Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh (Book of the Key of Solomon) by Hermann Gollancz
Publication: 2008 The Teitan Press First US Edition Signed Limited to 358 Numbered Copies of which this is #22
Large Quarto (11 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches, approx. 28.5 x 22cm). lxiv + [158]pp.
"English language texts + facsimile of the original Hebrew manuscript. Edition limited to 358 numbered copies - this being one of the launch copies signed on a bookplate on the front pastedown by Stephen Skinner. The book centers on a Hebrew manuscript entitled 'Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh,' that dates from around 1700. The original manuscript was discovered in the library of a London Rabbi, Samuel Marcus Gollancz (1819-1900), by his son, Hermann, not long after his father's death. Hermann Gollancz, himself an eminent Hebrew scholar, was fascinated by the manuscript, and felt that its study might give important insight into the history and origins of the "Solomonic" grimoires or books of magic, that are a mainstay of the Western occult tradition. In 1903 Gollancz published his preliminary thoughts and translations in a booklet entitled 'Clavicula Salomonis, A Hebrew Manuscript,' and in 1914 he published a facsimile of the manuscript, along with a twenty-page English-language Introduction discussing the text and quoting from it, under the title Sepher Maphteah Shelomo in an edition of only 300 copies."
Condition: Publishers blue cloth boards in great quality, gilt titling and sigil to upper board and spine, sewn and printed on high quality paper, with no notable flaws in Fine Condition