Grimoires date back as far as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but they became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages — until the Catholic Church began targeting them.
Library of CongressAn excerpt from the Picatrix, a Latin translation of an Arabic grimoire from the 11th century.
In musical and film adaptations of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, a pinnacle moment for Elphaba before she turns into the Wicked Witch of the West comes when she is able to read from The Grimmerie. This grimoire, or book of magic, appears as nonsense scrawled on the page for everyone else, but Elphaba can interpret it and perform the spells written inside — for better or for worse.
This is just one of countless pop culture references to grimoires, but these spellbooks have a long and controversial history. They date back to ancient times, when they listed basic incantations for healing illnesses and protecting against evil. But as time went on, they became more complex.
By the Middle Ages, grimoires had expanded to include instructions for making money, creating magical amulets, predicting the future, and even summoning demons. This last bit, in particular, was frowned upon by the Catholic Church, which began banning the books and even targeting those who owned them in the witch trials that plagued Europe during the Renaissance.
Still, despite the centuries of controversy surrounding them, grimoires are used in the modern magic community to this day. Read on to learn more about these fascinating spellbooks.
The History Of Grimoires
The earliest evidence of written magical incantations dates back more than 2,500 years to ancient Mesopotamia. In what’s now Iraq, archaeologists have uncovered cuneiform clay tablets engraved with charms and spells for good health and protection from evil spirits.
Metropolitan Museum of ArtA Babylonian tablet calling upon a deity associated with healing to help an ailing patient who was supposedly attacked by a ghost.
Similar texts from Egypt have also been discovered. The Greek Magical Papyri, which were written between the second century B.C.E. and fifth century C.E., contain everything from folk remedies and love charms to instructions for summoning demons.
Some of the most famous grimoires from ancient times are attributed to King Solomon, a prominent figure in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible who is theorized to have ruled over the Kingdom of Israel from roughly 970 to 931 B.C.E. The Testament of Solomon claims that the king received a magical ring from the archangel Michael that allowed him to control demons. Solomon then commanded the demons to help him build his temple in Jerusalem.
Two other grimoires that appeared much later — likely between the 14th and 17th centuries — also claimed to be written by King Solomon. The Greater Key of Solomon and Lesser Key of Solomon describe how to create magical amulets, summon the spirits of the dead, become invisible, make animal sacrifices, find love, and more.
Public DomainA page from the Greater Key of Solomon showing examples of pentacles, which are drawn “for the purpose of striking terror into the Spirits and reducing them to obedience.”
Historians largely agree that none of these texts were actually written by Solomon — and some believe that the fabled king never really existed at all.
Indeed, during the Middle Ages, it was fairly common for authors to claim that their grimoires were written by other historical figures to make them more credible. Spellbooks attributed to Aristotle, Virgil, Ptolemy, and the biblical figure Simon Magus were published during the Middle Ages, but like the texts said to be written by Solomon, it’s likely that none of them were legitimate.
Perhaps the most famous of these false grimoires was said to be written by Moses himself.
How Magic Spellbooks Were Intertwined With Religion
Historically, magic was closely linked to religion. It was once believed that Jewish people had secret magical knowledge that they learned from Moses.
Public DomainA seal from the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. The grimoire states that carrying this seal with you “will cause you to be very agreeable and much beloved, and will also defeat all your enemies.”
Traditional Christian beliefs attribute the first five books of the Bible to Moses, but around the 18th century, a grimoire called The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses claimed to be lost writings of the prophet himself.
The text included sections called “Healing by Amulets,” “Healing by Charms,” and “Remedies and Charms Against Sorcery.” One part instructed readers to “drink one-eighth ounce of ass’s milk, which is 40 days old” to treat a wasp sting. Another read: “If a man be bitten by a snake, let him take 79 hairs from the tail of a white she-ass, tie them with a silken thread, and he that is bitten sit upon them.”
The book also included information on warding off witches:
“If you meet witches you should utter the following charm: ‘Hot dirt, in perforated baskets, in your mouths, ye enchanting women. May your heads become bald; may the wind blow away your bread crumbs; may it scatter your spices; may the fresh saffron which ye have in your hands fly away.’”
Initially, the Catholic Church wasn’t particularly outspoken about books like these. As Christianity spread across Europe in the early Middle Ages, religious officials divided grimoires into two categories: “natural magic” and “demonic magic.” The books that dealt with natural magic — like astrology, alchemy, and botany — were accepted by religious leaders. These spells and concoctions simply harnessed the powers that God had created.
However, grimoires that dealt with divination, necromancy, or demons were forbidden by the Church. This type of magic was considered to be from the Devil, not from God. During the Inquisition, forces confiscated and burned grimoires. By 1599, the Church had created a list of banned magic books.
Public DomainThe title page of the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which included many banned grimoires.
And when a text called the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum — which listed 69 demons, their attributes, and how to conjure them — was published in the 16th century, the Church authorized the production of several works of exorcism to counteract this Satanic knowledge.
By that point, the introduction of mass printing had made grimoires widespread in Europe. Unfortunately, this coincided with an uptick in witch trials across the continent — and simply possessing a grimoire was enough to be suspected of witchcraft. In Iceland, an estimated one-third of the people who stood trial for witchcraft owned a spellbook of some sort.
But despite centuries of persecution, grimoires still exist to this day.
Modern Spellbooks And Grimoires
Today, many references to grimoires come from pop culture, like The Grimmerie in Wicked or the Necronomicon from the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. However, many people use spellbooks in their own modern magic practices.
The neopagan religion of Wicca, for instance, has the Book of Shadows as one of its most important texts. Wicca was founded in the 1940s by retired civil servant and occultist Gerald Gardner, who claimed a secret coven of witches gave him the information that he later compiled into the grimoire.
Public DomainA 17th-century painting by David Teniers the Younger depicting one witch preparing a potion and another reading from a grimoire.
According to Wicca doctrine, the witches were the last in a line of followers of an ancient fertility religion that had been persecuted by Christian authorities for centuries. This grimoire became cemented in pop culture after it appeared as an important plot point in the popular TV show Charmed.
As such, even nearly 1,000 years of controversy have not been able to suppress these ancient spellbooks and the magic they purportedly hold.
After reading about the history of grimoires, dive into the strange pages of the Voynich Manuscript, the “world’s most mysterious book.” Then, discover the story of Hecate, the Greek deity who served as the patron goddess for witches.