1d22 Grimoires from the grandmasters of European magic, Vol. 1 - The Aureates
Very few texts of magic survive from before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Little votive tablets and prayer bowls, mainly, but their systemic knowledge has been lost to time and is the domain of Historians, rather than Theoretical Magicians.
The Golden Age of Magic (800 to 1450)
The period in which magic was the strongest in Europe and the Middle East. Aureate magicians uniformly didn't write very much, apparently being much more concerned with having fairy servants and a holistic understanding of magic. What they did write doesn't survive today, mostly being recorded by the Argentines. This era is said to start earlier in the Near East and with the Jewish intellectuals of Al-Andalus, but many papers say there were many magical texts from the Carolingian Renaissance that simply have not survived to the modern day. Regardless, these are the extant texts:
1. On Dams and Bridges, by Moses the Engineer (in Arabic)
A very dry and practical text discussing the construction of dams and bridges, with very incidental mentions of spells to prevent the water from moving. Moses also indicts magicians who use magic to build bridges, as they are usually shoddy.
2. On the treatment of wounds greater and minor, by Ibn Barun (in Arabic)
One of Ibn Barun's treatises on medicine, which made him famed in Iberia. It draws strongly from Aristotle, giving interesting insight into very advanced concepts for the period. Of interest to a magician, however, is the discussion on the spirits of the dead who have not yet found peace. Ibn Barun describes how their invisible presence might be known by sudden drops in temperature, strange noises, and flames turning blue. He says that the way to permanently banish these beings is to talk to them and discover what keeps them in this world, but also mentions that some of them are anchored to this world by a specific object that may be destroyed to banish the ghost.
3. The Adamite Language, Vol. 1, by Jan StrzemiÄ™ (in Latin)
A long glossary and linguistics book which purports to teach the language of Creation, by a Bohemian anchorite. The first volume discusses how to use the Adamite Language to talk to the stones, rivers, and other natural features. Jan seems unaware that he was using magic to do this.
4. Dialogues with master Alfasi on his past adventures, by Ibn Barun (in Arabic)
A strange book, uncharacteristic for magicians of the period. It is written as a Socratic dialogue between Ibn Barun and his master, Rabbi Haim Yosef Alfasi, even though it iss dated to after the death of Rabbi Haim. Stranger still, it discusses Rabbi Haim's life in borderline folkloric tones, talking about his grand voyages to Basra, India, China, and even farther places. It also contains a discussion on the evil of the women of the sea who sing to attract sailors to the watery depths.
Rabbi Haim says that he protected himself from the song's spell by touching a nearby knob made of iron, and that they demand offerings, but that if someone throws the wrong thing overboard, they'll meet the Great Creature. The writing becomes a bit incomprehensible in this patch.
5. On the maintenance of buildings, by Moses the Engineer (in Arabic)
Another dry and short textbook on maintaining civilian buildings and mending them. Moses seems to write it as a masterpiece from a master guildsman, rather than as a magician normally does.
6. In The Mountains As Upon The Plain There May Not Be A Path Where None Has Passed, by The Master of Doncaster (in Latin)
A book whose author has been lost to time - indeed, no one is entirely sure if the Master of Doncaster is a single man or many different people. It discusses the secrets to be found in the mountains, and how certain mysterious beings convene at their tops to hold court and discuss, and how the Master went invisible to listen upon their talk. The actual transcriptions of the conversations are incomprehensible, but reading them always fills a person's head with ideas, inexplicably.
7. The Seven Faces of Icarus, by Abbot Roaring Richard (in Latin)
The last Abbot of St Brandan's, called 'Roaring Richard', set down his conversations with the illiterate local cunning-man and almost certainly a fairy, Red William.
Red William describes the seven forms in which he 'goes about and under the world' - viper, cat, fox, eagle, dove, boar and crow. According to Abbot Richard, each of Red William's forms is closer to the sun, and is increasingly 'winged with virtue'. Richard draws an analogy with the waxen wings of Icarus: hypocrisy and false virtue will melt before the sun's heat, and so sincerity and untrammelled expression of the Self are the utmost piety. It's worth noting that only a year or two after Richard wrote this book, the local bishop was so appalled by the debaucheries of the monks of St Brandan's that he recommended the monastery's immediate dissolution.
8. The Adamite Language, Vol. 2, by Jan StrzemiÄ™ (in Latin)
The second volume discusses how to use the Adamite Language to talk to plants and their fruits. The magic gets even more sophisticated here as he establishes conditional clauses, and has thus been used ever since as a support text.
9. King Solomon's Ring, by Rabbi Haim Yosef Alfasi (in Hebrew)
The culmination of Rabbi Haim's studies, who claims to have travelled and found the writings of King Solomon, and was able to obtain the same enchantment to summon and control spirits. The veracity of that assertion is widely disputed, but the spells did work according to secondary sources.
10. Regarding the kratt and how to control it, by Master Balthasar (in Latin)
A treatise by a learned scholar from Danish Livonia on the customs of the peasantry. Among the studies, winding descriptions of agricultural practices, and sermons, lies a few spells of animating household implements to help with work around the house. Balthasar emphasizes, however, that these should only be shared with widows and others that couldn't work for themselves, as the Kratt resulted may be dangerous. It also features a ritual recipe that may even work without magic, though Balthasar does not replicate it in the book as it involved either horse or human sacrifice.
11. The Book of the Lady Alice of Chester, by herself (Latin)
The book presents a very typical English medieval view of magic - that it is closely associated with nature, and that it is not something which humans can ever entirely control, but can comply with with the help of fairies. It is superbly written and full of insights, as well as strongly tying magic to the medieval conception of the world. This is one of the few extant books written by an European Aureate. Later, Dr. William Chambers would claim to have been taught by Alice of Chester.
12. On the highest of emotions, by Muhammad al-Ghumari (in Arabic)
A collection of poetry about love directed to the poet's own wives. Hidden in the poems are spells to link souls together in a sort of magical matrimony.
13. To those who won't need it anymore, by Luca Morisco (in Ligurian)
A series of darkly comedic poems by the Genoese statesman and man of letters Luca Morisco, describing the dilapidation of the houses left by the dead of the Black Plague. Casually mentioned in a few of them are spells for unjamming and unlocking padlocks, glue, and any other kinds of measures that were used to hide wealth. It also describes how to train a dog to sniff out gold, and a series of bawdy jokes.
14. Treatise on the fortresses of the Caliphate, by Moses the Engineer (in Arabic)
A long indictment of the military engineering in the Caliphate at the time of the magician, featuring all his criticisms and some spells to improve the materials and walls, as well as advising against using magic for building.
15. Failed spells on summoning the fire-spirit, by Rabbi Haim Yosef Alfasi (in Hebrew)
Rabbi Haim's failed spells on summoning Djinn. Unfortunately all that he managed to accomplish was making fires grow bigger and expand the desert.
16. The Adamite Language, Vol. 3, by Jan StrzemiÄ™ (in Latin)
A long glossary and linguistics book which purports to teach the language of Creation. The first volume discusses how to use the Adamite Language to talk to the animals, replicating the miracle of St. Francis, which was Jan's ultimate goal. He did not manage to figure out how to converse with birds or fish, however, which haunted him to his dying day.
17. Dialogues with master Alfasi on controlling the Djinn, by Ibn Barun (in Arabic)
A series of dialogues and teachings between Ibn Barun and his master. This is also the moment scholars accept that Ibn Barun comes into his own, with spells to diminish the power of the spirits, but also to fight disease.
18. Spells to save the person of Nicholas of Basel, by Martin of Mainz (in High German)
Recounts the narrative and attempts by Martin of Mainz to try and create spells that could transfer the wounds received by a body to another so that he could sacrifice himself to save his master, Nicholas of Basel. It was never used, as Martin was caught and killed before his master.
This edition features a lengthy introduction by Abbess Benedetta of Novara on how Martin must not be taken as a symbol of anything except a lunatic heretic, willing to die for his cause.
19. Treatise on Djinn According to Rabbi Avner ben Avraham, by Rabbi Haim Yosef Alfasi (in Hebrew)
A study by Rabbi Haim on the proper rituals to receive Djinn and desert spirits peacefully, without offending them, as seen in the Merkavah mysticism of Rabbi Avner ben Avraham.
20. Sermons on the rightful thought, by Martin of Mainz (in High German)
A series of sermons by Nicholas of Basel written down by Martin of Mainz, who recognised that - either purposefully or not - his mentor was using magic to prevent his followers of having any other thought and enhance their focus. This edition was saved from a fire by Benedetta of Novara and features her signature marginalia.
21. Exchanging hearts, by Rabbi Haim Yosef Alfasi (in Hebrew)
A long and difficult ritual spell on how to switch the souls of two people. Some say that Rabbi Haim never died, but simply started hopping from body to body, still out there somewhere.
22. The Sacred Geometry of God's Universe, by Martin of Mainz (in High German)
A series of feverish studies on Hildegard of Bingen's concepts of sacred geometry. The entire thing culminates on a marvelous spell that apparently allowed the sorcerer to see the laws of natural motion, angles, trajectories, acceleration, force, distance, time, etc.
Martin of Mainz was apparently too inept to explore the full consequences of what he had uncovered, and the epilogue by Abbess Benedetta of Novara discusses how no one should ever cast those spells. This edition was part of Charles of Luxembourg's personal library, somehow the book ended up in his family's possession.
Read volume 2 here.