The Veritable Clavicles of Solomon (Lansdowne MS 1203)

The Veritable Clavicles of Solomon is a French Key of Solomon that claims to have been translated from Hebrew into Latin by a Rabbi Abognazar, a name Mathers speculated might be a corruption of Abraham ibn Ezra. The best-known copy is British Library Lansdowne MS 1203, an elegantly written eighteenth-century manuscript of seventy-four leaves. A closely related copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Français 25314) bears the date 1634 and credits the French version to an archbishop of Arles, though Peterson doubts that the manuscript is as old as its date. The text is framed as Solomon's testament to his son Rehoboam. It provides tables of planetary hours with their ruling angels and colours, then a detailed sequence of exorcisms and consecrations for each ritual instrument, from sword and knives to ink, pens, censer, staves and garments, together with the consecration of the book itself. The operations include love magic, invisibility, the detection of thieves, magic garters for swift travel, treasure finding, twelve rings for binding spirits, the twenty-eight lunar mansions and a set of pentacles. Mathers used this manuscript for portions of his 1889 Key, but it has its own distinctive structure and deserves study in its own right. Peterson's online edition gives the French text with English translation and notes on the BnF parallel. It exemplifies the luxury magical manuscripts produced for collectors in eighteenth-century Paris.

What it contains

• Solomon's testament to Rehoboam as a framing device
• Planetary hours, names, colours and ruling angels
• Exorcism and consecration of each ritual instrument
• Consecration of the book
• Operations for love, invisibility, theft, garters and treasure
• Twelve rings for binding spirits and the 28 lunar mansions
• Pentacles