sprightlymind:

i. A magical miscellany, early 17th century. (MS. e Mus. 173, folios 61v – 62r)
ii. The Rawlinson necromantic manuscript, 15th century. (MS. Rawl. D. 252, fol. 28v)
iii. The Rawlinson necromantic manuscript, 15th century. (MS. Rawl. D. 252, fol. 29r)

A selection of texts from the Bodleian Library’s summer exhibition – Magical Books: From the Middle Ages to Middle-earth.

Although many seventeenth-century magical manuscripts were no longer written in Latin, their authoritative mystique was preserved in the use of complex occult alphabets and mystical symbols. This miscellany contains relatively straightforward instructions of how ‘to see by thy selfe … in a crystall stone’ or ‘get treasure out of the sea’, but it also includes these elaborate magical charms. The circle bottom right wards off violent death ‘by sword and poison’. It is sealed with the spell-word ‘Abracalabra’ [sic] and promises the user ‘Verum est’ (It is true!). (x)