LÉON III. Enchiridion Leonis Papae

Enchiridion Leonis Papae
Serenissimo Imperatori Carolo Magno. Enchiridion du Pape LÉON, envoyé comme un rare présent à l'Empereur Charlemagne. Édition corrigée.
A Rome (1740).

Colophon: Imprimerie de Blocquel à Lille (1813).

12mo, 141 x 93 mm. [8] ff. (hand-coloured vignette on the title page, 7 engraved and hand-coloured plates), 160 pp. (numbered 3 to 162). Complete. Brown half morocco, spine with four raised bands. Gilt-tooled compartments and red morocco title label. Marbled paper covers, pastedowns and endpapers. Marbled edges.

The Enchiridion attributed to Leo III (Pope from 795 to 816, who crowned Charlemagne and who, according to legend, presented him with this little book) is a legendary grimoire: its attribution to this pope belongs to occult tradition rather than historical fact. A Roman edition of 1523 is alleged, but the earliest surviving text dates from 1633; the work was then reprinted many times between the 17th and 19th centuries.

According to "Le catalogue des Grimoires et des livres de Magie" by Frederick Cox: the word enchiridion (the "ch" is pronounced "k") comes from Late Latin, borrowed from the Greek enkheiridion, from kheir, "hand", with the prefix en, "in". It could be translated literally as "hand-book".

Our 1813 edition bears, like all editions of this family, the false imprint "A Rome, 1740", and presents itself as a "corrected" version. This is one of the finest 19th-century editions of the Enchiridion, with superb hand-coloured illustrations.

The Enchiridion contains recipes and rituals for everyday use. It includes prayers reputed to be mysterious, meant to guard against illness, evil spells, bewitchment, possession and the perils of travel, as well as healing charms and instructions for making talismans and pentacles, which are depicted here in the coloured plates. These elements belong to a Christian folk magic, in which the power of words and objects is harnessed to act upon the real world.

Like the Dragon Rouge, but on a Christian theme, the Enchiridion of Pope Leo speaks to an unconscious that thirsts to penetrate the mysteries of the soul and ends up finding what it seeks in the folklore of incantations and old wives' remedies. Whether we believe in it or laugh at it, it is essential to return to it, for these little grimoires tell us better than many learned treatises what the fears, hopes and everyday faith of people in former times once were.

A similar copy of this singular grimoire can be viewed on the Chouette Noire website.
https://www.chouette-noire.com/grimoires/Enchiridion%20leonis%20papae%201740/Enchiridion1740nouv.htm

Caillet II, 3619

Condition: Rubbing to covers and corners. Browning to the text leaves.