THE SIXTH & SEVENTH BOOKS OF MOSES, OR MOSES' MAGICAL SPIRIT ART - KNOWN AS THE WONDERFUL ARTS OF THE OLD WISE HEBREWS, TAKEN FROM THE MOSAIC BOOKS OF THE CABALA AND THE TALMUD, FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND
Book Details + Condition: No publisher or printing information present. Hardcover with tan textured cloth and bright black title (etc) and design to front cover. 190 pages. Very rare original hardcover edition from 1880, of the famous grimoire. With b&w illustrations. Book is in very good condition, with firm binding; light shelf wear to covers, with a bit of age-darkening; toned pages; approximately 13 pp with pink and black underlining. The book was a combination of various esoteric Hebrew texts including the Grimoire of Turiel. Many manuscripts and printed pamphlet versions circulated in Germany in the 1800s, and an English translation by Johann Scheible first appeared in New York in 1880 and was produced by Egyptian Publishing. It was published in both hardcover and softcover formats. Initially the cheaper softcovers sold more quickly, and efforts were made to produce more of them. The first hardcover (this copy) was frugally designed with only black ink and a plain beige cover. As the text's popularity grew, more hardcover editions were introduced with colorful boards and silver / gold gilt decorations. The famous occult publisher L.W. de Laurence later mass-produced the work in 1914. This edition is very rare: it pre-dates the later hardcover De Laurence editions.
Despite the text being of relatively recent origin - most scholars suggest it first began to appear in manuscript form in the 18th century - The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is arguably one of the most influential of all the grimoires. It contains a series of magical incantations, spells and seals purportedly from the lost magical Books of the Biblical prophet Moses. The work apparently originated in Germany and then spread to America via the Pennsylvania Dutch, and their "pow-wow" books. It began to appear in print in the late nineteenth century, and became popular in the African American South and also in the Caribbean, and West Africa, making its mark on the Hoodoo, Rastafarian, and various African religious movements, as well as on European and American occultists.
