The words “Solomon” and “goetia” bring these collections into the same research conversation. They do not make Grimorium Verum and the Ars Goetia two editions of one fixed spirit catalogue.
- Grimorium Verum
- French printed compilation
- Ars Goetia
- Lemegeton manuscript part
- Shared research
- Solomonic attribution and variant figures
Two different bibliographic objects
The surviving Grimorium Verum print advertises Solomonic keys and a purported Hebrew translation by Plaingière. Its imprint says Memphis, 1517, while a British Library description quoted by Peterson supplies [1817]. The Ars Goetia belongs to the later Lemegeton manuscript tradition and is commonly organized as seventy-two ranked spirits. These are distinct textual settings. A name repeated between them is a comparison point, not proof that the books share a single author, a single list, or a single production date.
Our Ars Goetia directory uses its own source-labelled witness choices. Its seventy-two entries should not be silently pasted into Grimorium Verum. Similarly, Syrach’s eighteen in the Verum family cannot stand in for the entire Goetia sequence. The two works can be compared through their names and ranks only after fixing the particular editions or manuscripts; different witness choices change the resulting matches. Transliteration and spelling variation make a raw count less informative than an inspected pair of passages.
Hierarchy and picture traditions
Grimorium Verum foregrounds Lucifer, Béelzébuth, and Astaroth and then places subordinate groups and Syrach’s eighteen within its own organization. The Goetia presents a numbered hierarchy of seventy-two, with kings, dukes, princes, and other ranks. Even when a name familiar from one appears in another, it can be assigned a different position or function. The categories are attributes of specific written witnesses, not stable biological classifications of supernatural beings.
The modern Goetia seal gallery reflects later manuscript and printed witnesses. Peterson notes that some figures in his Grimorium Verum presentation were supplied from other sources because they were missing in the Alibeck copy. Pairing a Goetia seal with a Verum name creates a new composite image that is not attested in either source. Each drawing has a separate date range, and a witness without a figure leaves an actual gap in the visual record.
Three related but distinct textual traditions
The British Library-origin Alibeck print, the earlier related French manuscript Wellcome MS.983, and the Ars Goetia manuscripts preserve different parts of a broader Solomonic textual world. Weyer’s printed 1577 Pseudomonarchia appendix forms a third comparison thread with its own sixty-nine-entry history and English reception through Scot. Shared names and offices show circulation across traditions, while the different sequences, figures, and book structures prevent one work from substituting for another.
Comparisons among these witnesses reveal whether two books draw the same figure, whether an editor restored a missing one, and whether a date was printed in a book or supplied later by a cataloguer. A name may resemble another by spelling yet occupy a different place or carry a different description. Those material differences explain why a merged “demon encyclopedia” can conceal the distinct histories of the Alibeck print, French manuscript relatives, the Goetia, and Weyer’s catalogue.
Worked comparison: Astaroth changes rank and ritual setting
Astaroth offers a controlled comparison because the name appears prominently in both works. Grimorium Verum makes Astaroth one of three superior powers, gives that superior a pair of subordinates, and usually describes the apparition as a black-and-white human form, sometimes as an ass. The name belongs near the top of a compact command hierarchy. Its characters, conjuration, and place beside Lucifer and Béelzébuth matter more to that structure than a number in a long catalogue.
The Ars Goetia instead makes Astaroth its twenty-ninth spirit, a mighty duke governing forty legions. Its description gives an angel-like figure riding a dragon and carrying a viper, warns about the spirit’s breath, and tells the operator to use the magic ring and wear the seal as a lamen. The shared name has moved from one of three superiors to one ranked entry among seventy-two, and the appearance, protective apparatus, and chain of command have changed with it. Pairing either seal with the other description would create a modern composite unsupported by either textual setting.
The Memphis 1517 date and Solomonic attribution are printed claims. The supplied [1817] date and manuscript dates are later catalogue judgments about different objects.
Source records and editions
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