Beschreibung:

MAGICAL AND AMULETIC SCROLL OF THE ALCHEMIST JOHANNES MICHAEL, in German and Latin, illuminated manuscript scroll on vellum [Germany, late 16th or early 17th century] A powerful magical tool containing sigils, amulets and talismans, designed to invoke angelic and spiritual protection for its 17 th -century German alchemist owner, Johannes Michael. 2710 x 95mm. 5 membranes, with 45 coloured amulets, sigils and diagrams on the obverse, each above a line or paragraph of text in cursive black ink in German or Latin explaining their use; on the reverse a number of prayers and incantations listing names of Evangelists and alchemical terms, and naming the owner of the scroll in light brown ink in several instances as Johannes Michael, the texts separated by crosses and roundels (some marginal staining, small losses at top edge of first and second membranes). Provenance : (1) Johannes Michael (late 16th or early 17th century): his name appears several times in the text on the reverse of the scroll. (2) Sotheby's, 7 December 2010, lot 34. Content : 45 amulets, sigils and diagrams, beginning with talismans offering protection against, among other things, neid und haß (anger and hate), den bösen geiß (the evil spirits) and Zauberij (witchcraft), as well as one petitioning Größen Herren Freundschaft (the friendship of great men). Follow the traditional symbols for mercury, copper, gold and at the head of one of the larger talismans, the philosopher’s stone locked within the Seal of Solomon; the AGLA talisman (a notariqon , or kabbalistic acronym, of the biblical phrase ‘ Ateh Gibor Le-olam Adonai ,’ ‘The Lord is mighty forever.’; and finally further protections against failure in war (‘Est magna potentia in bello […]’), imprisonment (‘Valet si quis foret incarceratus et ligatus catenis ferreis […]’) and the plague (‘Remedium probabilissimu[m] contra pestem’). The final diagram represents the sigil of Ameth (or Sigillum Dei Aemeth ), containing the names of God and various angels. The sigil is best known in relation to the Enochian workings of John Dee (1527-1608/9), the great British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, as he was supposedly instructed to re-create it by angels he contacted during his scrying sessions with the occultist and spirit medium Edward Kelley. In medieval ceremonial magic, sigils represented angels and demons which the budding magician might attempt to summon as a means of exerting power or invoking protection, as is the case in the present manuscript.