A grimoire is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms, and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities, and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers. The only contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondences. In this manner, while all books on magic could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books should be thought of as grimoires.
A manuscript was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.
Manichaeism is a former major world religion, founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian prophet Mani, in the Sasanian Empire.
Nestorius was an early Christian prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to August 431. A Christian theologian from the Catechetical School of Antioch, several of his teachings in the fields of Christology and Mariology were seen as controversial and caused major disputes.
The Key of Solomon, also known as the Greater Key of Solomon, is a pseudepigraphical grimoire attributed to King Solomon. It probably dates back to the 14th or 15th century Italian Renaissance. It presents a typical example of Renaissance magic.
Saint Catherine's Monastery, officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was built between 548 and 565, and is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery.
The Prayer of Manasseh is a short, penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah.
The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old English poetry, along with the Vercelli Book in Vercelli, Italy, the Nowell Codex in the British Library, and the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book was donated to what is now the Exeter Cathedral library by Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, in 1072. It is believed originally to have contained 130 or 131 leaves, of which the first 7 or 8 have been replaced with other leaves; the original first 8 leaves are lost. The Exeter Book is the largest and perhaps oldest known manuscript of Old English literature, containing about a sixth of the Old English poetry that has survived.
2 Esdras, also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra, is an apocalyptic book in some English versions of the Bible. Tradition ascribes it to Ezra, a scribe and priest of the fifth century BC, whom the book identifies with the sixth-century figure Shealtiel.
The Lacnunga ('Remedies') is a collection of miscellaneous Anglo-Saxon medical texts and prayers, written mainly in Old English and Latin. The title Lacnunga, an Old English word meaning 'remedies', is not in the manuscript: it was given to the collection by its first editor, Oswald Cockayne, in the nineteenth century. It is found, following other medical texts, in the British Library's Harley MS 585, a codex probably compiled in England in the late tenth or early eleventh century. Many of its herbal remedies are also found, in variant form, in Bald's Leechbook, another Anglo-Saxon medical compendium.
Nuriel is an angel in Judaism who is responsible for hailstorms. He is the archangel Uriel, whose name changes when inclined towards judgment.
The Curetonian Gospels, designated by the siglum syrcur, are contained in a manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament in Old Syriac. Together with the Sinaiticus Palimpsest the Curetonian Gospels form the Old Syriac Version, and are known as the Evangelion Dampharshe in the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Agnes Smith Lewis (1843–1926) and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843–1920), nées Smith, were English Semitic scholars and travellers. As the twin daughters of John Smith of Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, they learned more than 12 languages between them, specialising in Arabic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and Syriac, and became acclaimed scholars in their academic fields, and benefactors to the Presbyterian Church of England, especially to Westminster College, Cambridge.
Incantation bowls are a form of protective magic found in what is now Iraq and Iran. Produced in the Middle East during late antiquity from the sixth to eighth centuries, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria, the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral, beginning from the rim and moving toward the center. Most are inscribed in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.
The Codex Sangermanensis I, designated by g1 or 7, is a Latin manuscript, dated AD 822 of portions of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The text, written on vellum, is a version of the Latin. The manuscript contains the Vulgate Bible, on 191 leaves of which, in the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew contain Old Latin readings. It contains Shepherd of Hermas.
Saint Zayya was a travelling mystic, holy man and healer who made his way from Palestine to the mountains of northern Mesopotamia and spreading Christianity with his disciple St. Tawor. The Church of the East honours both Zayya and St. Tawor for their missionary efforts in northern Iraq and the region of Upper Dasen during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He is also the patron saint of travellers and the Jilu district, where he is buried, and is invoked for protection from hail, famine, plague, anger, illness, disease and the Angel of Death. Zayya is often depicted in miniatures from manuscripts of the Book of Protection as an equestrian saint, spear in hand, and attacking the Angel of Death.
Ḫulbazizi, inscribed in cuneiform phonetically Ḫul.ba.zi.zi, “the Evil is Eradicated” or more literally "Evil (be) gone", is an ancient Mesopotamian exorcistic incantation series extant in earlier Sumerian and later Akkadian forms, the language switch taking place in the late Bronze Age, directed at every sort of evil, including a spell against everything scary that hides below one's bed at night, depicted on an amulet with the terrified subject seated upright on his bed while a small dragon emerges from beneath to be confronted by a third figure.
The so-called "Journey Charm" is one of the 12 Anglo-Saxon metrical charms written in Old English. It is a prayer written to summon protection from God and various other Christian figures from the hazards of the road. It is of particular interest as evidence for popular Anglo-Saxon Christian religion.
The Apocalypse of Simeon Kepha is an apocalyptic text attributed to Peter the Apostle. The text mainly pertains to polemics against the Church of the East. Its main characteristic is lamentation over the deterioration of Christian faith in general and allusions to bribed judges initiating persecutions and martyrdoms.
