CHAPTER XLIX

SOLOMON AND THE ARS NOTORIA

Solomon as a magician--Magic books ascribed to Solomon--Manuscripts of them--Notory art of Solomon and Apollonius--Other works ascribed to Solomon and Apollonius--_Liber sacratus_; preface--_Incipit_ and _Explicit_--A work of theurgy or the notory art--Character of its contents--The third “work”--The fourth and fifth “works”--How to operate with spirits--The seal of the living God--Spirits of Saturn.

[Sidenote: Solomon as a magician.]

It was only natural that Solomon, regarded as the wisest man in the history of the world, should be represented in oriental tradition as the worker of many marvels and that in the course of time books of magic should be attributed to him, just as treatises on the interpretation of dreams were ascribed to Joseph and Daniel. Roger Bacon speaks of the magic books in a grand-sounding style which were falsely ascribed to Solomon and which “ought all to be prohibited by law.”[876] Solomon’s reputation as a magician, even in the western Latin-speaking world, was much older than the thirteenth century, however. In 1918 Roman archaeologists excavated at Ostia a bronze disc, on one side of which was depicted Solomon as a magician, stirring with a long ladle some mess in a large cauldron. On the other side of the disc was a figure of the triple Hecate, who, like Solomon, was surrounded by mystic signs and magic characters.[877]

[Sidenote: Magic books ascribed to Solomon.]

But to return to the medieval period. In the first half of the thirteenth century William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris, in his treatise on laws declares that there is no divinity in the angles of Solomon’s pentagon, that the rings of Solomon and the seals of Solomon and the nine candles (_candariae_) are a form of idolatry, and involve execrable consecrations and detestable invocations and images. “As for that horrible image called the _Idea Salomonis et entocta_, let it never be mentioned among Christians.” In the same class are the book called _Sacratus_ and the figure _Mandel_ or _Amandel_.[878] Some years later Albertus Magnus, listing evil books of necromantic images in his _Speculum astronomiae_,[879] includes five treatises current under the name of Solomon, and seems to have in mind about the same works as William. One is _De figura Almandel_, another _De novem candariis_, and a third on the four rings (_De quatuor annulis_) opens with the words “_De arte eutonica et ideica_,” which remind one of William’s “_Idea Salomonis et entocta_,” and is perhaps also identical with a _Liber de umbris idearum_ cited under the name of Solomon by Cecco d’Ascoli in his necromantic commentary upon the _Sphere_ of Sacrobosco,[880] written in the early fourteenth century.

[Sidenote: Manuscripts of them.]

Moreover, these same works are apparently still extant in manuscripts in European libraries. The figure Almandal or Almandel and the rings of Solomon are found in fifteenth century manuscripts at Florence and Paris,[881] while in the Sloane collection of the British Museum we find Solomon’s pentagon, the divine seal, the four rings, and the nine candles, all in seventeenth century manuscripts.[882] In these seventeenth century manuscripts also appear, and more than once, the _Clavicula_ or Key of Solomon, in French, Italian, and English,[883] the book by Solomon called _Cephar_ or _Saphar Raziel_,[884] and the _Liber sacer_ or _sacratus_.[885] The last-named work, mentioned at least twice in the thirteenth century by William of Auvergne, who calls it “a cursed and execrable book,”[886] is also found in manuscripts of the fourteenth or fifteenth century,[887] and we shall presently consider it in particular as a specimen of the Pseudo-Solomon literature and of medieval books of magic, theurgy, and necromancy.

[Sidenote: Notory art of Solomon and Apollonius.]

Let us first, however, note some other works ascribed to Solomon and which have to do with the _Ars Notoria_, or Notory Art, which seeks to gain knowledge from or communion with God by invocation of angels, mystic figures, and magical prayers. We are told that the Creator revealed this art through an angel to Solomon one night while he was praying, and that by it one can in a short time acquire all the liberal and mechanical arts.[888] There seems to be little difference between the notory art of Solomon, that of Solomon, Machineus, and Euclid,[889] and the _Golden Flowers_ of Apollonius,[890] in which Solomon is mentioned almost every other sentence. Cecco d’Ascoli may have had it in mind when he cited the _Book of Magic Art_ of Apollonius and the _Angelic Faction_ of the same author.[891] In one manuscript at the close of the _Golden Flowers_ of Apollonius are prayers which one “brother John Monk” confesses he himself has composed in the years 1304-1307.[892] In a later manuscript we find his prayers described as given to him by the blessed God and as “perfect science,” and they are followed by “The Pauline art,” discovered by the Apostle Paul after he had been snatched up to the third heaven, and delivered by him at Corinth.[893] Other works of notory art are listed in the manuscript catalogues without name of author.[894] But all alike are apt to impress the present reader as unmeaning jumbles of diagrams and magic words.[895] We shall sufficiently illustrate them all when we come to speak of the _Liber sacratus_ which is itself in large measure concerned with the Notory Art.

[Sidenote: Other works ascribed to Solomon and Apollonius.]

Certain works may be mentioned which are ascribed to Solomon or to Apollonius in the medieval manuscripts, and which do not seem to be concerned with the notory art. Experiments ascribed to Solomon will be mentioned in another place in connection with experimental literature. Treatises of alchemy and astrology also were attributed to him.[896] Under the name of Apollonius we find a work on the properties or occult virtue of things, and another, or possibly the same, on the principal causes of things.[897] One wonders if it may have any connection with the book on six principles of things ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus and which has been discussed in our chapter on _Hermetic Books in the Middle Ages_. A treatise on palmistry is ascribed to Solomon in a fourteenth century manuscript at Cambridge.[898] A “Philosophy of Solomon” in a manuscript of the late twelfth century in the British Museum consists of “notes perhaps from more than one source on the analogy between the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three divisions of philosophy (_moralis_, _naturalis_, _inspectiva_), and the three books of Solomon.”[899]

[Sidenote: _Liber sacratus_: preface.]

The _Liber sacratus_, as William of Auvergne twice entitles it, or the _Liber sacer_ or _Liber juratus_, as it is also called in the manuscripts,[900] is associated with the name Honorius as well as Solomon, and is often spoken of as _The Sworn Book of Honorius_. The preface, as given in the Latin manuscripts of the fourteenth century--one of which once belonged to Ben Jonson--states that under the influence of evil spirits the pope and cardinals had passed a decree aiming at the complete extirpation of the magic art and condemning magicians to death. The grounds for this action were that magicians and necromancers were injuring everyone, transgressing the statutes of holy mother church, making invocations and sacrifices to demons, and dragging ignorant people down to damnation by their marvelous illusions. These charges the magicians hotly deny as inspired by the envy and cupidity of the devil who wished to keep a monopoly of such marvels. The magicians declare that it is impossible for a wicked or impure man to work truly by the magic art, in which they assert that the spirits are compelled against their will by pure men. The magicians further profess to have been forewarned by their art of this legislation against them. They hesitate, however, to summon the demons to their aid lest those spirits avail themselves of the opportunity to destroy the populace utterly. Instead an assembly of 89 masters from Naples, Athens, and Toledo has chosen Honorius, son of Euclid,[901] a master of Thebes, to reduce their magic books to one volume containing 93 chapters, which they may more readily conceal and preserve. And inasmuch as it has pleased the prelates and princes to order the burning of their books and the destruction of schools of magic, the followers of that art have taken an oath not to give this volume to anyone until its owner is on his death-bed, never to have more than three copies of it made at a time, and never to give it to a woman or to a man who is not of mature years and proved fidelity. Each new recipient of the sacred volume is also to take this oath. Hence the name, _Juratus_ or _Sworn-Book_. Its other titles, _Sacer_ or _Sacratus_, refer either to the sacred names of God which constitute much of its text or to its consecration by the angels.

[Sidenote: _Incipit_ and _Explicit_.]

After this proemium, which, like the magic art itself, is probably more impressive than true, the work proper opens with the statement, “In the name of almighty God and Jesus Christ, one and true God, I, Honorius, have thus ordered the works of Solomon in my book.” Later Honorius reiterates that he is following the precepts and in the foot-prints of Solomon, whom he also often cites or quotes in course. The _Explicit_ of the _Sworn-Book_ is unusually long and sets forth in grandiloquent style the purpose of the volume.

“So ends the book of the life of the rational soul,[902] which is entitled _Liber sacer_ or _The Book of the Angels_ or _Liber juratus_, which Honorius, Master of Thebes, made. This is the book by which one can see God in this life. This is the book by which anyone can be saved and led beyond a doubt to life eternal. This is the book by which one can see hell and purgatory without death. This is the book by which every creature can be subjected except the nine orders of angels. This is the book by which all science can be learned. This is the book by which the weakest substance can overcome and subjugate the strongest substances. This is the book which no religion possesses except the Christian, or if it does, does so to no avail. This is the book which is a greater joy than any other joy given by God exclusive of the sacraments. This is the book by which corporeal and visible nature can converse and reason with the incorporeal and invisible and be instructed. This is the book by which countless treasures can be had. And by means of it many other things can be done which it would take too long to enumerate; therefore it is deservedly called _The Holy Book_.”

[Sidenote: A work of theurgy or the notory art.]

From this description it will be seen that the work has a good deal to do with the so-called Notory Art. Moreover, in the manuscript copy said to have belonged to Ben Jonson the word _Theurgia_ is written on the fly-leaves before the beginning and after the close of the text. This calls to mind the passage in _The City of God_[903] where Augustine speaks of “incantations and formulae composed by an art of depraved curiosity which they either call magic or by the more detestable name _goetia_ or by the honorable title _theurgia._ For they try to distinguish between these arts and condemn some men, whom the populace calls _malefici_, as devoted to illicit arts, for these, they say, are concerned with _goetia_; but others they want to make out praiseworthy as being engaged in theurgy. But they are both entangled in the deceptive rites of demons who masquerade under the names of angels.”

[Sidenote: Character of its contents.]

The text is full of the names of spirits, prayers in strange words, supposedly derived from Hebrew or Chaldaic, and other gibberish. Series of letters and figures often occur and names inscribed in stars, hexagons, and circles. An English translation in a fifteenth century manuscript[904] is adorned with pictures of rows of spirits dressed like monks in robes and caps but with angelic wings. The text does not seem to be complete in any of the manuscripts that I have examined,[905] but Sloane 3854 of the fourteenth century contains an apparently complete table of contents. The chapter headings, anyway, are more intelligible than the jargon of the text. The first chapter deals with the composition of the great name of God which contains 72 letters. The second is about the divine vision and by the time it is finished we are nearly two-thirds through the space allotted to the _Liber juratus_ in one manuscript. The third chapter is on knowledge of the divine power, the fourth on absolution from sin, the fifth deals with mortal sin, the sixth with the redemption of souls from purgatory. With this the “first work” of the collection of Honorius ends. The opening chapters of the second work discuss the heavens, the angels found in each heaven and at the four points of the compass, their names and powers, seals and virtues, and invocation. Chapters 14 and 15 tell how to get your wish from any angel or to acquire the sciences.

## Chapter 16 tells how to learn the hour of one’s death, and