1d54 Grimoires from the grandmasters of European magic, Vol. 2 - The Argentines

Read the first part here.

The Silver Age of Magic (1450 to 1600)

The period in which intrinsic magic started to wane, and magicians turned to middlemen and buffers to do their bidding instead, such as fairy servants.

Why did magic decline is a matter of scholarly debate, and it has not been a single day since magic declined that theoretical magicians haven't debated what happened to it and how we can get it back. Roll 1d8 and get your answer:

1. Magic and the spiritual gifts of God have ceased after the end of the Apostolic Age, when they were not necessary anymore, as posited by John Calvin and other Reformed theologians.

2. Magic is cyclical. There didn't use to be magic in the Ancient world - hence Solomon using servant spirits - then it flourished with the Romans, waned during the Dark Ages, waxed again with the Aureates, and then it waned again in the Silver Age, perhaps in cycles of five to six hundred years. Complex, kabbalistic proofs are offered.

3. The Victorians don't know this yet, but the ages of magic seem to roughly correlate to the Medieval Warm Period and the following Little Ice Age, which implies that, in the future, global warming will bring about a new renaissance of magic.

4. Magic has been taken away by the greatest magician of all so that his Great Spell can be woven. That spell is the return of magic. We cannot hope to understand his or her mind with logic.

5. It has been taken away as a punishment by God for moving away from the breast of the Catholic Church, and the sins committed in its name such as burning all of those innocent women under the guise of witch hunts. The Protestants will never own up to their crime.

6. It hasn't gone away, it's just not called "magic" anymore, but rather "chemistry" and "medicine" and such.

7. It hasn't gone away at all, you're just not looking hard enough for demons to make a pact with.

8. It has been suppressed by the governments of the world once they managed to centralise enough to pull this off. In the Victorian age, this is usually framed as a good thing, as you cannot trust the rabble to even govern by themselves, why would you trust them with the gifts of magic? As more and more people became literate, this proved a necessary measure to preserve order.

1. Collected letters from master Ibn Firruh, Vol. 1, by Muhyi Şâhidî (in Persian)

Translations to Persian by the Ottoman Argentine magician Master Muhyi of the many letters and epistles sent by Ibn Firruh, a Kurdish mujahid who fought in the 3rd Crusade against Richard the Lionheart, under Saladin. The letters are very simple and direct, this first volume focuses on the ones explaining the rituals he would use to calm his mind and steel his heart against fear.

2. The Bondage of Fine Amour, by the 'Lord d'Amour' (in Latin)

A book of bawdy poetry, uncharacteristically written in Latin and under a pseudonym, describing the "sweet pleasures of restricting with a rope" and "surrendering oneself as prisoner to the victor". It also has spells for restricting a lover; scandalously not using gendered language for them.

3. The Fascinating Life of Moses the Engineer, Vol. 1, by Muhyi Şâhidî (in Persian)

Master Muhyi provides a biography of a Jewish engineer from the time of the late Abbasids known as "Moses the Engineer." He practiced magic in an extremely simple and prosaic way, seemingly talking to architecture and bending it to his will as easily as solving a math problem, and facing magic more like a personal craft such as architecture, rather than a lofty art.

This volume focuses on his rise to prominence, as the young engineer publishes a scathing criticism, in Arabic, of the military engineering of the Caliphate, and goes in-depth on how to improve the fortresses.

4. Garden of the Small Minds, by Rabbi Natan'el al-Mansur (in Hebrew)

Rabbi Natan'el studies - in a clearly bemused and incredulous, almost satirical tone - Merkavah magic of an unknown source that supposedly made people dim-witted and "divinely stupid". It seems to have been written as a series of letters to a friend, daring him to believe that there were magicians in his homeland researching such things.

This text currently lies in the private library of professor and theoretical magician Thomas Myers, in London. A meek but brilliant older gentleman who leads a life of intense self-abnegation, studying magic in his estate around Doncaster.

5. Collected letters from master Ibn Firruh, Vol. 2, by Muhyi Şâhidî (in Persian)

The continuation to the translation by the Ottoman Argentine magician Master Muhyi of the many letters and epistles sent by Ibn Firruh. This second volume focuses on the ones Ibn Firruh sent to his nephew on how to become a good fighter and swordsman, how to stop bleedings, and how to speak all different languages - a gift which helped Saladin's spy network in Egypt immensely. Muhyi posits that Ibn Firruh was trained by Djinn, because his training regimen does not resemble anything extant, and goes to great lengths to construct a possible narrative and timeline of Ibn Firruh's life taking this into account.

6. A manual for departure, by Benedetta of Novara (in Latin)

Benedetta records the stories and spells of a mysterious magician referred to only as "Vampa", with little elaboration on who that might be or why Benedetta is recording it, though her abbey found fit to preserve the text in respect to her. It lists a number of strategies - occult, martial and political - for quick escapes. Many are irrelevant, obsolete or enigmatic, but the Manual does include a number of powerful techniques for opening portals.

7. The Fascinating Life of Moses the Engineer, Vol. 2, by Muhyi Şâhidî (in Persian)

The continuation to Master Muhyi's biography of the late Abbasid Jewish engineer known as "Moses the Engineer." This volume focuses on his middle life, the struggles he found in his personal life, and how his interests seemingly turned to rivers and the sea, discussing dams, bridges, and shipbuilding, as well as positing reasons why that would be, though many modern scholars reject all of them.

Master Muhyi's tone seems increasingly impressed and amused with Moses' lack of regard for magic as an art.

8. Guide for stowing away objects which might be undesirable in court, by the 'Lord d'Amour' (in terrible Latin)

A very simple text, rife with grammatical errors, describing spells for shrinking objects for the purposes of sneaking them into court or other places while avoiding detection. The implication seems to be the use of hidden sexual toys in court. There is no author listed except someone - a man, by the way the text is written and his woeful inexperience with female anatomy - named "the Lord d'Amour."

9. The Fascinating Life of Moses the Engineer, Vol. 3, by Muhyi Şâhidî (in Persian)

The final volume of Master Muhyi's biography of the late Abbasid Jewish engineer known as "Moses the Engineer." This volume focuses on Moses' later life as a widower, apparently working on civilian structures and reinforcing them as the power of the Caliphate crumbled around him, and sadly reflecting on how much Moses must have travelled in his later years, never getting to live out his retirement in peace.

Master Muhyi's seems almost wistful for the talent of Moses, posing as evidence at the tail end of his life that he must have been raised by fairies to have such talent. He also seems conflicted on how depressing the story gets with the downfall of the Abbasids, given that it was the Ottomans who helped take them down.

It ends with an extended poetic eulogy. In standard Ottoman fashion, it becomes quite repetitive for emphasis, with Master Muhyi repeating how the Engineer would likely not have appreciated his lofty words and his turning language, but that he should be glorified nonetheless as a humble servant of God.

10. A catalogue of uncharted pleasures, by the 'Lord d'Amour' (in Latin)

The mysterious courtier who names himself only the 'Lord d'Amour' posits that there are some pleasures which are so intense that they can corrupt the laws of the physical world. This text catalogues some of those instances amidst lofty erotica and tales of personal escapades, too specific to be falsified wholesale.

There are no real spells in this book, but the phenomena it records made it fascinating for scholars. Of note, the Latin here seems tinged with French affectations more than the other texts. Some scholars have posited that each of the texts were written by a different 'Lord d'Amour', while others have said that only the "guide for stowing away objects [...]" was, likely written by someone less favoured in court, using the name of someone who was beloved.

11. The Sacred Geometry of God's Universe, annotated by Charles of Luxembourg (in French)

A series of feverish studies on Hildegard of Bingen's concepts of sacred geometry written by Martin of Mainz in the late 14th century. The entire thing culminates on a marvellous spell that apparently allowed the sorcerer to see the laws of natural motion, angles, trajectories, acceleration, force, distance, time, etc. Charles of Luxembourg - a French Renaissance polymath and theoretical magician - marvels and laments at the possibilities of these spells with the hindsight of a scientist. He also expands the spells with some of his own, including instructions on how to inscribe patterns in and around one's eyes that prevent magic from being cast under the sorcerer's gaze. Some scholars posit the implications for the existence of such a spell are staggering, and that perhaps it has never stopped being cast in conjunction with a panopticon-like clairvoyance spell of continental magnitude.

Some say this hypothetical spell is in space, aimed towards Europe and the Americas, which might explain the "strange workings of the Orient".

This book is currently in Paris, in the collection of the gender-bending Italian painter and magician known only by their mononym of "Busoni".

12. Attempt at obtaining the mana, by Rabbi Natan'el al-Mansur (In Hebrew)

The studies of Rabbi Natan'el on ancient Merkavah spells attempting to summon mana, the food that God gave the Hebrews during the Exodus. According to him, all that the spells managed to accomplish was summoning dates; a lengthy diatribe on why the date fruit can't be the mana fills the second half of the book, hinting at lively debates Master al-Mansur must have had with his contemporaries, some accounts of which survive in the historical record.

13. The Instructions, by Charles of Luxembourg (In French)

A long work by Charles of Luxembourg compiling the life and magical career of many French Aureate magicians, especially Belasis. It contains a strange passage recounting how the he once caused the natural components of France - her trees, rocks, weather and so forth - to gratify Charlemagne by a loving declaration of their fealty to him.

It also contains a story about how the Aureate magician Ralph [his second name is blurry and never repeated, sometimes called in literature Ralph the French] had visited Cold Henry some centuries before and negligently left behind him a pair of his boots. Over the years Cold Henry had supposedly developed a guilty dread of being held responsible for the loss of this footwear.

14. The Remarkable Life of Lucy of Basel, Vol. 2, by Benedetta of Novara (in Latin)

The second volume of the life of Swiss mercenary Lucy of Basel. In this volume, Benedetta records the spells that Lucy did to improve her body and become reportedly as strong as many men. Benedetta's fawning tone has been marked as significant by theoretical magicians, which has prompted a minor recurring debate in the scholarship with Protestant magicians bringing this up as clearly a sign that the good abbess was not nearly as saintly as she seemed; and Catholic magicians protecting her image and saying her intentions were entirely pure.

15. Regarding the Meraudian Heresy, by Charles of Luxembourg (in French)

Charles of Luxembourg recounts the life of Meraud, a magician who flourished in Brittany at some time during the 12th century. He (or she, accounts vary) was the first to expound the belief that any person who has been cured, saved or raised to life by magic is no longer subject to the laws of God and His church, but instead is subject to the one who aided him, whether magician or fairy. This belief ran counter to the teachings of the medieval church and Meraud was therefore summoned before the king in Paris, where a council of bishops heard his arguments. He was judged guilty of heresy, tortured, and then exiled. After the sentence had been carried out the unhappy Meraud attempted to walk into the wilderness, where he disappeared.

Charles of Luxembourg adds how relevant and persistent the Meraudian Heresy has been, even though more than one bishop has dedicated many inkpots to proving it wrong.

This is another of the tomes in the bibliophilic Thomas Myers' collection.

16. The Witch of Serbia, by Agrippina Paletskaya (in Russian)

The translation to Russian of a strange book, supposedly a polemic by Byzantine magician and Orthodox monk Gregory of Athos against the "witch of Serbia" from hundreds of years ago, called Boleslava, including spells she supposedly used to curse the weather and the fields with the help of a malevolent fairy. There is no evidence of Boleslava ever existing, and Agrippina speculates on the reasons that Gregory wanted to broadcast these spells. The translation is clearly contemptuous of Gregory of Athos.

17. The Folly of Hugh Torel, by Charles of Luxembourg (in French)

Charles of Luxembourg compiles, in good humour, the efforts of a certain nobleman named Hugh Torel to suppress a fellowship of female magicians in Lyon, of which his own daughter was a part of. Torel's efforts were so near to succeeding at first that the women of the fellowship eventually abandoned their homes and families to live in the forest; and crucially they also obtained the protection of Belasis, a more powerful magician than Torel.

18. An Impertinent Vitulation, by Mustafa Müneccim (in Persian)

A book of magical kitchen-garden techniques and aphrodisiac recipes. Mustafa asserts casually that the rousing liquor called (translated from Turkish) 'Rubywise Ruin', which certain alchemical techniques can brew from flowers, was a favourite of Muhammad al-Ghumari, the magician. If true, this would have raised eyebrows had it been known in his lifetime, in light of his work.

19. Philosiga (Love of Silence), by Agrippina Paletskaya

Another one of Agrippina Paletskaya's translations of Gregory of Athos polemics, this one a transcription of the supposed writings of a desert mother named St. Menodora and her means on how to enforce silence in an area. Originally a polemic against talkative monks in Mt. Athos. Agrippina seems genuinely interested in trying to glean the true St. Menodora from Gregory's writings, and gets progressively more frustrated as it becomes clear that she might have been merely a mouthpiece for Gregory's stories.

This volume can be found in Paris, in the private library of the royal procureur Gaspard Leclair, who is mostly uninterested in magic, but is nonetheless protective of his library.

20. The Remarkable Life of Lucy of Basel, Vol. 1, by Benedetta of Novara (in Latin)

The first volume of the life of Swiss mercenary Lucy of Basel. Benedetta of Novara was a friend of Lucy's; their relationship being much speculated upon. In this volume, Benedetta records the spells that Lucy did to acquire the body of a man.

21. Findings upon the disseccyoun of the bodye of man, by John of Norwich (in Middle English)

A treatise where John of Norwich discusses how to make corpses get up and walk around as if being puppeteered. It also features interesting musings on the end of the golden age of magic, as John of Norwich is one of the first recorded cases of someone noticing that there was a shift taking place, but John seems to have trouble articulating himself.

22. Spells for the expansion of the beaches, by Emanuel toe Boecop (in Middle Dutch)

Practical, prosaic spells, as long as the compliments to the authorities that follow them, for the expansion of the beaches and sand banks, as well as to help shape the sand bank underneath the waves.

23. A Descent of the Shell, by Birgitta Taskomakara (in Latin)

A treatise on eggs, light, and optics by Abbess Taskomakara, dazzlingly illuminated with renderings of the Abbess' visions. This is, most likely, the 'certain vivid book' that Taskomakara once sent to a certain Princess of Sweden which provoked in her 'a dream of eyes' but also caused her to begin to lose her sight (until she stopped trying to read the book). To complete it is a kind of test. Its double thesis, at last, seems to be that the Sun is either an eye or an egg; and so the Second Coming will be either its opening, or its hatching.

24. A faire wood withering, by John of Norwich (in Middle English)

A book chronicling the decline of magic in the 1400's, containing examples of spells which worked in John's youth, but were entirely ineffective at the time of writing. It also has accurate predictions on how magicians may start to ignore experimental magic entirely, and less accurate predictions on how the fabric of society will rip apart once that happens as tyrants take over.

The popularity of John of Norwich's predictions in Britain have waxed and waned over time, famously being quoted in the trial of King Charles I, as well as being a favourite of Thomas Jefferson.

25. The Journals of Birgitta Taskomakare, by herself (in Latin)

The private journals of a Swedish abbess who used magic to bring her dreams to life. At this time, it is said she was an anchorite, walled into one Swedish cathedral which reportedly shone with bright lights at night. It's also peppered with her own meditations on sin, righteousness, and borderline heretical political thoughts on the Kalmar Union.

26. Findings upon the re-quickening of the rattes, by John of Norwich (in Middle English)

John of Norwich perfects his previous work and manages to get the corpses he works with to animate themselves and operate on their own, without the need for any puppeteering.

27. Spells for the young painter, by Emanuel toe Boecop (in Middle Dutch)

A series of little spells that would be useful for a painter - spells for drying paint, for linking different canvases and drawing in many at once, etc. It seems to be directed to a "young painter", likely an adolescent, that Emanuel knew and loved, along with many hopes that she would be a great one. Scholars stipulate it was directed to either his niece or goddaughter, as both were painters and beloved of meneer Boecop.¹

28. Spells to help on the relief in Biesboch, by Emmanuel toe Boecop (in Middle Dutch)

A collection of spells in letters from Emanuel to the leaders of Biesbouch after their area flooded. The spells were intended to reflect saltwater while people worked on rebuilding, sometimes described as erecting invisible seawalls.

29. True account of the Lancastrian war, annotated by Sir Philip Bale (in Early Modern English)

An anonymous account of the magical operations favoured by the House of Lancaster, also identified with the 'Sunset Road'. These operations ultimately led to their victory in the War of the Roses, but are described as 'now debased'. It contains sidebars and annotations by Sir Philip Bale that discredit the entire work, but seem to isolate interesting phrases and tidbits that unknowingly reveal the expertise of the magician who wrote it.

This book can be currently found in London, in the possession of professors Robert Mitchell and Anna Emilia Kemble, both serious academics and lecturers at Cambridge. Mr. Kemble specialises in Anglo-Saxon England, while his Milanese wife, Anna Emilia, is one of the first women to lecture at Cambridge, specialising in Byzantine history.

30. A Child's Treasury of Golden Afternoons, by Emmanuel toe Boecop (in Middle Dutch)

Emanuel's magnum opus, a beautiful book written for a young child. The pages are all animated with illustrations of valiant knights, scary dragons, beautiful princesses, and fair queens. Some say the simplistic tales contained therein reveal deep truths about the universe and the workings of the mind of Boecop.

31. On the language of the birds, by Jelena Barbo (in Latin)

Basically the journals of amateur magician and minor Serbo-Croat noble Jelena Barbo, who managed to finish Jan Strzemię's work and figured out how to use his magic to talk with fish. She was a theoretical magician, however, and so her spells have never been tested.

32. Fundamentals of Scrying, by Sir Philip Bale (in Early Modern English)

A dry textbook collecting many older spells and applying the scientific method to figure out what was the most effective way of scrying. Bale eventually arrives at the conclusion of using a small pool of water.

This is another one of the books in Busoni's collection. The Busoni House is often frequented by their friends, friends of their friends, and other debauched free-spirits. Busoni is more known for their painting and occasional playwrighting than magic, and some say they're at the heart of Paris' artistic and subversive underground, though they appear to have been taken by some nihilistic malaise and has become increasingly recluse.

Some say scrying can be done even in our fallen age, a fact which makes many uncertain and afraid of Busoni.

33. Manual of Operations for His Royal Highness' Tribunal of Magic, by Sir Philip Bale (in Early Modern English)

A series of spells compiled by Sir Philip Bale that could be very useful for the possible tribunal of magic that Henry VIII was considering - and eventually decided against. In particular, spells for summoning a magician or detecting magic.

34. The Adamite Language, Vol. 3, annotated by Jelena Barbo (in Latin and Serbo-Croatian vernacular)

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 didn't manage to figure out how to converse with birds or fish, however, which haunted him to his dying day. This edition is covered in scrawlings in Serbo-Croatian by theoretical magician Jelena Barbo and reveal the process which she used to try and untangle Jan's enigma regarding the birds. She posits that birds speak a dialect more pure and celestial than any, though her thought is clearly influenced by the incipient ideas that would come to influence the scientific method and the Enlightenment.

35. True account of the Lancastrian war, by 'Ms. Red Rose' (in Early Modern English)

An anonymous account of the magical operations favoured by the House of Lancaster, also identified with the 'Sunset Road'. These operations ultimately led to their victory in the War of the Roses, but are described as 'now debased'. Many have debated on its validity.

36. The wars of the walls, by Agrippina Paletskaya (in Greek)

An epic poem written under the pseudonym 'Solipsistos', elliptically describing a war between beasts, weather phenomena, and arcane concepts. It is quite specific about their tactics. Agrippina posits that there are many spells hidden throughout the poem, and that this was originally written by an alchemist in the 1st century. She also goes to great lengths to try and prove that Solipsistos was likely a woman.

37. Carpi's spells for the miner, by Solomon Carpi the Younger (in Hebrew)

A series of treatises by Jewish Sicilian metallurgist and magician Solomon Carpi the Elder, written down by his descendant and theoretical magician named after himself, Solomon Carpi the Younger. It talks about how the Elder Carpi could detect metal ore and veins simply by going into a cave and talking with the spirits enough, as well as his spells to transport them safely (and dryly) to settlements and stockpiles. They're interspersed with gnomic musings on the womb of the earth and the philosophy of removing its naked children and beating them under the open flame for purification. It is unclear if these are the elder or younger Carpi's.

38. Records of the judgement of Egas of Barcelos, by Geraldus of Guimarães (in Latin)

An account and court transcript of the long judgement of the miller Egas of Barcelos, who was accused of devil worship by his neighbours in Portugal. Geraldus, the cleric tasked with investigating it, eventually concludes that Egas somehow found a way to sever himself from his reflection, and now it was haunting the local village. Egas ends up alive by intercession of Geraldus, who writes out both what he believe was the spell used and the spell he himself devised to return things to normality.

39. The Carpi Inscription, by Solomon Carpi the Younger (in Hebrew)

A text which, according to the Younger Carpi, Solomon Carpi the Elder transcribed from a cliff in Genoa, where he famously survived a lightning-strike. He died 7 years later to the day. His bones, according to the Younger Carpi, were hot to the touch. The inscription concerns itself with a vision of heaven, as well as a debate on the true nature of God, though very clearly editorialized by the Younger Carpi, who mentions in the marginalia how the original was basically incomprehensible.

40. Manual for dispelling the Magicks of the perfidious infidels, by Geraldus of Guimarães (in Latin)

Basically a meta-analysis by Geraldus on the state of Muslim enchantments and protections in the taifa of Granada, offering valuable insight on Muslim and Jewish magic from the late Golden Age. One of the most notable spells contained here are the instructions on how to prepare a lamp which, when shined on an enchanted location, liberates it from any magic. This is believed by Geraldus to be of Jewish origin.

41. Travelling in the land of reflections, by Benedetta of Novara (in Latin)

Building on the Records of the judgement of Egas of Barcelos by Geraldus of Guimarães, Benedetta records a series of hypothetical spells that might be used to travel between mirrors. She attributes these to "Vampa" and says it was him who showed them to her. It also features an extended and detailed narrative of this Vampa traveling through the mirrors and the marvelous things he finds there. Scholars have debated on the actual existence of Vampa for centuries.

42. Carpi's minglings, by Solomon Carpi the Younger (in Hebrew)

The metallurgist, kabbalistic scholar, and self-proclaimed 'sky-smith' Solomon Carpi the Elder speaks of 'the sacred alloys', 'the alloys eternal', 'the alloys sufficient', 'the alloys intendant', etc. He describes the voices and powers of mortals and angels based on their composition by analogy to the sounds and strengths of bells based on the metals of their casting. He also warns that the mingling of metals of 'too great a nobility' can produce 'the alloys incestuous'. The younger Carpi, his distant descendant, muses on what might he have meant by this.

43. Letters from John of Norwich to the Right Honourable Governor of Norwich (in Middle English)

A series of correspondences between John of Norwich and the governor of Norwich regarding the possible disappearance of children from the city, as well as the court transcripts from his testimony and eventual absolution, compiled for posterity by a minor clerk of the exchequer named Thomas. Within its pages, John of Norwich carefully and impatiently explains each of the spells he used to repel anyone from coming near his house, and proves scientifically how these spells would be unable to affect the aforementioned children. Historians still debate on whether he was truly guilty or not.

44. An Almanac of Entrances, by Margaret Elisabeth of Solms-Sonnewalde (in German)

Theoretical magician Margaret Elisabeth gives a meta-study from many sources she had at hand - most of them now lost - on the topic of entrances and passages to other worlds and lands, such as Fairy, Hell, and other such places. It seems almost impossible to locate the places she talks about nowadays because she didn't have a very strong grip or interest on geography and constantly fudges distances, glossing over such 'petty matters' to discuss the lofty art of magic.

45. OGHKOR OGHKOR TISSILAK OGHKOR, by The Excellency Gnothobasis (in Venetian)

A surprisingly chatty text that seems to be almost entirely nonsensical, with the Excellency Gnathobasis (the only identified author) explaining the 'limbs and extensions' of potent and dangerous 'glyphic achievements'. The sentences are nonsense on first reading, but quickly acquire an insistent meaning on each repetition. It turns out to be a very strange, but interesting book on magical patterns, repetitions, and reincidences; no spell seems to be written, but it could take a lifetime to disentangle the entirety of OOTO.

46. On the customs of vellum of the Chinese, by Meletius Magus (in Russian)

Supposedly a translation by the Russian priest and magician Meletius Magus from a Chinese book that describes a "form of vellum" (Meletius didn't know what paper was) which, if affixed to the forehead of a person, seals their mind away and turns them into unthinking creatures until the 'vellum' is removed. It also features a lengthy fictional story about how, in China, these are used for ruling over their 'placid subjects', and discussions on the natural servility of the Tatar - with which Meletius associates them.

47. OGHKOR OGHKOR TISSILAK OGHKOR [Fake], by the Pseudo-Excellency Gnothobasis (in Venetian)

A surprisingly chatty text that is entirely nonsensical, with the Excellency Gnathobasis (the only identified author) explaining nonsense as the 'limbs and extensions' of potent and dangerous 'glyphic achievements'. This seems to be some kind of Early Modern work of comedy, or perhaps a hoax.

48. The Gospel of Zacchaeus, by himself (in Hebrew)

An extremely heterodox and ancient account of the Nazarene Messiah and his works, as written down by a man identified only as Zacchaeus and clearly pulling quite a bit from the Book of Enoch. It describes Jesus ascending through opening wounds in his own body, and says that the resurrection of the dead can actually be accomplished in this earth, providing a rite for such. The unidentified marginalia, also in Hebrew, says that the rite does not seem to work anymore. This was probably transcribed by an unidentified Argentine Jewish scholar.

49. The Life of St. Albrecht, by Beatrice von Rapperswil (in Latin)

A relatively amateurish work of literature describing the saint and ancestor of the author, Lady Beatrice, a noble, without much deviation from established medieval patterns. Of interest, however, are the marginalias. Beatrice seems to have been using the work on the book as a sort of journal, recording her thoughts, feelings, misgivings, and even a spell which she supposedly found inscribed in the wall of her house. It was a spell cursing the place, and she records her counterspell, and how her husband insisted on removing it. Beatrice finishes it by saying her husband had no time to regret his stubbornness, as he died falling down the stairs of their manor.

50. The Tree of Learning, by Gregory Absalom (in Early Modern English)

The Tree of Learning was written by the late-Argentine (or sometimes early Saturnine) magician Gregory Absalom. Its most famous passage - the subject of much learned conjecture among theoretical magicians for many years - concerns a visit made by Dr. Chambers to the fairy prince Cold Henry, and a conversation between the two of them, apparently at cross purposes: Cold Henry seems to be making an apologetic speech deprecating the natural wickedness of his race, to which Chambers makes the enigmatic answer that not all Englishmen have the same sized feet. A great many theories were advanced to interpret this strange passage, the most generally satisfactory explanation being offered by William Pantler, who believed it to have a theological basis.

51. The Many Deaths of Man, by al-Murahhal (in Arabic)

A tract on various forms of survival after death. It includes a brief discussion on ghosts, but it also talks about how certain corpses sometimes get up and walk around, these being revenants. Al-Murahhal's method of dealing with the revenant body is by using the remains of its human corpse. If it was not buried in a graveyard, it can be banished by digging up the body, carrying it across a graveyard wall (rather than through the gate), and burying it in consecrated ground. If the body has already been buried in a graveyard, it must be dug up again, carried across the wall three times, and reburied with the shovels with which the grave was dug. Another way is to burn the dead body, which al-Murahhal discourages as haram.

52. The Book of the Clean Skull, by al-Murahhal (in Arabic)

A discussion and accounts of enlightenment methods available through the gradual, surgical removal of the lobes of the brain.

53. On the Subject of Magical Languages, by Dr. William Chamber (in Latin)

A work by Dr. William Chamber which treats of the various languages used in magic, including the Fairy tongue. Dr. Chamber concluded the latter was connected with the ancient Celtic languages of the British Isles.

54. Eighteen Wonders to be found in the House of Albion, by Francis Moore (in Early Modern English)

The title of the only extant work by the 16th century Argentine magician Francis Moore, a respected follower of Dr. William Chamber. Little about Moore is known for certain - not even his sex, which was first called into question in 1794 after a number of previously unknown love letters by Chamber were found, with some arguing that the late Dr. William Chamber could only gay for he would never teach a woman (or she would never be able to learn), and others claiming this absolutely could not be the case.

Either way, the book itself is a discussion of the Welsh treasures that might still be extant, ultimately concluding that they shall all be found sooner rather than later.

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#gameable content #the grand tour