The Steganographia of Johannes Trithemius ( Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks series ).
Edinburgh, Scotland: Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks, 1982. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 142pp. Hand-bound in brown faux leather with gilt titling to spine, frontis. Edition limited to 500 numbered copies, this being copy number 55, SIGNED by Adam McLean. This copy additionally SIGNED and INSCRIBED to Clive Harper by McLean on the front free endpaper. The volume includes Books I and III of the "Steganographia," together with an extract from Gustavus Selenus' "Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae," providing an analysis of the method of encoding in the "Steganographia." "The 'Steganographia' of Trithemius, the great occult teacher of both Agrippa and Paracelsus, was written at the end of the fifteenth century...... and became one of the most influential and notorious of occult texts throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It works on two levels - as a grimoire or book of conjuration of spirits, and simultaneously as a code book - and contains lists of spiritual messengers associated with the divisions of space and time, a Cabalistic Angel magic. The Steganographia which circulated secretly in manuscript during the 16th century was highly valued. John Dee, whose Enochian system of angelic magic was influenced by the Steganographia, noted that 'One Thousand Crowns' had been offered for a copy of this work. On one level it reveals ways of encoding secret information in outwardly innocent texts, and thus the publication of this item will have a considerable impact upon our view of the ways in which the esoteric orders of the 16th and 17th centuries may have conveyed information and preserved their secrets." From the collection of bibliophile Clive Harper who is well- known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. First edition: early issue. This copy is typical of the early issues of this work: it has a low number in the sequence of limitation, the binding is a brown patterned faux leather, it has plain brown endpapers, is printed on a buff colour stock, and with the title lettered down the spine reads "The Steganographia of Trithemius Vol I" [ there was no Vol. II issued and the "Vol I" was dropped from later bindings ]. Hint of shelf-wear, a chemical reaction between the endpapers and the binder's glue has caused considerable darkening to the outer margins of the pastedowns, with some reduced offset to the adjacent free endpapers and (to much lesser extent) the following few pages (this discolorartion is typical with McLean's early editions). Glue drying and a little brittle at inner margins but holding well. Still, overall a tight & clean VG + copy. Item #70047
Price: $500.00