The Boke of the Sience of Nygromansie is a relatively short but eminently practical sixteenth-century grimoire found in the second part of Sloane MS 3853. This concise handbook of unclean spiritwork offers instructions on pacting with ‘chapters’ or working-groups of spirits considered ‘enclosed’ by the ancient and senior sheddim and later devil, Asmoday (aka Ashmedai or Asmodeus), demonstrating further ancient roots of early modern goetia.

This goetic manual teaches how to utilize various materia, gestures, and the nigromancer’s very book of calls and characters to deploy a range of ‘Applied Conjurations’ for tangible practical magical influences and effects with its working spirits. These spirits named in both familiar and unfamiliar manners, and variously found in other grimoiric works listed as both demons and fairies: spirits of woods, the airs, and rivers, as well as fortifications, forges, and dungeons. They offer a range of practicable sorceries, from going invisibly to destroying enemies, from healing physick to hunting game, and from constructing magical items and garments to effecting prison-breaks.

Significantly this text also includes notae and advice attributed to Saint Cyprian of Antioch, that infamous patron of sorcerers, concerning the conduct of goetic magic; and can thus certainly be considered a further example of the practices of early modern English Cyprianic nigromancy.

In the course of this series, we will investigate and contextualise the protocols, pacts, and procedures of this nigromantic Science, offering not only a foundation in the fundamentals of operating with this lesser-studied yet still potent grimoire, but also investigating application and experiment with its techniques and craft-logics in other grimoiric work, especially that of the Grimoirium Verum and the Faustian corpus of German nigromancy.

The sessions of this course series break down thusly:

 Session 1: Of Pacts & Chapters
-            An introduction to the Book of Dannel and other source-texts of the Science of Nigromancy
-            A close reading of the first section of the Science of Nigromancy, ‘Binding the Spirits Enclosed by Asmoday’
-            A detailed breakdown of the spirits of the Science and their chapters and offices
-            A walkthrough of the fundamental rite of pacting and attendant protocols

 Session 2: Of Seniors & Patrons
-            A close reading of the second section of the Science of Nigromancy, ‘The Conjuration of Asmoday’
-            Historical analysis of primary and secondary sources concerning the senior spirit Asmoday
-            Comparisons with pacting and navigating infernal hierarchies in wider goetic corpus
-            Extended investigation of the role of Saint Cyprian as a patron of the Science, and practical advice on Cyprianic work in these and further nigromantic matters 

Session 3: Of Operations & Experiments
-            A close reading of the third section of the Science of Nigromancy, ‘Applied Conjurations’
-            A detailed breakdown of these spellcrafts for working with pacted spirits of the Science
-            A walkthrough of preparing one’s necessary book of conjuration
-            Extended reflection on further goetic experiments derived from the Science’s techniques