Raphael The Art of Talismanic Magic 1880

Raphael ‘The Art of Talismanic Magic: Being Selections from the Works of Rabbi Solomon, Agrippa, F. Barrett, etc.’ Stated 5th edition, dated 1880 in photocopied signature on final page[1].

Cloth (light wear to outer corners of boards). Contents printed in photocopied handwriting throughout. [1 leaf] + [single-sided leaves 2-104]

[1] This is believed correct, although the nominal edition number is suspect, no earlier-numbered edition having been seen, suggesting that in fact this was the first in print. It would seem equally possible that the ‘fifth edition’ denomination was an outright lie designed to give the appearance of an existingly popular work, or that four earlier drafts had been worked on and perhaps distributed privately for comments, but not published, before this one was published.

About this Book Scan

Carefully scanned in full colour from our original printing of the 1880 edition.

In the 1870s, English astrologer Robert Thomas Cross (Raphael VII) produced a manuscript edition of extracts from the magical works attributed to Solomon and from the texts of Agrippa and Francis Barrett, which he called The Art of Talismanic Magic. The earliest known print edition, produced as a facsimile of his manuscript handwriting, was published as the nominal ‘fifth’ edition in 1880. This is the source of our scan. Later reprints typically bear the revised name of Raphael’s Ancient Manuscript of Talismanic Magic.