With more detail on particular experiments than the famous thirteenth-century Picatrix and more variety than the Thesaurus Necromantiae ascribed to Roger Bacon, the manual is one of the most interesting and important manuscripts of medieval magic that has yet come to light. It is exceptional, however, in the scope and variety of its contents-prayers and conjurations, rituals of sympathetic magic, procedures involving astral magic, a catalogue of spirits, lengthy ceremonies for consecrating a book of magic, and other materials. Like many medieval texts for the use of magicians, this handbook is a miscellany rather than a systematic treatise. The result is the most vivid and readable introduction to medieval magic now available. Forbidden Rites consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full commentary, including detailed analysis of the text and its contents, discussion of the historical context, translation of representative sections of the text, and comparison with other necromantic texts of the late Middle Ages. The Munich Handbook probably would have gone unremarked in the Munich library without the efforts of Professor Richard Kieckhefer, who published a full edition of the Latin text along with commentary and analysis in his 1997 book, Forbidden Rites.Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a manuscript that few scholars have noticed and that no one in modern times has treated with the seriousness it deserves. Several of the demons described within the text are variations on names traditionally included among the seventy-two demons of the Goetia.

The author makes no effort to hide the fact that many of these spells are enacted with the help of spirits specifically classed as demons. The book is a miscellany of magick with spells devoted mainly to illusion, divination, and compulsion. Its exact date of publication is also unknown. Because the first folio of the manuscript has been lost over time, there is no way to know the name of the author or the original title (if any) of the book. Forbidden Rites consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full commentary, including detailed analysis of the text and its contents, discussion of the. Munich Handbook: A fifteenth-century Latin manuscript kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, filed under the designation CML 849. Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a manuscript that few scholars have noticed and that no one in modern times has treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Forbidden rites richard kieckhefer