Meddling with the Goëtia again (6)

As I remarked in my endnotes, the compiler of the Goëtia evidently left it up to the Magician to work out which of the four Kings of the Quarters was set over each of the 72 spirits, as an explicit rulership or assignment to a quarter was only given for a few (#1: Bael & #2 Agares — East; #32: Asmoday & #33, Gaäp — Amaymon; Amaymon also mentioned in passing in the entry for #13, Bileth).

The Folger "Offices of the Spirits,"[1] deriving from a somewhat divergent line of the MS. tradition to the version that was published in an incomplete form by Wier, is some help on this count.  It follows on the initial list of 82 spirits (the three chiefs and the four Kings of the quarters are counted in that number), the Queen of the Fairies and seven sisters subject to her (p. 81) with lists of names under the four Kings (some apparently repeated from the first section).  Obviously, there is a less than 100% overlap between this list of names and that in the Goëtia, but a fair few of them match or are similar enough in orthography, description and office that the identification is reasonable.

[1] Folger Shakespeare Library, MS. V.b. 26, "Book of Magic with instructions for invoking spirits," a.k.a. "Theurgia M.S."; images of MS. viewable online here, transcription by Joseph Peterson here, print edition (edited & Latin passages translated by Daniel Harms & Jospeh Peterson, illus. by James R. Clarke) as The Book of Oberon, Llewellyn, 2015.  The "Offices of the Spirits" appears on pp. 73-84 of the MS.

Also someone (17th century or later) wrote numbers next to the names of several of the spirits in the margin of the Folger MS. which appear to be cross-references to their numbers in Scot (which are one less than those in Wier after #3); a note in the same hand and colour next to the entry for Baall reads "According to Scot p: 277 4to 1651."

Under Oriens,[2] King of the East: 

[2] Since Oriens is simply the Latin for "east," this is possibly a euphemism or honorific title rather than the actual name of the ruler. Some versions of the scheme, e.g. in the Key of Solomon versions in Wellcome MS. 4666 (18th c.), Wellcome MS 4659 ("mid-18th century") and La Véritable Magie Noir ("179?," a textually corrupt and woefully incomplete printed edition), have Asmodée or Asmodiel as one of the kings of the quarters instead of Oriens; however in the Trinity, Folger and Wier-Scot-Goëtia Liber Officiorum versions (which disagree on many things), Asmoday consistently appears as one of the subordinate spirits distinct from the four kings, usually subject to Amaymon.  Oriens sometimes appears as Uriens (e.g. in the 16th-century Clavicula Salomonis version in Vadian Slg MS 334, p. 69, which notes the more common reading in the margin).

• Baall = Bael, #1
• Agaros = Agares, #2
• Barbas = Marbas, #5 (Marbas alias Barbas in Wier)
• Star — not in Goëtia (name possibly a copyist error for Scor alias Skor; can render men blind, deaf, and insane; brings money; appears in likeness of a swan; speaks hoarsely)
• Semper — probably Vepar, #42 (Vepar alias Separ in Wier; same powers; the Goëtia spirit appears as a "mermaid" (similis syreni per Wier), as opposed to Semper's "likenes of a mayden").
• Algor — probably Eligos, #15 (Eligor alias Abigor in Wier)
• Seson — possibly Purson (Pursan alias Corsan in Wier), #20 (similar appearance and offices)
• Maxayn — not in Goëtia (teaches virtues of herbs and stones, fast travel, appears as bear with serpent's tail)
• Neophon — not in Goëtia (can tell all things past and future, and all secrets; gives favour of the powerful, appeases enemies, gives dignity & riches, appears as a dog)
• Barbais — probably Barbatos, #8 (similar appearance -- "a wild archer," compare Wier's in signo sagittarii sylvestris, similar offices)
• Amon = Amon, #7
• Suffales — not in Goëtia (starts fights, gives false answers unless strongly constrained, appears as a spark of fire).

Under Amaymon, King of the South:

• Asmoday = Asmoday, #32
• Bileth — Beleth (alias Bileth) is #13 in Goëtia but stated offices are completely different; the Folger Bileth teaches the Liberal Arts & invisbility, and makes consecrations evil & good.
• Astaroth = Astaroth, #29
• Abech — apparently not in Goëtia (teaches "7 sciences" (i.e. the "liberal arts") & all languages, gets friendship, gives true answers, appears like an old king but only head visible)
• Berith = Berith, #28
• Mallapas = Malphas, #39 (same appearance and offices)
• Partas — possibly Foras, #31 (Forras alias Forcas in Wier; similar offices.  The Goëtia spirit appears as "a strong man" (forma viri fortissimi), the Folger spirit as "a wood bear")
• Busin — apparently not in Goëtia (answers all questions, can move dead bodies around and cause spirits to animate them, appears as a fair woman, speaks hoarsely)
• Oze = Osé, #57 (Oze in Wier)
• Pathin — name suggests Bathin, #18, but description & offices completely different (the Folger spirit can make a man wise and tell secrets, appears with 3 heads, a serpent in his hand & a pin of burning iron in his mouth with which he sets fire to things; there are some similarities with #23, Aim (Aym vel Haborym in Wier), who appears with 3 heads, rides a viper, carries a firebrand, can make one witty (ingeniosum), gives true answers of private matters (de abstrusis rebus)  and also sets fire to things)
• Cambra — not in Goëtia (teaches virtues of herbs and stones, tames birds, appears as a swan)
• Gamor — possibly Amy, #58 (name poor match but description and offices very similar).

Under Paimon, King of the West (who himself is #9):

• Belial = Belial, #68
• Bason — possibly Balam, #51 (offices and description similar)
• Gordonsor — apparently not in Goëtia (can tell the truth of all things, mighty in doing errands, appears as angel with a dark face)
• Balath — apparently not in Goëtia (can make men sick & deprive them of senses and wits; teaches liberal arts, gives love and dignity, can carry one from place to place; appears as a "mishappen image")
• Mistalas — possibly Stolas, #36 (same appearance, similar offices).
• Lecher — apparently not in Goëtia (knows secrets of "7 sciences," gets friendship; appears as knight with red lion's face, speaks sadly)
• Sagayne = Zagan, #61
• Caleos — Sallos, #19 (Zaleos in Wier), has a similar description but different offices (Wier omitted this spirit's offices so the compiler of the Goëtia either guessed, made something up, or called up the spirit—said in the Folger list to be very false in all his answers unless well constrained and mastered—and asked).
• Cagyne (or Cogin) — possibly Samigina, or Gamigin, #4 (similar appearance and offices)
• Suchay — not in Goëtia (teaches languages, provides fast travel, gives love of women (widows in particular); appears with a fair face like a woman)
• Reyall — probably Vual, #47 (same form, very similar offices; marginal note in MS. has "65" which correspond's to this spirit's number in Scot's list)
• Zayme — Räum (Raum vel Raym in Wier), #40, has some points of similarity in form and office.

Under Egin, King of the North (with one doubtful exception, these do not appear to be identifiable with spirits in the Goëtia):

• Ozia
• Uriell
• Vsagoo — possibly Vassago, #3, but offices are completely different
• Synoryell
• Fessan
• Goyle
• Auras
• Othey
• Saranyt
• Muryell
• Hinbra (also appears as Umbra due to errors by 17th / 19th / 21st century copyists)
• Anaboth

OK, that's still only about a third of the 72, even counting the more stretched identifications, but it's a start.  No idea why Egin doesn't get any of those in Wier's list.  Anaboth, Mureril, Caleos (also appears as Calchos), and Sonenel, possibly a variant of Synoryell, along with Vassago, Agares and Barbaros (possibly a variant of Barbatos or Barbais), are among a group of twelve spirits cited in treasure-hunting processes in Sloane MS. 3824, (fol. 5v-13r & 89-102).  Also, several of the above (again, with minor variance in the spelling of the names) appear as "Presidentiall Councellors" and "Messengers" of the Kings in Sloane MS. 3824 fol.117v (in fact, that whole section of 3824 has significant derivations from the De Officiis tradition represented by V.b. 26, although the conjurations have been re-written to be Protestant and the description of Egyn has been unaccountably heavily truncated, ending at the description of his nostrils).

OFC, as previously remarked, Wier (and hence Scot and the Goëtia) gives a different set of names of the kings of the quarters; only one name is in common with the traditional set (as per Agrippa, the Folger "Book of Magic," & most of the other Liber Officiorum versions not deriving from Wier that mention them at all), and that name assigned to a different direction, but since Wier (like Waite three centuries later) admitted to deliberately tampering with the text in the hopes of making it unusable, this can probably be safely disregarded.

BL Additional MS. 36674 fol. 65r (transcription by Joseph Peterson here) contains a Liber Officiorum fragment listing 13 spirits (rather, by the looks of it, two fragments nailed together; the first six entries are in Latin and also appear in the Pseudomonarchia; the remaining 7, (3 under Oriens, 2 under Amaymon, 2 under Egin) are in English and appear in the Folger list with variations in names that can be chalked up to copyist errors: Scor (Star), Algor, Sefon (Seson), Partas, Gamal, Umbra (Hinbra), Anaboth.  This fragment, incidentally, was the source of the list of the "Globes of Yog-Sothoth" in the Hay-Turner Necronomicon (an infamous literary-occult hoax of the late 1970s).

A French Liber Officiorum version with 47 spirits (again, counting the three chiefs and kings of the quarters in that number) survives in a manuscript in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge (o.8.29).  Noticed briefly in E.M. Butler's Ritual Magic (p. 36), a detailed study and typeset by J-P Boudet was published in the Spring 2003 issue of Médiévales ("Les who's who démonologiques de la Renaissance et leurs ancêtres médiévaux").  An English translation of the text was included in Pandemonium by Jake Stratton-Kent (Hadean Press, 2016), a study of "spirit catalogues" which cross-references it with the Wier-Scot-Ars Goëtia line, the Folger "Offices of the Spirits" and the Grimoirum Verum (the list of spirits in the GV itself derives at least partially from a Solomonic text in Latin, the De Secretis, which survives in multiple 17th-century MS. versions, but that's a subject for another post).

[The link to view the MS. online at Trinity's own website was throwing errors last I checked.  A PDF of the relevant pages of the MS. can be downloaded from  the "Books of Magic" blog which has a summary of the text.]

A 15th-century manuscript in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Firenze (Plut 89 sup 38) contains a version of the Liber Officiorum in Latin at fol. 303r sqq. (going on the numbers written lightly at the bottom right corners of the pages, which appear to be those used by the website's interafce).  Boudet (op. cit., §25) gives a list which collates spirit names between this version, the Trinity version and Wier, as well as the selection in the "Munich manual of Demonic Magic" (Clm 849).

An earlier part of Plut 89 sup 38 (fol. 47v-51r) gives 100 characters for spirits, but this appears to be independent from the Liber Officiorum version and only a few names are common to both.  They are generally simpler than the elaborate sigils of the Goëtia, and for the few names that appear in both there is little resemblance: compare

with

(Belial, Bilet, Berit, Amon and Paimon are other names shared between the two lists.  There are also characters for the other Kings of the quarters, at the top of fol. 47v.)

[EDIT: that set of characters belongs with a De Officiis variant in Italian which is missing several pages including about 80% of the catalogue of spirits.  What remains of it, begins at fol. 35r.]

While Wellcome MS. 110 (late 16th cent.), which contains some extracts from an "Officium Sprituum" text (Flores extracti de libello qui nuncupatur 'Offitium spirituum') at fol. 32r and 101r on, is available online, it appears to have been very hastily written and I have insufficient experience reading Elizabethan secretary hand to pick out more than a handful of words from the relevant sections.  Joseph Peterson has transcribed the two entries in English from fol. 32r here.

The De Officiis Spirituum version in MS. Coxe 25 (formerly part of the Ritman Library as BPH 114) has not, as far as I am aware, been published or digitised; while it is frequently cited, I am not aware of any studies on it specifically.

One of the studies in the Routledge History of Medieval Magic (2019) mentions that Boudet was, at the time of writing, preparing "an edition of the catalogues of demons, often attributed to Solomon or which make mention at least of the wise king's ability to bind spirits."  (J. Véronèse: "Solomonic Magic").  It has not so far been published to my knowledge.

[EDIT: according to a comment on Dan Harms' blog in 2017, Boudet has been working on this (under the title Les catalogues de démons attribués à Salomon et à saint Cyprien) for over a decade.]

A Hebrew De Officiis Spirituum version is extant in a MS. (dated mid-19th century) in the collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, under the title Sepher Hokhmat Shelomoh (Book of the Wisdom of Solomon).  Description and link to images of manuscript here.  What the linked article doesn't mention, is that the 100 spirits described (including the familiar four Kings of the Quarters, but only one chief infernal spirit, Beelzebuth set over them, although Lucifer appears, twice, further down the list) are the same ones mentioned above which appear in BML Plut 89 sup 38, fol. 47v sqq.  Skimming through the first 20 or so, the names appear to be similar, and were probably transliterated from a Latin list (even in the case of names that were originally of Hebrew etymology, like Beelzebuth, Astarot, &c.) and the seals are mostly recongisable, though not identical.