Clavicula Salomonis (The Key Of Solomon The King)

"Regarding the authorship of the work, Mr Mathers, translator and editor of the first printed copy of the book, says, 'I see no reason to doubt the tradition which assigns the authorship of the 'Key' to King Solomon.' If this view be accepted, however, it is abundantly evident that the Key as it stands at present (in which we find S. John quoted, and mention made of SS. Peter and Paul) must have received some considerable alterations and additions at the hands of later editors. But even if we are compelled to assign the Clavicula Salomonis in its present form to the fourteenth or fifteenth century, we must, I think, allow that it was based upon traditions of the past, and, of course, the possibility remains that it might have been based upon some earlier work. With regard to the antiquity of the planetary sigils, Mr MATHERS notes 'that, among the Gnostic talismans in the British Museum, there is a ring of copper with the sigils of Venus, which are exactly the same as those given by mediaeval writers on magic'.
In spite of the absurdity of its claims, viewed in the light of modern knowledge, the Clavicula Salomonis exercised a considerable influence in the past, and is to be regarded as one of the chief sources of mediaeval ceremonial magic. Historically speaking, therefore, it is a book of no little importance."

H. Stanley Redgrove, Bygone Beliefs

Large-sized spiral-bound. 14,50 x21 cm, 256 pgs In spite of the absurdity of its claims, viewed in the light of modern knowledge, the Clavicula Salomonis exercised a considerable influence in the past, and is to be regarded as one of the chief sources of mediaeval ceremonial magic. Historically speaking, therefore, it is a book of no little importance.