Publisher's Synopsis
From the Introduction.
"Many years ago I heard of the existence of this manuscript from a celebrated occultist, since dead; and more recently my attention was again called to it by my personal friend, the well-known French author, lecturer and poet, Jules Bois, whose attention has been for some time turned to occult subjects. My first-mentioned informant told me that it was known both to Bulwer Lytton and Eliphas Levi, that the former had based part of his description of the Sage Rosicrucian Mejnour on that of Abra-Melin, while the account of the so-called Observatory of Sir Philip Derval in the "Strange Story" was to an extent copied from and suggested by that if the Magical Oratory and Terrace, given in the Eleventh Chapter of the Second Book of this present work. Certainly also the manner of instruction applied by Mejnour in "Zanoni" to the Neophyte Glyndon, together with the test of leaving him alone in his abode to go on a short journey and then returning unexpectedly, is closely similar to that employed by Abra-Melin to Abraham, with this difference, that the latter successfully passed through that test, while Glyndon failed. It would also be especially such experiments as those described at length in the Third Book, which the author of the "Strange Story" had in view when he makes Sir Philip Derval in the MS. history of his life speak of certain books describing occult experiments, some of which he had tried and to his surprise found succeed.
This rare and unique manuscript of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, from which the present work is translated, is a French translation from the original Hebrew of Abraham the Jew. It is in the style of script usual at about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, and is apparently by the same hand as another MS. of the Magic of Picatrix also in the "Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal." I know of no other existing copy or replica of this Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, not even in the British Museum, whose enormous collection of Occult Manuscripts I have very thoroughly studied.
Neither have I ever heard by traditional report of the existence if any other copy. In giving it now to the Public, I feel, therefore, that I am conferring a real benefit upon English and American students of Occultism, by placing within their reach for the first time a Magical work of such importance from the Occult standpoint.
The Manuscript is divided into three Books, each with its separate Title Page, surrounded by an ornamental border of simple design, in red and black ink, and which is evidently not intended to be symbolical in the sl1ghtest degree, but is simply the work of a conscientious caligraphist wishing to give an appearance of cleanness and completeness to the Title Page. The wording of each is the same: " "Livre Premier (Second or Troisieme, as the case may be) de la Sacree Magie que Dieu donna a Moyse, Aaron, David, Salomon et a d'autres Saints Patriarches et Prophetes qui enseigne la vraye sapience Divine laissee par Abraham a Lamech son Fils traduite de I'hebreu 1458." "I give the translated title at the commencement of each of the Three Books....""
