
examples,
1962),
{London,
pp.
Seventeenth
"Some
of
Thesaurus
267-78.
II,
'ibid.,
Magni
Praedieatorum,
4.
English
Team
see
secretorum,
Ordinis
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.
in
Witchcraft
210; Hart,
Documents,"
"experiments,"
Secreta
some
abstruse
FOOTNOTES
tools,
on
110,
pp.
Witchraft,
^Kittredge,
"Observations
magician's
demons.
conjure
some
g7Hart,
391.
see
History
"Observations
^Thorndike,
History
ibid.,
p.
238;
for
Ferrier,
some
of Magic,
94
Documents,"
VI, 418-21.
p.
Arcanae
Bibliothecae
^Thorndike,
his
544-61.
see
for whom
occult,
Francesco
and fancier of
^Listed
esp.
Hearne,
Johannis,
monachi Glastoniensis,
rebus Glastoniensibus
of Dee's
catalog
collection
manuscript
has
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.
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
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
de
hechicerias,
n.
p. 28,
hechicerias,
1.
Ibid.,
Processos
of Magic,
see
superstition,
105-6.
12
de
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,
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
of
61
See
sigillis.
History
association
^Estopanan,
14-31v.
^C.
5%horndike,
close
Halliwell
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
History
pp.
biography,
??Thomas, Religion
17, n.
229.
95
of Magic,
p.