Publisher's Synopsis
The Key of Necromancy is a two-volume work that attests to the continuity and changes that underwent the German magical literature through the late 17th to mid-18th century. It stands as an example of the unique techniques and spirit lists that circulated around the Holy Roman Empire that would later consolidate in what today is known as the Faustian Tradition.This text is composed of three different, previously untranslated, texts, sharing key similarities and at the same time each unique in their own way. The Nigromantisches Kunst-Buch, a text related to the Ars Goetia in technique and attributed to King Solomon, details the conjuration and entrapment of spirits into a bottle; The Experimentir Buch, a magical manual containing instructions on consecrating the Liber Spirituum.or Book of Spirits, the creation of ritual implements and pentacles; and finally Der Schlü ssel von dem Zwange der Hölle, a book pseudo-epigraphically attributed to Dr. Johannes Faust consisting on conjurations, a spirit list and unique experiments.As part of the second volume one can find the famous knife and conjuration of the spirit Waran, the Art Nerony, a discourse dealing with the subject of finding mines and protecting them against other miners as well as an interesting addition to the literature on the Olympic Spirits, among many other subjects. This volume also contains experiments related to conjurations found in Reginald's Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft and commentary on the subject which will be of interest to those who study the transmission of magical texts.
