Medieval alchemy, Kabbalah and Islamic esotericism
The Key of Solomon
The archetypal Solomonic grimoire: pentacles, spirit work, consecrated tools, prayers and planetary timing.
- Dates
- medieval and early-modern manuscript tradition
- Dating
- tradition or corpus
The life
It survives as a manuscript tradition rather than as a book, in many versions and several languages, and its influence on everything later called ceremonial magic is hard to overstate.
Place in the tradition
Mathers' 1889 English edition, listed under his name in this chronology, is how it reached the Golden Dawn and everyone downstream of them.
a note on the record
History and later legend
Attributed to Solomon, and not by him. There is no single authoritative text: the manuscripts differ substantially, and 'the' Key of Solomon is an editorial construction.
the written record
Principal works
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manuscript tradition, medieval to early modern
Clavicula Salomonis
Consecrated tools, planetary hours, and the pentacles that give the tradition its visual signature.