Enchiridion Leonis Papae
Translated, edited, and introduced by Paul Summers Young.
When Marie Bosse was arrested in Paris, in January 1679, among her possessions was a copy of an unusual magical text. The Enchiridion Leonis Papae — Pope Leo's Handbook — has since acquired notoriety as a work of 'black magic', largely due to its association with the subsequent 'Affair of the Poisons', and the aura it acquired among 19th-century occult revivalists.
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Black Letter Press
Hardcover bound in yellow Assuan Cloth, Measures 100x160 mm, 120 gram black Endpapers, Printed on 115 g wood free, age resistant Cream paper, Sewn book block, Black ribbon marker and Headbands, Gilded on the front.
1st Edition, Limited to 333 hand-numbered copies.
About the Publisher
Black Letter Press is a small independent publisher located close to Hannover in Northern Germany, founded by Alice and Claudio Rocchetti in 2018 in Turin, with the publication of Giambattista della Porta's Natural Magick.
BLP specializes in the revival of rare and antique books on a broad range of topics, including the sciences and history of science, poetry, occult philosophy, art, curious and unusual literature, and more.
Our mission is to do these historical texts justice, publishing books that are fine and beautiful, yet remaining affordable and accessible.
Description
When Marie Bosse was arrested in Paris, in January 1679, among her possessions was a copy of an unusual magical text. The Enchiridion Leonis Papae — Pope Leo's Handbook — has since acquired notoriety as a work of 'black magic', largely due to its association with the subsequent 'Affair of the Poisons', and the aura it acquired among 19th-century occult revivalists.
The earliest extant text of 1633 is a clerical handbook belonging to the same genre as the 1614 Rituale Romanum, to which is appended material that would come to distinguish the Bibliothèque bleue grimoires; a blend of folk belief and Church tradition which blurs the line between orthodox religious praxis and sorcery.
Our new edition is translated into Modern English from the French and Latin of the 1633; it presents the various prayers, exorcisms and invocations in Latin and English, and includes new rubrics illuminating how the text would have been employed by a clerical or lay practitioner of the day.
