Ars Notoria. The Notary Art of Solomon.
York Beach, Maine, USA: Teitan Press, 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. lviii + 100p, [+ 140pp MSS facsimile ]. Bound in high quality black cloth, with a gilt design after Hockley stamped on the front cover, blind rules; gilt-lettered spine. Sewn, printed on acid free paper. Black endpapers. B/w plates. Edition limited to 650 hand-numbered copies, this being copy no. 6. This copy was one of the 100 or so "launch copies" SIGNED by both Cousins and Thorogood by way of a bookplate affixed to front pastedown. An important new edition of the "Ars Notoria," the well-known mediaeval magical work (often termed a grimoire) that was designed to equip the practitioner with "knowledge of every science, of all arts and all learning ... in other words everything that is within human capacity to know." This Teitan Press edition is drawn from a manuscript by Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), which itself is based on the 1657 edition by Robert Turner. The volume begins with an Introduction by Alan Thorogood, in which he examines the history of the "Ars Notoria," the different versions of the text, and the context in which Hockley prepared his manuscript version. This is followed by "The Philomath," a significant 24 page biographical study (with bibliography) of Robert Turner, the original translator of the "Ars Notoria" and a major figure in post-Elizabethan British occultism, about whom little has been known until now. Then there is a complete transcription of Hockley's manuscript of the "Ars Notoria," edited with explanatory footnotes and in comparison with other versions of the text (including Turner's and the Latin critical edition). The book ends with a 140 page facsimile of the original Hockley manuscript, printed on special coated paper that gives a photograph like quality to the reproduction. From the collection of Clive Harper with his discrete book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper 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. Fine condition. No dust jacket issued. Item #70712
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