Grimorium Verum

A handbook of Black Magic

Printed edition is now available:

NOTE: The original Alibeck edition can be found on Google books

Parallel Italian, French, and English edition

by Joseph H. Peterson, Copyright © 1999.

Note: This digital edition by Joseph H. Peterson, Copyright © 1999. Translation by Joseph H. Peterson, Copyright © 1999.

Introduction:

According to Idries Shah, The Secret Lore of Magic, (Citadel Press, New York, 1970, pp. 79ff) "this grimoire was par excellence the magical book of Europe.... There is some mystery about actual manuscripts of the Grimorium Verum. The French version, for instance, seems to have been printed from a very incomplete copy: in fact, from what could have been some magician's notes from the complete manuscript. The Italian versions, on the other hand, seem to have been compiled with reference to a very complete manuscript whose whereabouts is not now known.

There is another mystery about the Italian editions. They are in extraordinarily great demand. There is nowhere that one can get a copy at less than a price far greater than almost any other work of similar size and date. The price, in other words, is out of all proportion (sometimes insanely so) to the rarity of the book as collecter's piece. This means that quite a number of people are buying the Grimorium Verum for purposes other than mere collection." A.E. Waite, in his Book of Ceremonial Magic (1961, p. 98) makes similar comments regarding the superiority of the Italian edition.

Large portions of the French text were translated by A.E. Waite in his Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911, passim), but on the whole Waite's translations are very unreliable. Another translation was published by Idries Shah in his The Secret Lore of Magic (New York, Citadel Press, 1970, pp. 75-112). It is even more incoherent than Waite, and quietly omits many difficult passages. Shah also seems to have adopted many of Waite's freer renderings or mistranslations. In the present edition, I have supplied missing figures from versions found in other grimoires.

I have reproduced the Italian text from the 1880 edition. In some places the binding is so tight that individual letters are obscured; these are noted by '~' in this transcription. I doubt if this deficiency will impede anyone with a working knowledge of Italian, but I will attempt to correct these in the future. The only liberty I have taken with the text itself is to move the Table of Contents to the beginning, which is more convenient in an electronic edition. In any event, the original pagination is indicated like this: [1]

I would like to thank Tomasso Braccini for proof reading the Italian text.

In this edition the French text has been rearranged to conform with the Italian editon.

The following notice is found in the French edition in the British Library:

This book was stolen in July 1972 and subsequently recovered by the police.

[1 in bianco pagina]
[2]

SALOMONE

spiega come, e quando, si deve fare uso delle sue Clavicole.

[Frontispiece from Italian edition]

CONTENTS

Shelfmark: 8632.aa.5.
Author:    SOLOMON, King of Israel
Title:     Grimorium verum, vel probatissime Salomonis Claviculae
           Rabini Hebraïci, in quibus tum naturalia tum super
           naturalia secreta, licet abditissima, in promptu
           apparent, modo operator per nessaria et contenta faciat
           scia tamen oportet Demonum potentia dum taxat per
           agantur; Traduit de l'Hébreu par
           Plaingière, Jesuite Dominicain, avec un recueil
           de secrets curieux.
Alternate title (verso): Les véritables Clavicules de Salomon.
Publisher: Chez Alibeck, l'Égyptien: Memphis, 1517 [1817].
           69 pp., 16o. Fr.