Sepher Raziel (Liber Salomonis)

The Latin Liber Razielis, presented here in an early modern English version called Sepher Raziel or Liber Salomonis, is a book of angelic and astral magic claiming to transmit the secrets the angel Raziel revealed to Adam, later possessed by Solomon. The Latin compilation was produced in the thirteenth century, and is associated with the circle of Alfonso X of Castile, which sponsored translations of Arabic and Jewish learning; Joshua Trachtenberg placed its origin in that century, and it was widely known by the end of the fifteenth. It should be distinguished from the Hebrew Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh printed in Amsterdam in 1701, though both draw on related Jewish traditions. The English text on the archive comes from British Library Sloane MS 3846 and is closely related to Sloane 3826, a version dated 1564. It is arranged in seven treatises: the Clavis, on the stars; the Ala, on the virtues of stones, herbs and animals; a treatise on fumigations; one on the right times for operations by year, day and night; one on purity and abstinence; Samaim, on the heavens and their angels; and a book of virtues and marvels that discusses the art of magic. The work combines natural magic, astrology and angelology, and it influenced the Sworn Book tradition and later angel magic. Don Karr and Stephen Skinner published the Sloane 3826 text in 2010, and Sophie Page has studied the Latin Liber Razielis in its monastic setting.

What it contains

• Clavis: the stars and their powers
• Ala: virtues of stones, herbs and animals
• Treatise on fumigations
• Treatise on times for operations
• Treatise on cleanness and abstinence
• Samaim: the heavens and their angels
• Book of virtues, marvels and the art of magic