Praise for Matthias Castle's Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon
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“This is one of the most important books on medieval magic to be published in many years. Enormously popular for decades, Ars Notoria was adapted and mutated into many versions, making it very challenging to understand. This is especially true of the widely available 1657 English translation of Robert Turner, which is defective in many ways. So it is exciting to see an expert translation based on Véronèse’s reliable critical edition of the Latin versions, and other primary texts. Matthias Castle’s tome is massive, but worth every penny for its encyclopedic but lucid treatment of the many elements, such as the angelology, magical figures, rituals, Art of Memory, and Liberal Arts. The resulting volume is beautifully illustrated in color. Given the significant impact Ars Notoria had on later magic texts, including the Key of Solomon and Sworn Book of Honorius, Castle’s edition should be valuable to scholars and practitioners alike.”
--- Joseph H Peterson, author and independent scholar
"This volume offers readers for the first time an English translation of this important work of image magic, based on the best available critical edition. Readers can count on a combination of readability and accuracy, and the book represents a substantial contribution by rendering this text accessible to a new audience of students and practitioners alike."
--- Dr. David Porreca, Associate Professor of Medieval Studies
at the University of Waterloo
"Offers a methodical foundation for understanding and exploring the various manuscripts of the Ars Notoria tradition and its historical contexts. Richly illustrated with a wide evidentiary range of the Ars Notoria's sacred diagrams, figures, sigils, and seals from across the manuscript corpus and presenting section-by-section close readings of the prayerful and conjurational texts in question, this book furnishes those enamored of the notory art a deeper understanding of its peculiar prayers and protocols. This work should provide all those interested in medieval angelology, manuscript illumination, grimoiric conjuration, and visual cultures of sacred art a valuable historical resource for understanding and engaging with these most pious and pedagogical of grimoiric traditions."
--- Alexander Cummins, Ph.D., historian and coauthor of An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke
"One of the lost treasures of medieval occultism, the Ars Notoria is a system of Solomonic angel magic used by students and scholars to attain knowledge of the arts and sciences. Matthias Castle has done an exemplary job in translating the original texts and setting out all the details of the Notory Art . . ."
--- John Michael Greer, co-translator of Picatrix and
The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic
Author's Bio
MATTHIAS CASTLE is an independent scholar of classical studies, medieval history, and the Western esoteric tradition. After graduating from Emory & Henry College with a degree in religious studies and philosophy, Castle’s Latin expertise, rich historical understanding, and keen research skills developed into the more than twenty-year ambitious investigation and translation project that resulted in Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon. He lives in southern California.
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Check out Castle's podcast interviews and find him on social media at his
Inner Traditions' author page: Matthias Castle (innertraditions.com)
