Item #69492 The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates. S. Liddell MacGregor MATHERS.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.
The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.

The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). Now First Translated and Edited From Ancient MSS. in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers Author of “The Kabbalah Unveiled”, “The Tarot”, &c. With Plates.

London: George Redway, 1889. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. viii & 116pp [+ ivpp. List of Subscribers & Publisher's catalogue at rear]. Original deep red morocco spine with green cloth boards, gilt title to upper board and spine. Top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Black endpapers. Illustrated with 15 b&w plates, of which 7 are printed on blue paper, showing many talismans, magical equipment and sigils or magical alphabets. Tables. Edition limited to 500 numbered copies of which this was No. 116. The first translation into English of this famous grimoire, drawn from a number of different manuscripts held in the British Museum. Mathers was assisted in the preparation of the text by Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, with most of the work being done in 1888, the very year that Mathers, Westcott, and their friend Robert Woodman, founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. As noted this copy has the additional 1 page list of subscribers & 3 page publisher's catalogue that was bound in at the rear of some copies - thought to be those of the first issue. The list of subscribers is particularly interesting, for it ownly contains 35 names (allegedly the reason they were so few was that a number of subscribers "expressly desired to remain anonymous") nine of whom have been identified by Dr. R. A. Gilbert as members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Gilbert has also observed that very few copies appear to have been numbered - even Westcott's own copies (one of which was previously in stock in Weiser Antiquarian, in 2016) were without number, so it is possible that the number in this copy is a later addition by a person unknown. A "CLEANED" ex-library copy. A large (six inch long) section of the spine has been neatly painted black - whether this was to cover shelf numbers of some other flaw is unknown. Large theological (?) library bookplate on front pastedown (with partially erased "withdrawn" stamp on it); small erasures to lower margin of recto and verso of title-page (presumably removing ink stamps), small partially erased bookseller's stamp in bottom margin of final page. No other erasures, library or other marks evident. Corners bumped, leather at head and tail of spine splitting and a little frayed, board lightly rubbed, occasional finger marks and one line of penciled hebrew letters in margins. This copy would rate much better were it not for the odd black stripe on the spine - in fact at first glance it appears otherwise unmarked and is remarkably clean for having been in a library. A solid, G+ copy of a genuinely rare and important first edition. Item #69492

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