Notes on Editing

What sets this book apart from other manuscripts is the accretion of work from each of the scribes. Whereas in other ritual magic works an owner might confine themselves to glosses or pagination, in Douce MS. 116 each scribe has added material to the text, often substantially, that reflects their particular time, place, and interests. With that in mind, we decided to name the text in honour of those four figures.

Notes on Editing This manuscript falls into a category that Margaret Ezell refers to as “badly behaving books,” to which both The Book of Oberon and Of Angels, Demons & Spirits also belong.127 Its owners did not think of it as a work with an audience of more than one or two people. It runs against our sensibilities as readers used to legible type, logical layout, and clearly defined sections and topics. One ritual does not always follow another, later material is inserted into the margins or the body of earlier text, and where one rite ends and another begins is ambiguous.

The book represents a challenge to you as a reader. You’ll be engaging with something outside your ordinary reading experience—which, given the topic, you’re probably predisposed to doing already. What I outline here are my efforts to help: adding headings, clarifying wording, splitting the text into different sections to reflect breaks where later text intrudes, and much more. This can only go so far before it breaks the basic organization of the text, so I’m hoping you’ll be willing to meet me halfway to experience a different sort of work.

Abbreviations: In most cases, these have been expanded. Ampersands: Expanded into “and” or “et,” save with regard to “& c.” (“and so forth”). Brackets, square: These are used to indicate page numbers and editorial insertions into the text. If preceded by italics, the bracketed text is a correction of the original. Catchwords: Words at the bottom of each page used to collate the text, or, in this case, to make the book look more professional. These have been removed, save when the copyist omits them from the text on the following page. Ciphers: I’ve left the original cipher in the headers and the body of the text (but not the table of contents), moving the decipherment to the footnotes. The ciphers contain non-standardised spelling, omitted letters, unclear characters, and mistakes, so the cipher and the decipherment will not be character-by-character accurate. Duplicate words and phrases: Removed, save for words of power in incantations.

127. Ezell, “Invisible Books,” 65.

Fonts: The following fonts are used to indicate different authors in the book:

Hand 1 (unknown): Arial Hand 2 (Thomas Harrington): Palatino Linotype Hand 3 (Olivia Serres): Rockwell Hand 4 (Raphael): Silentium Pro Roman II Hand 5 (Francis Douce Scribe): Bodoni MT My own text, such as this introduction, the bibliography, and the footnotes, are in

Minion Pro.

Headings: Many of these appear in the manuscript. A heading entirely in brackets indicates that it is my own addition. In some cases, I have split the heading from text on the same line that is clearly part of the main body of the text. Indented text: Short magical phrases and talismans, or translated text from Latin. Italics: Used to indicate subheadings within a ritual, incorrect items in the main text followed by bracketed phrases to indicate corrections, or book titles within the text.

Latin passages: If such a translation is not provided in the original, I provide either a short translation in the footnotes or, for those instances that form distinct paragraphs, an indented translation following the Latin. Page numbers within translated passages might have moved slightly; see the Latin passage for an accurate placement of the page numbers. Some common phrases that may not always be translated:

Fiat: “Let it be done.” In nomine Patris et Fili et Spiritus Sancti: “In the name of the Father, and of the

Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Probatum est: “It is proved.” Vel: “or.” See also “per” and “pro,” on page 34.

At some points, it is difficult to make out what a given Latin passage is saying.

This is usually due to mistakes or omissions in the original. This has been corrected through reference to other texts when possible. Line breaks: Removed or inserted for ease of reading. Sometimes sections in the original will run together on the same line, which makes for difficult reading. Manuscripts: Full or partial editions of manuscripts listed in the footnotes are as follows:

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 849: Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Plut. 89 sup. 38: Johnson, Brian, trans. Necromancy in the Medici Library: An Edition and Translation of Excerpts from

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 89 Sup. 38. West Yorkshire, UK:

Hadean Press, 2020.

Bodleian Additional MS. B.1.: Klaassen, Frank F. Making Magic in Elizabethan

England. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019.

British Library Additional Manuscript 36,674: Legard, Phil, and Alexander Cummins, eds. An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke. London: Scarlet Imprint, 2020.

British Library Sloane 3824: Ashmole, Elias, and David Rankine. The Book of

Treasure Spirits. London: Avalonia, 2009.

British Library Sloane 3847: Peterson, Joseph H., trans. “Sloane 3847: The

Clavicle of Solomon, Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian.” Esoteric Archives. 1999. http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sl3847.htm.

British Library Sloane 3850: Peterson, Joseph H., ed. “Sloane 3850: Tractatus et

Experimenta Magica.” CD-ROM. 2007.

British Library Sloane 3851: Gauntlet, Arthur. The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet.

Edited by David Rankine. London: Avalonia, 2011.

Cambridge Additional 3544: Foreman, Paul. The Cambridge Book of Magic:

A Tudor Necromancer’s Handbook. Edited by Francis Young. Cambridge:

Francis Young, 2015.

Wellcome 4669: Skinner, Stephen, and David Rankine, eds. A Collection of Magical Secrets […] Translated by Paul Harry Barron. London: Avalonia, 2009.

Marginalia: The text has a great deal of marginal contents, and these are noted in the footnotes when relevant. Harrington sometimes inserts a gloss near the first author’s writing to clarify a reading; these additions have been omitted. Missing letters and words: Added when they can be easily determined. I’ve been more conservative with the Latin text than the English on this account. Misspellings and non-standard spelling: Corrected to today’s English with British spellings. This includes minor adjustments regarding singular or plural, or subject-verb agreement.

Numbers in text: Usually written out, in English or Latin as appropriate for the surrounding text. Page numbers, manuscript: Included and extrapolated from the surrounding material, although these are not always accurate. Sometimes Harrington fails to check for the proper page number, leading to some redundancies or missed numbers.

I have followed his numbering for the most part, although I have inserted missing ones when they are consistent with his overall scheme. Per: Latin for “by” or “through,” occasionally used as “from.” Pro: Latin for “for,” used infrequently. Punctuation: Thoroughly modernised. Sentences in works such as this are much longer than those to which modern readers are accustomed. When necessary, a sentence may be interrupted in such a way that the next segment is a sentence beginning with a conjunction, such as “And” or “But.” Question marks within brackets: Indicate places where the text is illegible or indecipherable. Red text: Harrington uses such ink on occasion to emphasize particular points. It is reproduced wherever it appears in the MS. Supernumerary words (duplicate words unnecessary within the passage’s context):

These were omitted in the main text but included in incantations. Also see “Catchwords” on page 31. Underlining: Indicates text underlined in the original. Voces magicae: Magical words of power. These have been capitalised for consistency.

Inconsistencies in magical names, even within the same ritual, have been left uncorrected.

Welsh passages: Translated thanks to Kate Leach, with the conjectural Welsh included in the main text and the translation of the Welsh and Latin elements in the footnotes. Our notes in these sections are labelled as “KL” and “DH.”