The Book of Magical Charms, is a handwritten occult

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...

composed in England in the seventeenth century and currently in the holdings of the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

in Chicago, Illinois. Its author is suspected to be London attorney

Robert Ashley Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve ...

Details

The ''Book of Magical Charms'' original volume, that has

dos-à-dos binding In bookbinding, a dos-à-dos binding ( or , from the French for "back-to-back") is a binding structure in which two separate books are bound together such that the fore edge of one is adjacent to the spine of the other, with a shared lower boar ...

, has no title, nor any named author. ''"Book of Magical Charms''" is the title assigned to it by the library staff who acquired it in 1988 along with a bundle of medical texts. Its pages were written using

iron gall ink Iron gall ink (also known as common ink, standard ink, oak gall ink or iron gall nut ink) is a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids from vegetable sources. It was the standard ink formulation used in Europe for t ...

and likely a

quill pen A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventuall ...

utilising Latin and archaic English. The book contains numerous passages regarding charms for things such as healing a toothache or recovering a lost voice as well as how to talk to spirits. Although the book's principal author is not named, he was identified in 2017 from his handwriting as a London lawyer, Robert Ashley. Ashley likely composed the book over the course of his lifetime. No copies of the book were ever made. The Newberry Library has made the book's pages available for the public to read and transcribe/translate. The library dates the book c.1600–1699, and the subjects covered as: medicine, magic, mysticism, and spagiric magic.

References

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External links

Newberry's website for the manuscript

Academic discussion of the book's structure and content
Occult books