…handelnd von der Glücks-Ruthe, dem Ring und der Krone Salomonis, den Fürsten-Geheimnissen, den dienstbaren Krystall- und Schatz-Geistern und andern wunderbaren Arcanen ; nach einer Handschrift aus der Bibliothek eines Fürst-Abtes im vorigen Jahrhundert wortgetreu und mit allen Abbildungen veröffentlicht
Köln am Rhein : Peter Hammer, 1743
256 pp. ; 8°, German Language.
Nigromantisches Kunst-Buch (or The Nigromantic Art Book) is a very rare grimoire of the Faustian tradition similar in technique to the Ars Goetia which details the conjuration and containment of spirits in a vessel. Its contents include, Experimentir Buch, a magical manual containing instructions on consecrating the Liber Spirituum, the creation of ritual implements and pentacles; and finally Der Schlü ssel von dem Zwange der Hölle, a book pseudo-epigraphically attributed to Dr. Johannes Faust consisting on conjurations, a spirit list and unique experiments.
The book was printed under the name Peter Hammer, a fictitious imprint used by publishing houses to evade their open identification with books they published. There is some question to whether it was printed and than reprinted by Johann Scheible, the antiquarian book dealer from Stuttgart, or if Johann Scheible was entirely responsible. We can only speculate however there are in fact two clearly different looking editions of the Nigromantisches Kunst-Buch, which happens to the case with all the Peter Hammer grimoires, one of these variations of a higher quality. This could indicate different publishers or rather two different runs by the same publisher. With that aside, below are two copies of Nigromantisches Kunst-Buch with the aforementioned discrepancies. Interestingly, only one copy has a Scheible catalog at the end.
