Le Petit Albert

Le Petit Albert, 'the little Albert', is a French book of natural and cabalistic magic that became one of the most widely owned magical books in rural France. It presents itself as a translation of a Latin work by 'Albertus Parvus Lucius', a name chosen to evoke Albertus Magnus, whose genuine and pseudonymous works on the secrets of nature had long circulated, and it was sold alongside its companion, the Grand Albert. The book appeared in the early eighteenth century with fanciful imprints, including the 'heirs of Beringos Fratres at the sign of Agrippa' in Lyon, and was reprinted constantly through the nineteenth century in the cheap literature hawked by itinerant pedlars, the bibliothèque bleue. The archive transcribes the first part of the 1782 edition. Its contents are mostly practical: love charms and chastity tests, remedies for impotence and the knotted-cord spell, methods for catching birds and fish, protecting crops and pigeons and repelling wolves, recipes for wines, liqueurs, perfumes and cosmetics, planetary talismans, discussion of Cabala and the elemental beings, treasure finding and alchemical gold-making. It also contains the most famous description of the hand of glory, a charm made from a hanged man's hand. Owning a Petit Albert was enough to earn a reputation as a sorcerer in many villages, and folklorists have documented its role in French and Caribbean folk magic. Peterson cautions that its recipes are historical curiosities, not advice.

What it contains

• Love charms, chastity tests and remedies for impotence
• Hunting, fishing and protection of crops and animals
• Recipes for wines, liqueurs, perfumes and cosmetics
• Planetary talismans and Cabala
• Elemental beings: salamanders, gnomes, sylphs and nymphs
• Hand of glory, treasure finding and alchemy