An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke Hardcover — edited by Phil Legard

An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke presents a rare and carefully edited transcription of British Library manuscript Add. MS 36674, preserving the extraordinary magical operations attributed to Humphrey Gilbert and his scryer John Davis in 1567. Edited and introduced by Phil Legard, with supplementary essays by Alexander Cummins and a foreword by Dan Harms, this volume offers both scholarly context and practical insight into one of the most striking survivals of Elizabethan ritual magic.

The first section reproduces a colour facsimile of the manuscript alongside modernised and diplomatic transcriptions. These texts record intensive spirit operations conducted through crystal scrying, conjurations, curses, and bindings, including invocations of spirits such as Bleth, Aosal, Assassel (Azazel), and the four elemental kings of the winds — Oriens, Amaimon, Paimon, and Aegyn. Evidently drawing on earlier sources, the material reflects a transitional moment in which medieval magical traditions were reconfigured within a Protestant early modern framework, forming a unique instance of ritual “poiesis” in action.

The companion section, Visions, documents the visionary experiences associated with the workings, including encounters with spirits, biblical and occult figures such as Cornelius Agrippa and Roger Bacon, and symbolic thresholds like the “seven-keyholed door” of Solomon’s house. These accounts blur the boundary between vision and material reality, offering a vivid record of early modern scrying practice.

Supplementary manuscripts extend the scope of the collection with related necromantic and treasure-hunting operations drawn from other historical sources. Together, they provide a broad survey of spirit-work, graveyard rites, and crystal scrying traditions across late medieval and early modern grimoires.

In the contextual essays, Alexander Cummins situates these workings within the broader history of necromancy, scrying techniques, and tutelary spirit traditions, referencing figures such as John Dee, Edward Kelley, and Cornelius Agrippa. Phil Legard concludes with a reflection on the phenomenology of necromantic practice, bridging historical scholarship and experiential engagement.

This edition stands as both a scholarly resource and a practical grimoire for readers interested in spirit contact, Azazel traditions, grimoires, and the lived practice of ceremonial and necromantic magic.

Standard hardback edition
Limited to 1200 copies
Black cloth binding with gilt shield bearing seven keyholes
Blackened page edges · textured British racing green endpapers · black ribbon marker