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Mr. Mathers' presentation of the Key of Solomon, 1 which is still in print, though the work
of an uncritical hand, must be held to remove the necessity for entering into a detailed
account of the Contents of that curious work. So far as it has been incorporated by the
later makers of Grimoires, it will be found, with its Goëtic variations, in the Second Part.
We have here only to consider the question of its antiquity and to establish its true
character.
The Key of Solomon proper is familiar to scholars in Latin, French, Italian and one or two
German MSS. The oldest codex used by the English editor is in contracted Latin, and
belongs to the sixteenth century. It is preserved in the British Museum. It is possible that
older MSS. may exist in Continental libraries, but those of the Bibliothèque Nationale
and of the Arsénal at Paris are of later date. 2 The majority of known MSS. are in the
French language. It is, however, claimed that the work was written originally in Hebrew.
In this claim there is nothing essentially improbable, but it has the disadvantage of being
championed by the last class of persons who hold titles for the expression of an opinion.
Assuming that it is well founded, it is not unlikely that the original may
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still exist. The large Hebrew literature of the Middle Ages has been only imperfectly
explored, especially in that part which connects with practical Magic. The knavish
methods which have ruled in the manufacture of most magical books largely discount the
probability with which I am dealing, and the mere affirmation in a manuscript cannot,
under these circumstances, be regarded as evidence. No Hebrew scholar is acquainted at
the present day with such an original, and three hundred years back the matter, according
to P. Christian, was involved in precisely the same uncertainty, for at the end of the
sixteenth century the learned Jesuit, Gretser, states that it was unknown, but that there
was a Greek translation in the library of the Duke of Bavaria. The present whereabouts of
this highly important MS. I have failed to trace, though I must not presume that I have
taken especial pains concerning it. In a literature of this class, whether that is best which
lies the nearest or not, it is serviceable enough for the practical purpose. I do not propose
to be the historian of Magic, whether Black or White, or the classifier of its MSS. All
occultism is part of the path of descent, and that which is especially Black may be in one
sense the least harmful, as we know where we are in its presence. I will therefore only
add in termination of this question that in the eighteenth century the Abbé d'Artigny
mentions various examples of the Key of Solomon in Latin, and also an edition printed in
1655, which is not only unknown to Mr. Mathers, but seemingly to all modern
bibliographers. 1
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Leaving the language of the original an open question, it is clear that, in either case, there
is no ground for attributing to the Key of Solomon in its present form a higher antiquity
than the fourteenth or fifteenth century, at which time Hebrew literature was developing
at a rapid rate. 1 If it were first written in Latin, it is, at any rate, permeated with late
Jewish ideas, and the corrupt state of the Hebrew in the conjurations and talismans-which
is much the same, and that as bad as it can be, in all existing copies--could scarcely