Ars Notoria
The Ars Notoria (in English: Notory Art) is a 13th-century Latin textbook of magic (now retroactively called a grimoire) from northern Italy.
It claims to grant its practitioner an enhancement of their mental faculties, the ability to communicate with angels, and earthly and heavenly knowledge through ritual magic.
The Ars Notoria contains the only known surviving fragment of a book called the Golden Flowers (Latin: Flores Aurei), falsely attributed to Apollonius of Tyana.
[6] The strangely formulated prayers are claimed to be able to invoke the names of angels and are composed in a distorted and interweaving of the Greek, Chaldean, and Hebrew languages.
The Ars Notoria says that Solomon received the "golden tablets above the altar of the Temple" from the angel Pamphilius who taught him the "method, form, and contents" of the notory art.
[9] After his divine revelation, Solomon wrote a compilation of writings called the Book of Flowers of Heavenly Teaching (Liber Florum Caelestis Doctrinae) using "a distorted speech" (perhaps formulated by notarikon) out of the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Greek languages.
These "prologues" present a distinct tone of Christian orthodoxy, while the mysteriously formulated prayers resemble magical formulas called voces magicae.
The mid-13th-century magical treatise, penned by an unknown author, adapts the same goal of the Ars Notoria for the purpose of enhancing one's mental faculties and attaining scholastic knowledge in a short period of time.
The 14th-century magical treatise authored by the French Benedictine monk John of Morigny adapts the structure and goal of the Ars Notoria, promising its practitioner knowledge of the liberal arts and other disciplines.
John of Morigny expanded and revised his work, supposedly under the guidance of the Virgin Mary, to distance it from accusations that its content resembled necromancy and ritual magic.
The mid-14th-century magical treatise was originally called The Good and Short Notory Art (Ars Notoria Brevis et Bona) but its title was abbreviated by Véronèse.
This work is not to be confused with Ramon Llull's Short Art (Ars Brevis) published in 1308, which explains a logical method to solve problems using a special alphabet set upon geometric figures.
The first is called the "Blessed Book of John" which contains magical experiments for the acquisition of worldly knowledge, secrets, and the enhancement of mental faculties by means of contacting an angel through dream incubation or vision.
The Pauline Art [of Seven Figures] claims its mythical origins come from the New Testament account of Paul of Tarsus who had a divine vision of being taken up into the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).
The text contains seven figures dedicated to the divine hypotheses of Christian theology in order to acquire religious literacy of the Holy Scriptures in three months.
This Latin edition comprises the Ars Notoria (Version B), the Short Art, and special blended material of both, although incomplete and imperfect in many respects.
Robert Turner of Holshott published an English translation in 1657, which has subsequently seen several reprints, most notably by Teitan Press (2015) and Golden Hoard (2019).
