page_title: Grimoire
section_title: 18th and 19th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Grimoire / History / 18th and 19th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: Scan of the frontpiece of the 1880 translation of the 1849 Johann Scheible (editor) version of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses. No Author given. "The sixth and seventh books of Moses: or, Moses' magical spirit-art, known as the wonderful arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Cabala and the Talmud, for the good of mankind. Translated from the German, word for word, according to old writings". s.n., New York 1880. translation of Das sechste und siebente Buch Mosis, das ist: Mosis magische Geisterkunst, das Geheimniss aller Geheimnisse. Sammt den verdeutschten Offenbarungen und Vorschriften wunderbarster Art der alten weisen Hebräer, aus den Mosaischen Büchern, der Kabbala und den Talmud zum leiblichen Wohl der Menschen. Wort- und bildgetreu nach alten Handschriften mit 42 Tafeln. (Liepzig, 1849). Online scans avalilable at: The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses and "The sixth and seventh books of Moses: or, Moses' magical spirit-art, known as the wonderful arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Cabala and the Talmud, for the good of mankind
context_page_description: A grimoire is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, although in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires have been believed to have supernatural properties intrinsically. The only contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondence. In this manner, while all books on magic could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books should be thought of as grimoires.
  While the term grimoire is originally European and many Europeans throughout history, particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have used grimoires, the historian Owen Davies noted that similar books can be found all across the world, ranging from Jamaica to Sumatra. He also noted that in this sense, the world's first grimoires were created in Europe and the Ancient Near East.
context_section_description: The 18th century saw the rise of the Enlightenment, a movement devoted to science and rationalism, predominantly amongst the ruling classes. However, amongst much of Europe, belief in magic and witchcraft persisted, as did the witch trials in certain areas. Governments tried to crack down on magicians and fortune tellers, particularly in France, where the police viewed them as social pests who took money from the gullible, often in a search for treasure. In doing so, they confiscated many grimoires.
  A new form of printing developed in France, the Bibliothèque bleue. Many grimoires published through this circulated among an ever-growing percentage of the populace, in particular the Grand Albert, the Petit Albert (1782), the Grimoire du Pape Honorius and the Enchiridion Leonis Papae. The Petit Albert contained a wide variety of forms of magic, for instance, dealing in simple charms for ailments along with more complex things such as the instructions for making a Hand of Glory.
  In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, following the French Revolution of 1789, a hugely influential grimoire was published under the title of the Grand Grimoire, which was considered particularly powerful, because it involved conjuring and making a pact with the devil's chief minister, Lucifugé Rofocale, to gain wealth from him. A new version of this grimoire was later published under the title of the Dragon rouge and was available for sale in many Parisian bookstores. Similar books published in France at the time included the Black Pullet and the Grimoirium Verum. The Black Pullet, probably authored in late-18th-century Rome or France, differs from the typical grimoires in that it does not claim to be a manuscript from antiquity but told by a man who was a member of Napoleon's armed expeditionary forces in Egypt.
  The widespread availability of printed grimoires in France—despite the opposition of both the rationalists and the church—soon spread to neighbouring countries such as Spain and Germany. In Switzerland, Geneva was commonly associated with the occult at the time, particularly by Catholics, because it had been a stronghold of Protestantism. Many of those interested in the esoteric traveled from Roman Catholic nations to Switzerland to purchase grimoires or to study with occultists. Soon, grimoires appeared that involved Catholic saints; one example that appeared during the 19th century that became relatively popular, particularly in Spain, was the Libro de San Cipriano, or The Book of St. Ciprian, which falsely claimed to date from c. 1000. Like most grimoires of this period, it dealt with (among other things) how to discover treasure.
  In Germany, with the increased interest in folklore during the 19th century, many historians took an interest in magic and in grimoires. Several published extracts of such grimoires in their own books on the history of magic, thereby helping to further propagate them. Perhaps the most notable of these was the Protestant pastor Georg Conrad Horst (1779–1832), who from 1821 to 1826, published a six-volume collection of magical texts in which he studied grimoires as a peculiarity of the Mediaeval mindset.
  Another scholar of the time interested in grimoires, the antiquarian bookseller Johann Scheible, first published the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, two influential magical texts that claimed to have been written by the ancient Jewish figure Moses. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses were among the works that later spread to the countries of Scandinavia, where, in Danish and Swedish, grimoires were known as black books and were commonly found among members of the army.
  In Britain, new grimoires continued to be produced throughout the 18th century, such as Ebenezer Sibly's A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology. In the last decades of that century, London experienced a revival of interest in the occult that was further propagated when Francis Barrett published The Magus in 1801. The Magus contained many things taken from older grimoires, particularly those of Cornelius Agripp
caption: The title page of the 1880 New York edition of The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.
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