The Ars Notoria - An Ancient Magical Book to Perfect Memory and Master Academia
Over the centuries many books have been written claiming that loyal readers and followers of the text will be bestowed with magical powers. In some cases these books are intended to invoke demons or angels. In other cases they promise to allow the reader enhanced skills or good luck.
While the concepts of magic and demonology remained controversial through history, many such books were translated and compiled over time, extending their reach throughout several centuries. One of these books is the Ars Notoria.
As part of a larger collection known as the Lesser Keys of Solomon, the Ars Notoria is a book that is said to allow followers a mastery of academia, giving them greater eloquence, a “perfect memory,” and wisdom. With such a book continuing in existence for several centuries, one must wonder whether its claims have some merit. Were the people of the past able to enhance their academic skills and memory by following the prayers and practices of the Ars Notoria?
The Ars Notoria is one of five books within a grimoire called the Lesser Keys of Solomon, or Clavicula Salomonis Regis. A grimoire is a textbook of occult knowledge which is meant to grant the reader the ability to cast spells, create talismans, invoke spirits, invoke demons, and perform divination. The Lesser Keys of Solomon is an anonymous grimoire that was compiled from other works in the 17th century, and focuses on demonology. The five books contained within the Lesser Keys of Solomon are the Ars Goetia, the Ars Theurgia-Goetia, the Ars Paulina, the Ars Almadel, and the Ars Notoria.
The Ars Notoria is the oldest portion of the Lesser of the Keys grimoire. It, in particular, was not a book of spells or potions, but a book of prayers and orations that are said to strengthen and focus one’s mental powers, by beseeching god for intellectual gifts. Among these intellectual gifts is the concept of a “perfect memory.”
The oldest manuscripts of the Ars Notoria are dated to the 13th century. However, the texts contained within are a collection of orations, prayers, and magical words which date back to well before the 1200s. The prayers are in several languages, including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Those who practice liberal arts, such as arithmetic, geometry, and philosophy, are promised a mastery of their subject if they devote themselves to the Ars Notoria. Within, it describes a daily process of visualization, contemplation, and orations, which are intended to enhance the practitioner’s focus and memory.
It has been claimed that Solomon gained his wisdom and academic powers by following the text of the Ars Notoria. To those who wished to master an academic field, this can sound like a very tempting promise. Many who wished to have a better memory, greater eloquence, wisdom, or heightened senses may have followed the Ars Notoria in hopes of improving their life and gaining power by achieving a command of academics. However, there have been instances of individuals following the instruction of the Ars Notoria and having undesirable results.
John of Morigny, a 14th century monk, devoutly followed the teachings and instruction of the Ars Notoria. Rather than achieving academic mastery, Morigny is said to have experienced haunting, demonic visions. He went on to create his own manuscript, Libor Visonum, in which he warned people away from Ars Notoria.
One interesting aspect of the Ars Notoria that has drawn much attention is an illustration of a “megnetick experiment.” It shows the reader a method in which to communicate across long distances using a lodestone and two compass needles. If the two compass needles were rubbed against the same lodestone, the needles would become “entangled” and however one was moved, the other would move as well. By placing the two entangled needles in the center of a circle of letters, two individuals could communicate across great distances by manipulating their needle to spell words by pointing to letters in the circle.
Today, the phrase Ars Notoria refers to a methodology of shorthand and mnemonics, as utilized by scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro, Maecenas, Quintus Ennius, and Xenophon. The use of the term Ars Notoria to describe learning and memorization tools lends some credibility to the idea that the book may have granted some users the academic powers they desired. Or, perhaps, the name of the book was used to describe these processes without any actual link between the book and academic success.
Whether the Ars Notoria gave its followers the academic powers they desired may never be known for sure. It is possible that those who were dedicated to academic greatness were naturally born with the memory and eloquence tools needed to achieve it. With many followers over the centuries, the Ars Notoria became known as a magical way for an individual to increase their memory and academic powers which would have been, and continues to be, a highly desired trait.
Top image: AI generated image of a witch's wand and open grimoire with candlelight on a wooden table in a dark room. Source: I Am The Future/Adobe Stock
By M R Reese
References
Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon – Esoteric Archives. Available from: http://www.esotericarchives.com/notoria/notoria.htm
Item of the Week: Ars Notoria and the occult – The Clog. Available from: https://clarklibrary.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/item-of-the-week-ars-notoria-and-the-occult/
10 Ancient Books that Promise Supernatural Powers – Listverse. Available from: http://listverse.com/2014/10/18/10-ancient-books-that-promise-supernatural-powers/
Why “Ars Notoria”? – Ars Notoria. Available from: http://arsnotoria.com/why-ars-notoria/
Just fascinating, I was struck with the idea of ‘entanglement’‼️ its theory coming from an ancient book, but so relevant in today’s discourse on computers and entanglement, amazing to see the same theory from so many centuries ago. Also a wonderful link to esoteric archives, the book and so much more free for the curious 👀🤔 thank you for your post.🙏😀
This article by M.R. Reese is outdated and lacking credible references.
The Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon, Shewing the Cabalistical Key of Magical Operations, The liberal Sciences, Divine Revelation, and The Art of Memory which is found in The Lesser Key of Solomon (also called the Lemegeton, not Clavicula Salmonis Regis) is Robert Turner's own title to his 1657 English translation of an abridged Latin edition posthumously published in the Opera Omnia (Collected Works, c. 1620), vol. 2 (pages 603-660) of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486 – 1535), the German occult writer. This Latin edition, originally titled Ars Notoria, quam Creator Altissimus Salomoni revelavit (The Notory Art, which the Almighty Creator Revealed to Solomon) was not authored by Agrippa but is an anonymous work edited along with other assorted works by the Beringos brothers who compiled and published these works, featuring Agrippa as the leading author of material found therein. The Latin edition is an imperfect and incomplete composite of three parts: (1) the fourteenth-century long and glossed version of the Ars Notoria (called Version B), (2) the mid-fourteenth-century angelic magic treatise called the Ars Brevis (The Short Art), and (3) special blended material of both. The Ars Brevis is a derivative text of the Ars Notoria containing an alternate version of the notory art ritual of prayers and figures from a Catholic perspective, including the performance of votive masses and prayers to the Virgin Mary. The short version of the Ars Notoria (called Version A by the French historian Julien Véronèse) is dated to the thirteenth-century and is the original text. Matthias Castle has published the complete English translation of the Ars Notoria, the Ars Brevis, and three other related works in his Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon: A Medieval Treatise on Angelic Magic & the Art of Memory (2023).
The strange prayers found in the Ars Notoria are given a false impression that they are written in "Greek, Chaldean, and Hebrew", but in fact they are not. These strange prayers are akin to voces magicae ("magical calls") in that they are incomprehensible words and syllables that sound like indecipherable speech. These strange prayers may have been formulated by the esoteric and Judaic tradition of interpreting sacred scripture by means of the exegetical method called notarikon. In fact, this may be the origin of the name “ars notoria,” which is translated as “notory art”. To learn about what notarikon is, check out Matthias Castle's blog under "Ars Notoria: Why is It Called the Notory Art?" Outside of the estoeric realm, the notory art is a method of shorthand writing. Certainly there is a commonality found between these two distinct subjects. Aside from these strange prayers, the other prayers are written in Latin as is the rest of the text.
Modern scholarship on the work of John of Morigny has been updated such that his entire work is now called Liber Florum Caelestis Doctrinae (The Book of Flowers of Heavenly Teaching). The Latin edition and commentary were published by Claire Fanger and Nicholas Watson in 2015. The title Liber Visonum (The Book of Visions) is the first book of three belonging to John's new compilation tradition.
The magnetic telegraph experiment is found at the conclusion of the central work on angelic magic, Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon, Shewing the Cabalistical Key of Magical Operations, The liberal Sciences, Divine Revelation, and The Art of Memory translated by the Englishman Robert Turner in 1657. The magnetic telegraph experiment is Robert Turner's own inclusion and was never a part of nor has anything to do with the Ars Notoria. You can read more about this experiment at Matthias Castle's blog under "The Occult Wonders of the Magnetic Telegraph."