An Excellent Book of Necromancy: Introducing a Sixteenth-Century Handbook of Magic

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• Religion & Spirituality

An Illustrated Lecture with Al Cummins

The Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magick and its attendant Visions are two historically underappreciated documents of English necromancy. The former is a sixteenth-century handbook concerning the summoning of (mainly demonic) spirits and the ghosts of dead magicians. The latter manuscript is a record of the visions and instructions given by these spirits (along with angels, saints, and even King Solomon himself) that made up the Excellent Booke itself. Details of early modern conjuration not often explored are laid bare in these behind-the-scenes records of writing a grimoire. Together these texts offer unique insights, both for historians and practitioners.