The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia. Also called the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia, Epistle to Rehoboam, Solomonike; Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic - Volume VIII.
London & Singapore: Golden Hoard Press, 2011. Limited Collector's Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. 376pp. Black leather spine over green leather boards, 57 colour and b&w illustrations, 23 tables, bibliography and index, printed faux marbled endpapers. This leather bound edition limited to150 hand-numbered copies, this being copy No. 21. This copy SIGNED and INSCRIBED in Greek on the half-title page to Clive [Harper]. A volume in the popular "Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic" series being a translation of MSS Harleianus 5596, Bononiensis 3632, Atheniensis 1265, Gennadianus 45, Atheniensis 115, Parisinus 2419, Monacensis Gr. 70, supplemented by a number of other Greek manuscripts. From the publishers: "Throughout history magicians and scholars have been fascinated by the grimoire The Key of Solomon. This is [a translation of] 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 practiced in Europe and the US today. It is the first time (outside of a handful of pages in academic works) that the full Greek original of the Key of Solomon appears in English. This book is sometimes called the Hygromanteia, and has been hidden for centuries by the mistaken scholarly notion that it is a work on water divination. It is actually the true ancestor of the Key of Solomon. Containing the full translation of the Hygromanteia, a Solomnike. This volume dispels the notion that The Key of Solomon was translated from a Hebrew original. During the gradual decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire, this precious text, along with many others, was taken to Italy. Although not certain, it is quite likely that it was taken to Venice in the 15th century, where parts of it were translated into Latin and Italian. Abridged Latin copies entitled the Clavicula Salomonis circulated in Europe, going through many changes, languages and versions to become the Key of Solomon as we know it (some of those manuscripts are published as Volume IV of the present series). Now for the first time you can read the whole text (large portions of which were left out of the Latin translations) arranged clearly in the order in which it was meant to be read." The usual very minor natural irregularities to leather, otherwise a tight, bright and unmarked near Fine Inscribed copy (no dust jacket issued). Due to the circumstances of publication inscribed copies like this are truly uncommon. Item #70420
ISBN: 9780956828514
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