Illusion Spells of the Munich Necromancer's Manual

Among the manuscripts of the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a fifteenth-century Latin handbook of demonic magic, catalogued as Clm 849 and now usually called the Munich Manual or Munich Handbook of Necromancy. Its "experiments" include rites for summoning demons to create illusions: a castle that appears in a desolate place, a banquet served by invisible hands, a horse that carries its rider wherever he wishes. Edited by the historian Richard Kieckhefer in Forbidden Rites (1997), it is one of the most important witnesses to medieval necromancy. The Spellbook describes it as history only, because these rites summoned demons and some involved killing animals or manipulating other people.

How it was done§

The manual is a working compilation of over forty experiments, copied in a single hand, with its beginning lost. Its techniques are drawn from Christian liturgy and from the learned magic of the period: the operator, presumably literate in Latin, purified himself, chose the proper day and hour, traced a circle on the ground with names and figures, and recited long conjurations invoking God, Christ, the saints and the names of God against the demons, then named and commanded the spirits by their own names.

In the illusion experiments, the demons summoned were ordered to produce something that seemed real. For the castle, the operator went to a remote place, performed the conjuration and expected a fortified castle to appear, complete with servants, which would vanish when he left it. For the banquet, the spirits were to bring a feast for the operator and his guests; Kieckhefer notes that the food was understood to be illusory or stolen from elsewhere. Another experiment summoned a horse, in truth a demon, to carry the rider vast distances in a short time, with careful rules for mounting and dismounting so as not to fall into the spirit's power. Others promised to make the dead appear to rise, to render the operator invisible, or to cause a boat to appear.

The manual also contained experiments of divination, using a mirror or a polished fingernail, often with a child as medium; and "psychological" experiments to win a woman's love against her will, to make a person lose his senses, or to provoke hatred between friends. Some rites required the killing of animals, such as birds, whose parts were used in the operation.

Origins and history§

Kieckhefer argues that such books were the work of a "clerical underworld": men in minor or major orders, or university-trained clerics, who knew the language of exorcism and the liturgy and turned it to commanding demons. The structure of the conjurations closely resembles that of exorcisms, and the Munich Manual cites the same divine names and saints. Its sources include older works of Solomonic magic and of Arabic-influenced astral and image magic, though it is chiefly a demonic handbook.

Medieval theologians and inquisitors condemned such books. Nicolau Eymerich's Directorium inquisitorum (1376) discussed the invocation of demons, and the Paris theology faculty condemned ritual magic in 1398. The illusions themselves fitted a long theological tradition, going back to Augustine, that demons could not truly create but could deceive the senses. Accounts of necromancers conjuring castles and banquets also appear in romance and exempla, and Kieckhefer and others show that the manual's authors seem to have expected real results.

The manuscript attracted little attention until Kieckhefer's edition and study. It has since become central to the study of medieval ritual magic, alongside the Liber juratus, the Picatrix and other works of learned magic, and has shaped understanding of how clerical culture and magic intersected.

Why this is presented as history§

The Munich Manual's experiments summon demons, and several aim to deceive or coerce others or involve killing animals. The Spellbook does not give instructions for any of these. It is described because it is a major historical source for medieval magic and religion.

Safety and good sense§

Historical rituals of this kind should not be imitated. Anyone troubled by fears of spirits or curses should seek help from a doctor, counsellor or trusted religious adviser, and anyone pressured to take part in a ritual against their will should leave and seek support.

Sources and further reading§

• Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century — Richard Kieckhefer, 1997
• Magic in the Middle Ages — Richard Kieckhefer, 1989
• Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic — Claire Fanger, 1998
• The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance — Frank Klaassen, 2013
• Magic in History — Richard Kieckhefer, 2021