A Review of Cypriana: Old World Edited byAlexander Cummins, Jesse HathawayDiaz & Jennifer Zahrt, Rubedo Press,2016This anthology rests on two key texts, thefirst essay in the anthology which is a translation of Book 1 of the Acts ofSaint Cyprian and Saint Justine dating to 450 CE. It is a remarkable text inmany ways and as the translator, Matthew Barclay, comments: (it is) giving usa glimpse into the marketplace of occult services that existed in the ancientworld. Not only this, in being the earliest account of St. Cyprian and hisconversion, giving ample room to Saint Justina, it naturally served as an influenceand inspiration for other hagiographic renderings through The Golden Legend andto the Faustbooks and Cyprians of Scandinavia and Iberia. The dynamic of interaction, the very inconsistencythat has moved the Cyprianic Tradition is well discussed in Alexander Cummins key article, In the Mannerof Saint Cyprian that uses the little grammar of magic known as DeNigromancia, attributed to the 13th Century friar Roger Bacon as thepinnacle for painting the Cyprianic vortex of change, flux and transformation endingup with bringing form to St. Cyprian as the lusting saint and divine sinner asan idea and reality not in need to be supported by material history per se. Inthis way we realize that St. Cyprian is as much about a spiritual concept, theman at the crossroad, the shadow saint that in the way of any St. Thomas or St.Iscariot questions the limited understanding of divine depths and poke our prejudicesand pre-judgments, our moral and sense of right and wrong, the sin and theforgiveness.To support this foundation and core for theanthology, the book spreads its wings to Iberia and Scandinavia where we findJohannes Gardback giving a detailed account of the earliest and more notoriousaccounts of St Cyprian in Scandinavia, as a Faust from Thule as Jose Leitaounmask the Iberian conglomerate of St. Cyprian and his forbidden teachings inhis more continental rendering.In this exploration it becomes evident that St.Cyprian is his own book, the many black books in Scandinavia carrying his nameas well as the multiple variations and differences in the Iberian and BrazilianBooks of St Cyprian, is simply a testimony to how the idea of a book can beelusive and just as well be written on the pages of a thousand clouds with theink of sweet sin as with blood and bile on the parchment of a book. It is a welcome addition to the growing literatureon St. Cyprian and his legacy, an anthology I have no problem recommending. So, visit Rubedo Press and get your copy- A Reviewof:StevePatterson: Spells from the Wise Womans Cottage (Troy Books 2016)&Giles Watson:A Witchs Natural History (Troy Books 2013)StevePattersons book is based on the exhibition in the Museum of Witchcraft andMagic in Boscastle with the same name and using this historical depiction of acunning womans kitchen/workspace Patterson is leading us into a greaterpresentation of folk magic and cunning practices in the West Country commonlyascribed to the wayside witches by Cecil Williamson. Also found here is OldJoans Book of Spells, a collection of spells demonstrating the art practicedby the wayside witches at the