The Secrets of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis de Secretis)

The Clavicula Salomonis de Secretis, or Secrets of Solomon, is a Solomonic grimoire that turns from the classical Key's angelic and planetary emphasis toward a hierarchy of infernal spirits. Its structure places three superior spirits, Lucifer, Beelzebuth and Elestor (sometimes Astaroth), over a court of subordinate princes and demons such as Claunth, Frimost and Klepoth, each with defined powers and seals, an arrangement shared with the Grimorium Verum and the third book of the Armadel Clavicules. Alongside this it offers operations for rain and snow, lightning, opening locks, love, invisibility and making the dead appear to speak, a second book on the circle, pentacle, sword, water, garments, incense, ink and parchment, with seventy-two sacred names and a hierarchy of intelligences, and a third book on the intelligences and spirits of the seven planets. The web edition is transcribed from a Latin manuscript in the National Library of Poland in Warsaw, and Italian and French versions also survive. The work was well known to the Venetian Inquisition: Joseph Peterson's 2018 book The Secrets of Solomon edits a copy confiscated during an inquisitorial trial, showing how such texts passed among priests, soldiers and practitioners in seventeenth-century Venice. The Secrets of Solomon is thus the missing link between the Italian Clavicula manuscripts and the printed French black grimoires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it explains where the Grimorium Verum's spirit lists came from.

What it contains

• Three superior spirits and their subordinate princes
• Seals and powers of named demons
• Operations for weather, locks, love and invisibility
• Making the dead appear to speak
• Circle, pentacle, sword, water, garments and incense
• Seventy-two sacred names and a hierarchy of intelligences
• Intelligences and spirits of the seven planets