The Black Raven: A Study in the Folk Necromancy of Early Modern Germany - Paperback

by Alexander Cummins (Author), Brian Johnson (Author)

The Black Raven is a grimoire composed in German-speaking lands sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Appearing at first glance to be a typically eclectic assortment of conjurations and ritual directions, upon closer analysis this humble volume is revealed to comprise a cohesive toolkit for the treasure-hunting nigromancer: presenting conjurational means for both petitioning devilish lords of earthly riches and laying the ghosts who haunted their troves, as well as planetary spiritwork for best timing such endeavours.

Indeed, if the books they left behind are any indication, the recovery of hidden treasure was among the most ubiquitous pursuits of medieval and early modern magicians. Given the widespread assumption that such immured valuables were likely to be guarded by malevolent spirits, it stood to reason that the methods of ritual exorcism, with their protective invocations and banishing execrations, would be ideally suited to clearing the practitioners' path to wealth, perhaps even inducing the cooperation of those same spirits.

But the deceptions and diversions of infernal demons were not the only obstacle between such treasure hunters and a buried hoard; often the shade of its deceased owner also haunted the vicinity, trapped by the very riches which they had failed to divest in life. It was for this reason that grimoires such as the present nigromantic handbook, along with no few others of the Germanic "Faustian" genre, included protocols for liberating the restless dead from their earthly fetters in pursuit of liberating their property for the use of the living.

The text of the Black Raven is presented here in English translation for the first time, along with a transcription and facsimile of the original German manuscript. In addition, framing essays by Alexander Cummins and Brian Johnson place this conjurer's vade mecum within the context of early modern ghostlore, folk nigromancy, and the Faustian grimoiric corpus.