An Excellent Book of Necromancy: Introducing a
Sixteenth-century Handbook of Magic, An Illustrated
Lecture with Al Cummins


Date: October 19, 2017
Time: 7pm
Admission: $10
Location: Witch House
310 1/2 Essex Street Salem, Ma

The Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magick and its
attendant Visions are two historically underappreciated
documents of English necromancy. The former is a
sixteenth-century handbook concerning the summoning
of (mainly demonic) spirits and the ghosts of dead
magicians. The latter manuscript is a record of the
visions and instructions given by these spirits (along with
angels, saints, and even King Solomon himself) that
made up the Excellent Booke itself. Details of early
modern conjuration not often explored are laid bare in
these behind-the-scenes records of writing a grimoire. 
Together these texts offer unique insights, both for
historians and practitioners.

Dr. Alexander Cummins is an historian, poet, and diviner. 
His first book, The Starry Rubric: Seventeenth-century
English Astrology and Magic was released through
Hadean Press in 2012, and he has authored articles on
topics ranging from millenarianism, to the material history
of amulets, to herbs in the grimoires, to the occult history
and philosophy of the cut-up technique. Al curates an
archive of scanned textswww.grimoiresontape.tumblr.com
and can be found at
www.alexander-cummins.squarespace.com