Le Grimoire Du Pape Honorius

[Shelly Takacs]

Le Grimoire du Pape Honorius est un grimoire publi au XVIIe sicle, qui est suppos avoir t crit par le pape Honorius III (1150 - 1227). Ce livre de magie est unique parmi les grimoires en ce qu'il a t spcialement conu pour tre utilis par les prtres, et certaines de ses instructions incluent la rcitation de messes. Alors que son nom suppose une rdaction au XIIIe sicle, son contenu est plus proche de grimoires ultrieurs comme la Cl de Salomon et le Grimorium Verum[1].

La premire dition du Grimoire aurait t publie en 1629 et aurait t rdige vers la fin du XVIe sicle, soit environ quatre cents ans aprs la mort de son auteur suppos ; la premire dition conserve date de 1670. Le pote et mystique britannique Arthur Edward Waite dans The Book of Ceremonial Magic, Londres, 1911, le dcrit comme une imposture malveillante, quoique assez astucieuse, qui a t indniablement conue pour tromper les ignorants, intrigus par la magie, de cette poque et plus particulirement les prtres ignorants, puisqu'elle affirme transmettre l'autorisation dlibre du Saint-Sige pour les oprations de la Magie Infernale et de la Ncromancie. . L'occultiste liphas Lvi considrait l'auteur comme l'antipape Honorius II.

Rome [Lille] & [Avignon]: (Imprimerie de Blocquel & Offray Ain, Imprimeur-Lib), 1760 [1830?]. Hardcover. Small Octavo. 5 x 3.25 inches. (xxiv pp. - plates etc. from the "Grimoire du Pape Honorius") (3)-96pp. (Plates and text of "Le grand grimoire"). Contemporary quarter leather binding, brown leather spine over marbled-paper boards. Spine raised bands and and elaborately decorated with gilt tooling, leather spine label gilt-stamped "Grimoire." Marbled endpapers and page edges, ribbon marker. The book begins with the hand coloured frontispiece title-page, & ten full-paged hand-coloured plates from an early nineteenth century edition of the "Grimoire of Pope Honorius." This is followed by the complete text and illustrations (black and white) of an early nineteenth century edition of "Le grand grimoire." The pagination of this starts on p. (3) suggesting that there was a pp. (1 & 2) however as p. (3) is the half-title and p. (4) the frontispiece it seems likely that if there was a pp. (1 & 2) it was either blank on both sides, or an additional half-title / blank. The full title of the "Grimoire du Pape Honorius" is "Grimoire du Pape Honorius avec un Recueil des plus Rares Secrets" and the pages are almost certainly from the edition produced in the printery of Simon Blocquel (1780 -1863) circa 1830. The full title of "Le grand grimoire" is "Le grand grimoire, avec la grande clavicule de Salomon, et la magie noire, ou les forges infernales du grand Agrippa, pour dcouvrir tous les trsors cachs, et se faire obir tous les esprits, suivie de tous les arts magiques." The colophon indicates that it was printed in Avignon by "Offray Ain, Imprimeur-Lib," and although undated it is almost certainly from the same period as the accompanying plates from the "Grimoire du Pape Honorius." Bizarrely, bound in at the end is a title label for a third grimoire, the "Enchiridion." The "Offray Ain" edition of "Le grand grimoire" is one of the rarer versions, and this is effectively an extra-illustrated version of that edition. The plates of the Blocquel "Grimoire of Pope Honorius" are arguably the most handsome colour plates in grimoires of that period. The binding is a little rubbed at the edges, and with the corners of the boards lightly rounded. There is some very pale foxing throughout "Le grand grimoire" but overall the volume is VG + or better condition. Item #48094

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