The Ordines Descendens of Dr. John Dee.
UK: Privately Printed, 2010. First Hardcover Edition. Hardcover. Large quarto (12 ins x 8.5 ins), xviii (ii) + 79pp. Clamp-bound in publisher's black cloth decorated in copper and red on upper board, red lettering to upper board. Colour frontis portrait of Dr. John Dee. Tables, diagrams, etc. Edition limited to 236 numbered copies by way of a limitation bookplate tipped onto front pastedown. A grimoire purportedly based on material prepared by John Dee. The grimoire is presented as the long-lost counterpart to Dee's well-known Enochian material: for the 'Ordines Descendens' deals with Demonic rather than Angelic forces. According to the prefaratory material, the text itself is that of a previously unknown work by Dee, a printed version of which had been produced for Sir Francis Dashwood (of Hellfire Club fame) in the eighteenth century by one Jeremiah Hobbs. Whilst the editors argue that the work is an authentic part of the Dee canon, it must be observed that there are no references to the work in any of the standard Dee scholarship, and no copies of the 'privately-printed edition' can be traced (in classic grimoire fashion, the copy from which the text is said to have been taken has apparently vanished). The reviews of this we have seen were positive, and suggest that even if it is not by Dee whoever wrote the work and was deeply acquainted with the Enochian work and writings of Dee and did a very good job of it. It was first [re] published in a limited softcover edition of 200 copies in 2007 - this is the first hardcover edition. "As new", thus in Fine condition. No dust jacket issued. Item #72142
Price: $425.00