By Susan McLernon ’27
Hidden in the shelves of Special Collections lies a small manuscript. It is not bound as a book should be with a protective covering. Instead, it is a small pamphlet blanketed in pink paper with a few sheaves bound up by what looks like hemp thread. The right side of the manuscript has a worn indentation, as if someone carried it or held it there for prolonged periods. Standing before it, I could fit my hand in the space where it was lovingly cradled, likely by the same person who bound and created it. This manuscript has writing on 26 of its pages, beginning with seven pages filled with 71 Psalms. Following that are ten pages inscribed with passages from Cornelius Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy published in 1531. Five pages follow, which seem to be from Arnold of Villanova, another alchemist and astrologer who published in the early 1600s. In the three remaining pages, the author switches from Neo-Latin to Italian for a paragraph in what looks like a Neapolitan dialect. It ends with eight terrifying prophecies dating from 1740 to 1990. Scattered throughout are drawings of divine sigils, seals, angelic lettering, and talismans. Hundreds of years after its creation, I found a secret begging to be told: an anonymous Grimoire from the early 18th century.
When the word Grimoire is invoked, we immediately think of witchcraft and magic. Some imagine old hags with pointed hats, crooked fingers, and bubbling cauldrons. Others immediately think of newer media pieces showing halls resembling Princeton’s cloisters and archways, with long robes and Latin incantations. Like all books, this book exists because someone wanted to keep a record of what they had found. This manuscript is a testament to what one person believed was necessary enough to render immutable.
On the last page of the manuscript, a little afterthought dates the piece as written or completed on April 6, 1726, in Naples, Italy. Naples was going through drastic changes during this time. The 1713 Treaty of Rastatt ended the War of Spanish Succession, and the Kingdom of Naples was now under the control of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI. In 1646, the bubonic plague broke out in the city of Naples. Reportedly, city officials were unsure how to deal with the plague or what it was. Being a port city, it was no stranger to outbreaks of illnesses, and at first, the plague was blamed on rotten meat, baptismal fonts, and Spanish enemies. This outbreak killed an estimated 1,250,000 people within the Kingdom of Naples. While it did not happen during the writing of our Grimoire, it was a plague that occurred within the writer’s or writer’s parent’s lifetime. This Grimoire and its prophecies allow us a unique peek into the tumultuous life of a seemingly average citizen of the time. The spells to ward off sickness or the methods of divining the future tell a story about what living in that time and place may have been like, complete with anxieties and hope. Like many of Special Collection’s hidden gems, this manuscript will continue to offer valuable insights into our collective human past.
Susan McLernon is a veteran and a transfer student in the Class of 2027, majoring in history.
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