The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon

The Lemegeton, usually called the Lesser Key of Solomon, is a seventeenth-century English compilation of five separate magical treatises gathered under Solomon's name. It is not a translation of a single older book but an anthology assembled from texts of very different ages. The Goetia, a catalogue of seventy-two spirits with their seals, draws on the same tradition as Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum of 1577. The Theurgia-Goetia, derived from the Steganographia of Johannes Trithemius, sets out aerial spirits of the compass points. The Ars Paulina deals with the angels of the hours and of the zodiacal degrees, the Ars Almadel goes back to a medieval Latin text on a wax tablet used to call angels of the four altitudes, and the Ars Notoria is the thirteenth-century art of acquiring knowledge through prayer and contemplation of figures. The best-known manuscripts are British Library Sloane 3825 and Sloane 2731, with Harley 6483 dated 1712 to 1713. The name Lemegeton is unexplained and may be a garbled coinage. Mathers' translation of the Goetia, published with Aleister Crowley's additions in 1904, made the first book famous, and modern popular culture often equates the whole Lemegeton with its catalogue of spirits. Joseph Peterson's 2001 edition was the first to present all five books together from the manuscripts with variant readings, and it remains the standard text for readers who want the work as its compilers assembled it.

What it contains

• Goetia: seventy-two spirits with ranks, offices and seals
• Theurgia-Goetia: aerial spirits of the compass points after Trithemius
• Ars Paulina: angels of the hours and of zodiacal degrees
• Ars Almadel: wax tablet and angels of the four altitudes
• Ars Notoria: prayers and notae for acquiring knowledge
• Circle, triangle, hexagram, pentagram and other apparatus