The Book of Oberon - 9780738743349

Sitting a block away from the U.S. Capitol, the Folger Shakespeare Library holds one of the most unusual manuscripts of magic ever discovered. The book was written around the year 1580, a decade before Shakespeare began writing in earnest. This is a manual of magicians in search of results, who scribbled down whatever secrets they could find.

One of the most unusual collections of magical lore ever assembled, The Book of Oberonincludes:

• Rituals for summoning several different spirits, including Oberon (one of the main characters of Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream), Satan, Mosacus, Birto, and others
• A ceremony to call Baron, a spirit associated with the notorious Gilles de Rais
• Several intriguing drawings of spirits and other curious beings
• A list of spirits similar to, but predating, that found in the magical manual theGoetia
• Lore and rituals for the summoning of fairies
• Pages of talismans for various purposes
• One of the oldest known copies of the magical manual The Enchiridion, said to have been given to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III
• Charms for toothache, bleeding, and the capture of thieves
• Headings and words written in cipher, most of which we have managed to decipher
• An account of a mystical brotherhood of magicians that seems to have ties to the conspiracy against the author and playwright Christopher Marlowe