Clavicula Salomonis filii David (Duveen 388 printing)

Duveen 388, held in the Special Collections of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Memorial Library, is a rare early printed Key of Solomon of only forty-eight pages under the title Clavicula Salomonis filii David. It came to Wisconsin with the alchemical and occult book collection of Denis Duveen, acquired in 1951, and is usually dated to around 1650. Most of the Key's transmission was in manuscript, so an early printed version is unusual. The text is mostly Latin, but many of its biblical quotations are given in Dutch and it ends with a list of divine names in German, which suggests production for a Low Countries or Rhineland readership. It is shorter than the major manuscript recensions and concentrates on prayers, names of God, conjurations and the essential ritual apparatus. A related manuscript of about 1750 in the Leipzig University Library (Cod. Mag. 85) shows that this compact version continued to be copied by hand after it was printed. Peterson's edition, first posted in 2010 and later revised, makes the booklet accessible for comparison with the larger Latin manuscripts. It is a good example of the small, cheaply produced magical prints that circulated in seventeenth-century northern Europe and later fed into German compilations such as those reprinted by Johann Scheible in the nineteenth century.

What it contains

• Title as Key of Solomon son of David
• Latin prayers and conjurations
• Biblical citations in Dutch
• Ritual apparatus in compact form
• Closing list of divine names in German