My head hurts.

So, I've been going over the Longobardus and Invocation of Angels texts, mainly in preparation for the next updated release of the latter, and decided to run a more detailed comparison of the Sloane 3821 text of "A Select Treatise" with the fragment in Sloane 3825.  So here's the thing:

* The opening of the conjuration of Agiel in 3825 (fol. 99r, v) is with one or two exceptions (e.g. it has "art" for "are" at one point) word for word (i.e., differing on spelling, capitalisation and punctuation) identical to that in 3821.

* The fragment in 3824 (fol. 37r), which was part of the above (handwriting is the same and the page numbering and text continues directly from where the 3825 copy breaks off) until Ashmole detached the sheet on which it was written from the rest of that book and appended it to his "Longobardus" notebook, deviates significantly from the 3821 text before trailing off.

3824: "[…] same to transmit your true & reall presence, Corporally, in your Appearances plainly & Visibly, to the Sight of our Eyes, & Voyces to our Ears, that We may also as plainly & Visible see you & Audibly here you, speake unto us: or otherwise to Appear out of the same Visibly here before us, as it shall please God & you his Servants, or Servants as Messagers of his paterniall grace, & mercy, Seemeth Most Meet, proper, pertinent, or best befitting this action, Appearance, Occasion or Matters &c."

3821: "[…] same to transmit youre true and reale preasance In splended Appearance plainely unto the sight of our Eyes uter your voyces unto our Eares that we may not only visible see you but audibly heare you speake unto us and that we may Convers with you or otherwise forthwith Appeare out of them visibly upon this Table or ffairely upon the flore and shew plainely & visibly unto us A Suffitient signe or teste of youre Coming and Appearance" [&c. &c. &c.]

This almost suggests that the introduction, description of Agiel and the opening of the conjuration was written by one writer: that either the original writer left it unfinished, or whoever was copying it after the 3825 Janua gave up a short way into the conjuration of Agiel, and that the work was subsequently completed by someone else based on that copy after Ashmole detached one sheet.

On the Invocation of Angels

On the Invocation of Angels: A collection of 17th-century works on Angel Magic.  

Comprising:

• Janua Magica Reserata: invocations of the nine orders of the pseudo-Dionysian celestial hierarchy, with a lengthy theoretical preface mostly cribbed from Agrippa.
• Clavicula Tabularum Enochi: invocations of the angels of Dee & Kelly's Table of the Earth or "Tables of Enoch" based on T&FR and the author's imagination.
• The Operations of the Angles of the Air: conjurations of the Demons Kings of the quarters and their subordinates, deriving from the Solomonic Liber Officiorum tradition; supplemented by related material from Sloane MS. 3824 and the Folger "Book of Magic."
• Celestial Confirmations of Terrestrial Observations: invocations of the planetary archangels, possibly for the purpose of talisman consecration.
• A Select Treatise as it was first discovered to the Egyptian Magi (conjurations of the planetary Intelligences from Book II of De occulta philosophia).
• And, as a "bonus tract," the (as far as I am aware) previously unpublished treasure-hunting conjuration from Sloane 3677 that starts off as a ghost story involving one James Knuckles.

Includes bibliography and nearly 500 remorselessly pedantic footnotes.  Could use further proof reading, polish, and a proper general introduction, but primary key-entry on the main texts is now complete, with certain caveats.  Some of these texts have been typeset before, others to my knowledge haven't been, although the images I was using have been circulating online for a while.

A few months ago I described this as being in "vague wish list" territory owing to issues with my source materials.  I may have over-stated that, and in any case found work-arounds for most of them, although if I ever actually get hold of decent images of the MSS. this will get a working-over.

Lack of progress report 2021.12.25

Primary key-entry on "A Select Treatise" is now done: a draft of this section has been uploaded to Scribd.

I'm now getting more doubtful as to whether this was actually by the author of the Janua Magica Reserata instead of having been written by someone else in imitation of it.  Leaving aside vagaries of spelling in the Sloane 3821 copy, which can be chalked up to the copyist, generally grammar is worse, sentence structure frequently broken and the conjurations have a jarring shift in the tone adopted towards the spirits addressed: the opening refers them as "blessed," "dignified" and "Angelicall," but near the end they are threatened (spelling modernised):

[...] visibly show thyself at this very minute, as you will answer the contrary, being high misdemeanour, at your peril, before Him who shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world by fire: Fiat, Fiat, Fiat.

... which kind of language is not used in the Janua, Clavicula Tabularum Enochi, "Celestial Confirmations," nor even the "Operations of the Angles of the Air" to the demon kings and their subordinates: it's more normally associated with spirits of dubious or mixed nature or explicitly referred to as "fallen."

EDIT: Actually, a similar phrase, "Come away as you will answer the contrary upon the highest of Misdemeanor, to your principle King and Governor," does appear in the "Tenth Key" of the Janua in Sloane 3825 (fol. 96r), addressed to the glorious, great sacred celestial Angel Substitute Name (assuming that's what the abbreviation used in the MS. means) of the Choir of Blessed Souls: but that "Tenth Key" was not part of the original work (it is in a radically different style to the other nine, the copy in 3825 is in different handwriting and written in, somewhat cramped, on a single page between the original end of the Janua and the start of the next text).  Indeed, the "Tenth Key" is stylistically closer to the conjurations of "A Select Treatise" than either is to the Janua or Clavicula Tabularum Enochi, and both cite Ogim Osi as an apparent divine name, which (at least with that orthography) appears to be otherwise practically unknown (the only Google hits for it in such a context are for (a) pirated copies of Keys to the Gateway of Magic, Skinner & Rankine's typeset of the Janua and (b) a modern ritual for the planetary Intelligences, which itself seems to derive directly or indirectly from "A Select Treatise").

Further, the descriptions of the Intelligences, as well as the texts of the conjurations, make explicit references to technical astrological considerations, implying that they should be called when their planet is "both essentially and accidentally well dignified and fortified," whereas by contrast the planetary invocations of "Celestial Confirmations" simply refer to the planetary "day and hour" system which is largely a dodge for avoiding the hassle of calculating aspects, dignities and the like.

* * *

I would caution people that @dancingstar93 on Twitter is not me, but (a) that handle's owner does not seem to have actually done anything with it since creating the account in 2012 and (b) I doubt anyone who saw their profile and knows me either IRL or online would have made the mistake anyway.

Lack of progress report 2021.12.02

Latest tweaks and edits to the Mathers-Crowley Goëtia have been uploaded, incorporating material based on the recent post.

The conjurations of "Celestial Confirmations of Terrestrial Observations," one of the "Invocation of Angels" texts from the Sommers / Jekyll / Sloane collection (BL Sloane MS. 3821 fol. 166-177) that AFAIK hasn't been published yet, have been keyed; unfortunately the rubric (including about 7 lines of text at the start and an uncertain amount at the end) is completely unreadable in the copy I'm working from and so working out the actual purpose and intended method of working of the thing is largely a matter of guesswork.  These texts include substantial amounts of phrasing near-verbatim from the "Celestial Keys" of the Janua Magica Reserata and were credibly of the same authorship, also they do not appear to be based around evocation to crystal: rather, the intent seems to be to call on the planetary Angels to "dignify and give full effectual power, virtue, force and influence" to a talisman or some other material basis.   

The section on the Demon Kings from 3821 (fol. 158-165, 178-187) has also been typed, but needs to be properly collated with the corresponding material in Sloane 3824 (which is somewhere above and close to it in the stemma) and the Folger "Book of Magic" which while nearly a century earlier belongs to the same tradition and has much material that was either redacted out or omitted by accident (e.g. most of the description of Egyn).  

The other unpublished text from that group, "A Select Treatise as it was first discovered to the Egyptian Magi" (conjurations of the Planetary Intelligences from Agrippa: Sloane 3821 fol. 205-225, a fragment also appears in Sloane 3825 immediately following Janua Magica Reserata, but the bulk of that copy got detached prior to the Janua being bound up with the Lemegeton), hardly anything has been done on.  (EDIT: have now keyed the introduction and the conjuration of Agiel.)

[EDIT: in fact, the Sloane 3825 copy of "A Select Treatise" was never finished: the sheet that was detatched prior to the Lemegeton being bound up with it is still extant and was attached to the "Longobardus" notebook by Ashmole: the continuation trails off after half a page.]

Also did a bit more of "Practice of the Tables" (keyed all of "Practice of the East Table,"--the West, North and South sections are pretty much the same with the names changed, and some of the conjurations of ORO from the second and third set), but this one is out there already, and also founded on an earlier and more accurate MS. copy than the one I've been using (Sloane 307 hasn't been digitised and posted yet to my knowledge): whatever my issues with the editorial treatment, it is important to the history of English magic & by manifesting it the editors did a service to those of us who don't have the resources / connections to directly examine the originals.