What is a Grimoire?
“A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Books of this genre, typically giving instructions for invoking angels or demons, performing divination and gaining magical powers, have circulated throughout Europe since the Middle Ages.
Magicians were frequently prosecuted by the Christian church, so their journals were kept hidden to prevent them from being burned.[1] Such books contain astrological correspondences, lists of angels and demons, directions on casting charms and spells, on mixing medicines, summoning unearthly entities, and making talismans. “Magical” books in almost any context, especially books of magical spells, are also called grimoires.” – Wikipedia
Grimoire History
From around 300 B.C. to around 500 C.E.
What happened around this time?
Between this era, a lot of significant things had happened in history. Major events such as the largest ancient city in the world Alexandria up and coming, to the birth of Christ, and the rise of the roman civilization and the destruction of Jerusalem several times over. It’s no wonder that some of the most interesting and inspiring Grimoires were written in this time frame.
- Papyrus of Abaris – There is some debate on if this is an authentic grimoire from this time frame or if it was written later in a manner that reflects ancient writings.
- Cosmographic Tree - pagan version of the much later Hebrew Qabalistic glyph of the Tree of Life. Ive tried Researching the orgins of this piece of work, but I have found very little on the book.
- The Greek Magical Papyri – Said to have been written between the second(2nd) century B.C to the fifth(5th) century C.E. Said to have been made of many texts that were assembled in a collection. They were found in the deserts of Egypt, and purchased by Giovanni Anastasi in 1827. The Collection contained the Stockholm Papyrus (Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis) and Leyden papyrus X, Read more about those below. The Papyri were recollected in the early twentieth century by Karl Preisendanz, he then published the papyri in two (2) volumes in 1928 and 1931. The Third volume was believed to be destroyed in the bombing of Leipzig during the second world war. It’s a shame that happened, could you imagine all the documents that were lost during the war? More Info can be found here
- Egyptian Book of the Dead – I will just hit on a short history of this book and a brief description of what it contains.The Grimoire is written to instruct the reader both how to make it through the trials and obstacles of the underworld easily and successfully as well as how to properly bury and take care of the dead. This book was developed through a process of evolution, starting with the pyramid texts of the old kingdom, then started to be know as the coffin texts of the middle kingdom, then “The book of the dead” was adapted to be known as the book of breathings in the late period of Ancient Egypt. There are books upon books written on this ancient text alone. A simple Google search will yield hours of reading.
- Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis – is also known as the Stockholm papyrus, it is said to have been written around the 3rd to 4th century C.E. The ancient text contains information on how chemical recipes were used in ancient Egypt, interesting enough it is written in ancient greek. The author of the text is thought to be Demokristo, a Greek Alchemist from 100 C.E.
