Key of Solomon: King Solomon's grimoire

The Key of Solomon, in Latin Clavis Salomonis or Clavicula Salomonis, Hebrew Mafteah Shelomoh, is a grimoire, or book on magic, attributed to King Solomon, probably dating to the 14th to 15th century Italian Renaissance and presenting a typical example of Renaissance magic.

It is possible that the Key of Solomon inspired later works, particularly the 17th century grimoire also known as Clavicula Salomonis or "The Lesser Key of Solomon", although there are many differences between the books.

Manuscripts and textual history

The text dates to the Late Middle Ages or the Italian Renaissance. Many such grimoires attributed to King Solomon were written in this period, ultimately influenced by earlier (High Medieval) works of Jewish kabbalists and Arab alchemists, which in turn hark back to Greco-Roman magic of Late Antiquity.

Several versions of the Key of Solomon exist, in various translations, and with minor or significant differences. The archetype was likely a Latin or Italian text dating to the 14th or 15th century.[1] Most extant manuscripts date to the late 16th, 17th or 18th centuries, but there is an early Greek manuscript, dating to the 15th century (Harleian MS. 5596) closely associated with the text. The Greek manuscript is referred to as The Magical Treatise of Solomon, and was published by Armand Delatte in Anecdota Atheniensia (Liége, 1927, pp. 397-445.) Its contents are very similar to the Clavicula, and it may in fact be the prototype on which the Italian or Latin text was based.

An important Italian manuscript is Bodleian Library Michael MS 276. An early Latin text survives in printed form, dated to ca. 1600 (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Library, Special Collections). There is a number of later (17th century) Latin manuscripts. One of the oldest extant manuscripts (besides Harleian 5596) is a text in English translation, entitled The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian and dated to 1572. There are a number of French manuscripts, all dated to the 18th century, with the exception of one dated to 1641 (P1641, ed. Dumas, 1980).

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