McLEAN, Adam; Editor and Introduction. TRITHEMIUS, Johannes. Translated by Fiona Tait & Christopher Upton.

The Steganographia of Johannes Trithemius. Book I Translated by Fiona Tait and Christopher Upton with Book III and an Extract from a Commentary by Gustavus Selenus. . [ 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, each signed by Adam McLean, this being copy no. 317. 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." From the publisher: "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." Later issue: the paper on which the book is printed is a relatively bright white, it has dark brown endpapers, and the binding is a reddish brown with the title lettered down the spine reading "Steganographia." Appears "as new" thus in near Fine condition. Item #74067

Price: $350.00