from . . . http://ritualmagick.co.uk/121/?p=288
When we explore the history of grimoires and magic books of the Renaissance and Middle Ages, the name of Cyprian is second only to that of Solomon as a legendary mage and writer of rare and desirable grimoires. However we must be clear when talking about St Cyprian that we refer to the right one, for there are two of them! Both St Cyprians were martyred by the Romans and both have their feast day in September, just to add to the confusion.
The Cyprian referred to with regard to grimoires is St Cyprian of Antioch, who was reputed to be a great magician before his conversion to Christianity and was martyred at Nicomedia on 26th September 304 CE, being beheaded after being tortured. The other St Cyprian was Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, the zealous bishop of Carthage who was beheaded on September 14th 258 CE.
The story of St Cyprian the ex-magician, was recorded in the compilation on the lives of Byzantine Saints by Symeon Metaphrastes. Cyprian was a very skilled pagan magician and demonologist, who tried to seduce a Christian virgin called Justina with demonic assistance. However Justina foiled the threefold attack of the demons by making the cross, causing Cyprian to despair for the error of his ways. He then recanted and was received into the Church. His rise through the Church was rapid, to deacon, then priest and bishop, whilst the virgin Justina became the head of a convent. This tale has been suggested as the prototype of the Theophilus and Faust tales, of the futility of working with demons and the benefits of the Church, though the similarities are slight.
Cyprian left his Chaldean initiator to set up as a sorcerer in Antioch where he became an accomplished magician “surrounded by a host of disciples… distributing love-philtres and dealing in deadly charms ‘to rid young wives of old husbands’, and to ruin Christian virgins.” This activity brought him into inevitable conflict with the local Christian community, and after his failure with Justina, he was said to have converted, been baptised, and “laid at the feet of Anthimes, Bishop of Antioch, all his books on Magic, finally becoming a martyr and saint.”
The story then goes that one of his books escaped the flames and became the Cyprianus, giving providence to the many books which claim to have been copied from that survivor. One example of the books which gained notoriety through this claim is The Great Book of Saint Cyprian (or O Antigo Livro de São Cipriano). This book is full of prayers and spells, and sold widely in the Portuguese and Spanish speaking world, especially in South America. It has subsequently been published in many editions with varying titles.
Meanwhile, in the more northerly parts of Europe, a very different tradition grew up around Saint Cyprian. He was the reputed author of a number of seventeenth and eighteenth century manuscript grimoires that circulated in Scandinavia, especially Norway. These grimoires were often referred to as ‘Cyprianus’ or ‘Black Books’ (svarteboka), and Wittenberg was often quoted as the source of their knowledge. These books, of which somewhere between 150-200 survive, contain a wide range of charms and incantations, with very few actually containing much information on evocation or control of demons, or pacts with the devils. Interestingly, the Black Books travelled to America with Scandinavian immigrants, and much of their material merged with works such as the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses to be incorporated into the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of hexenmeisters.
Another manuscript attributed to Cyprian is the one which I have been working on with Stephen Skinner. This manuscript (Wellcome MS 2000) is attributed to ‘M: L: Cypriani’, which may indicate ‘Magister Ludi Cypriani’. The title of the manuscript is Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona, which literally means ‘The Key of Hell with white and black magic proved by Metatron’. This manuscript deals specifically with the four demon kings of the directions, who are conjured by the magician. Metatron the supreme archangel, is also invoked as a protection to balance and control the demonic kings, like a lens for their chaotic and otherwise uncontrollable energy.
This material is from the forthcoming work “The Grimoire of Saint Cyprian – Clavis Inferni” by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine, which will be Volume 5 in the Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic series published by Golden Hoard.
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