Another incredibly dense nonfiction book for another one of my hyper-fixations. It admittedly took me eight hundred years to read this, because it wasn't exactly the book I was looking for, but there was so much fascinating information here that I kept going back.

This is a MASSIVE sprawling history of magic books, mostly those playing around the edges of Christian mythos, but with interesting comparisons to other systems of folk magic both associated with other major religions and not. How all of these interacted with changing technologies (like the printing press), changes in the power structure of The Church (The Inquisition, The Reformation, etc.), colonialism, influences of neighboring religions, etc.

SO MUCH INFORMATION. A reference I'll be happy to keep on my shelves. ( )

“Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies was a fascinating read, so much do, that I couldn't put it down!

Following a timeline, it begins with the first grimoires, the Graeco-Egyptian papyri. Egypt was thought to be the birthplace of all magic, making its mark in every grimoire, secret society and occult work. Hermes Trismegistus, a mythical conflation of Thoth and Hermes, becomes an "original author" of grimoires. Moses, as another, was redefined as a magical Egyptian. Then King Solomon, whom the archangel Michael supposedly bestowed the power of trapping demons (a la Supernatural). The Clavicule or Key of Solomon is one of the more enduring grimoires, surviving into modern times. It was said that even Virgil had one. Saints became associated with them too, St. Cyprian being the most popular well into the 19thc. Science, in its infancy, was akin to magic so that Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus are featured in cover titles, not to mention rumored alchemists. Even 18thc. adventurers, like Cagliostro and Casanova, dabbled with these tomes.

But what was the purpose of a grimoire? Some focused on the magician's desires, others were medicinal or to safely hunt for treasure. While it was the power of the written word that made the grimoire, there were often stipulations for ink, parchment, or the material used to bind it. They found their way to Iceland, Toledo, Geneva, and even Canada! But in France (Affair of the Poisons?) the printing of grimoires exploded. The “Petit Albert” is the most notorious, then the “Dragon Rouge” emerged during the French Revolution. My favorite chapters were about the creolization of grimoires and their incorporation into African (through colonization) and PA Dutch folk practices. But thanks to an adaptable format and no single authorship, the grimoire survived book burnings, witch hunts and even Nazi Germany. As Davies rightly puts it: “There is no sign of these books being closed for good.” ( )

Owen Davies obviously loves his subject, and he obviously has done his research. The result is a big book with tiny type that discusses grimoires (books of magic spells) from the birth of writing to the twenty-first century. That's a lot of ground to cover, so Davies covers it rather swiftly. He introduces the books, the characters that created them, and the impact of the books on magic, superstition, and folklore. No magical book or grimoire you can think of is left un-discussed. From the Agrippa's Three or Four <i>Occult Books of Philosophy</i> and <i>Key of Solomon</i>, to Barret and Levi, Mathers and Waite, to pulp classics like the <i>Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses</i> and LaVey's <i>Satanic Bible</i>/ Even made-up classics like Lovecraft's <i>Necronomicon</i> make an appearance. There could be, and should be, dozens more illustrations (say, like Seligman's <i>The Mirror of Magic</i>). There are several tiny errors I found, that make me wonder about the book overall (for instance, Davies calls the founder of the Nation of Islam "W. P. Fard" (p. 239), when he was W. D. Fard). Good further reading bibliography and a good set of endnotes. Index and illustrations, both in the text and a set of plates. A decent book, if you like the subject and have a scholarly, bookish bent, probably a dense bore for dilettantes and dullards. ( )

Despite its length, this is more of a broad rather than an in-depth history of books of magical knowledge, and as interesting as it is, it's a bit difficult to follow. Davies assumes a fair amount of background knowledge on the part of the reader (despite what seems to be an effort to market this book to the general reader) on a variety of topics, including magic books, the practice of magic, church history, and the history of print.

It's an interesting read, but I spent most of the book wishing for more detail. As it's written, it's hard to tell if the details aren't known, or if Davies didn't find them important enough to include. The scope of the book is ambitious enough that no one topic or period gets a lot of attention, but Davies doesn't take the time to be clear, either, when he's referring to a book with the same title in different ages, whether it's indeed the same book - there are hints that it is not, always, and these suggest that Davies knows more than he's sharing with the reader. It's hard not to find that off-putting. Anyone hoping based on the back cover copy for an in-depth discussion of magical books in late twentieth and early twenty-first century popular culture will be disappointed, as that's relegated to a few dismissive, incomplete, and possibly badly-researched paragraphs in an epilogue.

By far the most irritating thing about this book, though, is the failures in editing. There are multiple instances of misused words and other typographical errors throughout. One expects better from Oxford University Press. ( )

This very useful book gives a brief historical survey of magical texts. Almost all of the content is post-Classical, but he does touch on the ancient world in the beginning chapter. The short biographies of the publishers or authors which are sometimes given are particularly interesting. However, possibly the best feature of this work is the bibliography. He mentions Joseph Peterson's online grimoire translation repository, which deserves more exposure than it sometimes receives.

Davies' book sits comfortably next to other history-books-about-the-Book, filling a niche that has been much ignored for a long time. ( )