The Grimoire or Book of Spells of Pope Honorius - The Society of Esoteric Endeavour. This book is a  Numbered limited edition of only 65 copies of which, this is No. 17.  204pp of which 98pp have text or illustrations, the blank pages of the original manuscript being reproduced. Fine Condition.

This is a facsimile of the manuscript belonging to F.G Irwin, a member of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, The Society of Eight, the Fratres Lucis and the Golden Dawn. He was an important figure in 19th Century British occult world. His ownership of the original 19th Century manuscript is confirmed by the presence of his bookplate. The manuscript is variant to any published. Whilst some diagrams generally present are not included, there are other illustrations that are unique and appear nowhere else. The manuscript has an ornately decorated coloured title page and occasional coloured embellishments, all faithfully reproduced.

The nature of the facsimile is unusual. The original manuscript had been bound into a book. This was disbound and each individual sheet was reproduced onto pure cotton paper - including the blanks and the slight foxing that affect them, these, too, have been reproduced. The original was written and then bound and trimmed with occasional unobtrusive loss of borders. This too has been reproduced. The sheets have been hand sewn, copying the arrangements of the signatures in the original and the book block has been cased in a quarter Moroccan goatskin binding and traditional bookcloth. The boards are bevelled and there is a leather label title gilt blocked with twenty three and a half carat gold leaf. The edges of the label are embedded into the board. The pastedowns and flypaper are of hand marbled paper by Cockerills - one of the most respected practitioners of this highly skilled book art. The bookplate of F.G Irwin has been reproduced and that is also tipped in.

The text is in two parts. The first is a Grimoire written in 17th Century France and spuriously attributed to the much earlier Pope. The second part of the Grimoire is very different being a collection of spells that are clearly drawn from various sources, two being named individuals. One, though attributed to a minister, is a very brief spell to obtain your desires involving a psychoactive dose of nutmeg and unfamiliar words of power, one being a name for faeries. The other named source, described as a respected practitioner of healing through occult means, provides a series of rituals invoking Christian powers for the exorcising of livestock and property which pay heed to the movement of the sun through the heavens. This is clearly a true record of folk magical practice. This is a record of authentic folk magical practice recording the actual spells of cunning men and witches. £600