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Storytime: Reading the Solomonic Hygromanteia, Part I

We set the stage for a properly-Storytimeish read-through of the Hygromanteia (or one version of it, anyway) by covering the context of Solomonic legend and lore as we leave late antiquity and enter into the later first millennium, and do a survey of manuscripts, possible datings, and possible places of composition.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

British Library (BL) MS Harleianus 5596 = Numéro diktyon: 39555. A list of appearances of versions of our Solomonic work in various MSS can be found on Πίνακες.

Secondary:

Hans Dieter Betz. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, volume 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1996 [we quote PGM IV,850–855, PGM IV, 3018–3041].

Richard Greenfield. Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1988 [we quote pp. 159–61].

Ioannis Marathakis, editor. The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia, also called the Apotelesmatikē Pragmateia, Epistle to Rehoboam, Solomōnikē. Number 8 in Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic Series. Golden Hoard Press, Singapore, 2011.

Michael A. Morgan. Sepher ha-Razim: The Book of the Mysteries, volume 25 of Texts and Translations. Scholars Press, Chico, CA, 1983.

Richard Reitzenstein. Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-ägyptischen und fruhchristlichen Literatur. Teubner, Leipzig, 1904 [we cite p. 187, n. 1: ‘Schon der Anfang … diese Schrift niemand zu zeigen, charakterisiert sie als Nachbildung Hermitischer Schriften’].

Pablo A. Torijano. Solomon the Esoteric King: From King to Magus, Development of a Tradition. Brill, Leiden, 2002.

On the debate over an originally-separate ‘magical treatise’ present within the Hygromanteia-family: Torijano 197, 210–15, Marathakis 36.

On the dating and places of composition of the Hygromanteia, see Torijano 160, 170, 174, Marathakis 77.

Recommended Reading: See the bibliography to Episode 217