The Discovery of Witchcraft
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the Nature and Discourse of Devils and Spirits
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One of history's first banned books. James the 1st, whi the King James Bible is named after, had most of the origional copies of this text burned. This text argued that the persecution and prosecution of those accused of witchcraft was irrational and immoral. The text incudes explanations of the tricks and illusions used by performers, and functions as one of the most complete catalogs of medieval magical belief and folklore.
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The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe
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This text is an historical account of magicians throughout the ages. It is interesting in that this historical account takes an almost anthropological approach to explain the cultural reasons for the belief in magic and the accusation of being a practitioner.
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Germanicus Phaenomena
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A 11th century rendition of Phainomena, or 'Heavenly displays' by Aratus. This is an illustrated listing of the constellations of the zodiac, followed by a collection of weather folklore.
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The History of Magick
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This text is an historical account of magicians throughout the ages. It is interesting in that this historical account takes an almost anthropological approach to explain the cultural reasons for the belief in magic and the accusation of being a practitioner.
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On the Tricks of Demons
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De praestigiis daemonum was written in 1563 by Johann Weyer, a medical doctor. He disputes the existence of diabolic witchcraft and argues instead that all belief in magic, including witchcraft, is a mental illness. Because of this accused witches should be treated for their madness, rather than charged. It should be noted that this text was published almost three hundred years before Freud was born, making it one of the earliest works on psychology and mental pathology.
~Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, MAGL. 1.7.360 /a
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A true account of the tryals, examinations, confessions, condemnations, and executions of divers witches, at Salem
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This is an account of the Salem witch trials from the time of the event. Thought it is dated from the middle of the trials, it is believed that the text was published a year or so after the events.
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The Voynich Manuscript
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A mysterious hand written codex that has been carbon dated the 15th century. It is lavishly illustrated and written in an unknown language that has been presented as everything from a cypher, or lost language, to an outright fraud. The illustrations suggest that the codex includes sections on botany, astromancy, and alchemy.
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Codex Gigas
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The Codex Gigas, or giant book, is a text with a mysterious history. There are two legends about its creation, both of which attribute the text to a Benedictine monk named Herman the Recluse who writes the book after being condemned for some unknown sin. In one version he strikes a deal with the Abbot at the Monastery of Podlazice to have his life spared if he can write a book containing all the knowledge of the world in one night. After frantically working till midnight, he invoked the devil and sold his soul in exchange for getting the manuscript finished on time. In another less supernatural version Herman convinced the Abbot to spare his life while he created a manuscript that would make the monastery famous and attract the attention of the Pope. What is interesting is that the one thing most historians agree upon is that the Monastery of Podlazice did not have access to the resources needed to create such a work.
The codex is wonderfully illustrated and includes most of the bible though several sections were much earlier versions. It includes sections in Hebrew, Early Cyrillic and Glagolitic in addition to Latin. It is sometimes referred to as “The Devil’s Bible”. This association with the devil may come from a full page picture of him on folio 290 recto (page 564 in the pdf). It is ironic that the city of heaven is pictured on the opposite page (folio 289 recto, page 563 in the pdf), and that the pages after the devil image include conjurations, invocations, and charms against evil and the devil. The totality of the content would suggest that the text is to be bulwark against evil, rather than the product thereof.
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A History of Magic and Expermental Scicence
This text was one of the first to attempt to document the history of the belief in magic. It is interesting because rather than serving as a instructions manual, or warning against magic and sorcery, it attempts to look at historical practices and put them in context.
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Volume 1
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Volume 2
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Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of early England
This is of the most complete works on cunningfolk practice in the British Isles. These volumes are composed of translated documents and ethnographic research, and include information on folk medicine, charms, and fairy practices in the British Isles.
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Volume 1
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Volume 2
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Volume 3
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