The Clavicle of Solomon, Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian (Sloane MS 3847)

British Library Sloane MS 3847 contains an English Key of Solomon copied in 1572 by a scribe who signed only with the initials H. G. It is among the oldest securely dated witnesses of the Clavicula in any vernacular and is therefore central to reconstructing the text's sixteenth-century form. Its prologue tells how Solomon's book was hidden, then rediscovered and transmitted by a Greek sage named Ptolemy, a framing legend that links the Latin Key to its Greek background in the Hygromanteia tradition. The body follows the familiar Solomonic programme: timing by planetary hours, preparation and consecration of the circle, the making of pentacles, purification with water and hyssop, fumigations, and the conjurations and exorcisms used to call and constrain spirits. It also includes practical experiments for theft, invisibility and love, as well as harmful operations that were later pruned from printed versions. The prayers and conjurations are kept in Latin while the instructions are in English, a pattern typical of English magical manuscripts of the period. Sloane 3847 came to the British Museum with the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, which preserves an unusually large number of English magical texts. Peterson's edition presents the manuscript as a distinct witness rather than folding it into a composite. It deserves attention from anyone comparing the English tradition with Mathers' French-based edition or with Add. MS 36674.

What it contains

• Prologue on Solomon's hidden book and its recovery by Ptolemy
• Planetary hours and timing of operations
• Construction and consecration of the circle
• Pentacles, instruments and materials
• Fumigations, holy water and prayers
• Conjurations and exorcisms of spirits
• Experiments for theft, invisibility, love and harm