"Good Books to Call By”: Opening up the Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke

A lecture and talk delivered by Dr Phil Legard.
Author of: An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke by Phil Legard and Alexander Cummins
'An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke' is a unique manuscript of ritual magic. Written by Walter Raleigh's half-brother, Humphrey Gilbert with his assistant John Davis the Excellent Booke provides a pragmatic grimoire: re-interpreting the rites of demonic evocation through a pared-down, Protestant lens which was driven by Gilbert's terrifying, choleric nature. What makes the Excellent Booke a rare specimen is the accompanying 'Visions', which record the actual experiences which Gilbert and Davis had while working their rites - shining a light on the construction of a 16th-century grimoire. This talk will look at the Excellent Booke and what we can learn from it about the practice of magical evocation and its possible application to our own work.