Techniques of Solomonic Magic

«I alsC? owe a debt of gratitude to Ioannes Marathakis whose original translation of the Hygromanteia provided a key link in the Solomonic chain.» — Skinner declara en los agradecimientos qué pieza le abrió la cadena salomónica: la traducción de la Hygromanteia hecha por Ioannes Marathakis, que es la que le permite enlazar el eslabón griego con el latino; el escaneo imprime *alsC?* por *also*

«I wish to thank the staff of libraries who have over the years provided me with digital copies of the many relevant manuscripts, particularly the British Library and the Wellcome Trust, and for their permissions to reproduce folios from a selection of these manuscripts: these are separately acknowledged in the text.» — la base documental que declara: copias digitales de manuscritos facilitadas por bibliotecas a lo largo de los años, señaladamente la British Library y el Wellcome Trust, con permiso para reproducir folios

«I have been interested since childhood in the arts of Theron Ware, and on occasion discussed them with James when he lived in Henley in the mid 1970s. Blish was of course much more famous for having novelised a number of the Star Trek episodes than he ever was for his intimate knowledge and understanding of the grimoires and of the monks who used» — Skinner explica la imagen de cubierta por una novela: dice haberse interesado desde niño en las artes de Theron Ware, el mago de *Black Easter* de James Blish, a quien trató en Henley a mediados de los setenta; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«My original thesis was primarily a study of learned Solomonic ritual magic, geographically restricted to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and Europe. Its objective was to identify the transmission and common elements of magical techniques and implements from the PGM of Egypt (1st - 5th century) through Byzantine Greek Solomonic manuscripts (6th - 16th century) such as the Hygromanteia, to European Latin and English Solomonic grimoires (13th» — Skinner delimita el objeto y el marco temporal de la tesis de la que sale el libro: la transmisión de técnicas e instrumentos desde los papiros griegos de Egipto, siglos I a V, por los manuscritos bizantinos, siglos VI a XVI, hasta los grimorios latinos e ingleses; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«Grimoires are magician's handbooks of ritual invocation and evocation. They are not meant to be primers in magic, but were simply the working handbooks of magicians.» — la definición de grimorio que emplea: manual de invocación y evocación, no cartilla de iniciación sino cuaderno de trabajo del mago

«The word is supposedly derived from the French grammaire meaning 'grammar,' as in a grammar or primer of magic, but I have my doubts about this derivation.» — y la reserva que pone en la misma plana sobre la etimología corriente: dice dudar de que *grimoire* venga de *grammaire*

«A few grimoires reached Western Europe before those that used the Solomonic method.l Non-Solomonic grimoires such as the Juratus or the Ars Notoria circulated in manuscript in Western Europe as early as 1225.» — Skinner data la circulación europea de los grimorios no salomónicos —el Juratus y la Ars Notoria— en fecha tan temprana como 1225

«The most popular grimoire,2 the Clavicula Salomonis appeared in Europe apparently fully fledged in the 15th century, rather than evolving from simpler works.» — y adjudica a la Clavicula Salomonis una aparición sin genealogía visible: llega a Europa en el siglo XV ya formada, en vez de evolucionar desde obras más simples. Su criterio de popularidad es el número de manuscritos conservados

«The usual assumption, voiced by a number of scholars is that it must derive from Jewish originals.» — el supuesto académico que va a discutir: que la Clavicula deriva de originales judíos

«The assumption of a Hebrew origin is based on their typical attribution to Solomon the Hebrew king, a typical target for pseudepigraphical authorship. This assumption was given further credence by the discovery of the Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh, or the Book of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire written in cursive Hebrew dating from 1700.» — según Skinner, ese supuesto descansa en la atribución a Salomón —blanco típico de la pseudoepigrafía— y quedó reforzado por el hallazgo del Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh, manuscrito en hebreo cursivo de hacia 1700

«The present book disproves that assumption, and discredits this support by demonstrating that this specific Hebrew manuscript cannot be the source of the Latin Clavicula Salomonis, as it was itself translated from a Latin and Italian original.» — y la tesis con la que Skinner responde: sostiene que ese manuscrito hebreo no puede ser fuente de la Clavicula latina porque él mismo se tradujo de un original latino e italiano

«No researcher, except for Ioannis Marathakis,1 has shown in detail the transmission of specific sections and procedures from the Greek manuscripts of the Hygromanteia to the Latin Clavicula Salomonis, although Richard Greenfield has indicated its possibility.» — el estado de la cuestión tal como Skinner lo declara: nadie salvo Marathakis ha mostrado en detalle el paso de secciones y procedimientos del griego al latín, aunque Greenfield lo apuntara como posible. La plana escribe *Ioannis* donde los agradecimientos escriben *Ioannes*, y las dos grafías se conservan

«At the same time the origin of one part of the Clavicula Salomonis, the pentacles, appearing in a few Text-Groups of the Clavicula Salomonis, has been traced to a previously unnoticed Hebrew manuscript text.» — Skinner acota su propia tesis: una parte de la Clavicula —los pentáculos, y solo en algunos grupos textuales— sí procede de un manuscrito hebreo hasta ahora inadvertido

«The use of Hebrew god names is simply a by-product of their having filtered into Graeco-Egyptian magic practice from Jews living in Alexandria rather than an indication of the origin of these techniques.» — y explica el rastro hebreo por contacto y no por origen: los nombres divinos hebreos habrían entrado en la práctica greco-egipcia desde los judíos de Alejandría

«The intention is purely one of identifying the techniques and their transmission using handbooks written by or used practically by the magicians themselves.» — el criterio de fuentes que declara: identificar las técnicas y su transmisión con manuales escritos o usados por los propios magos

«In this book I have approached magic as another form of technology, establishing how its techniques evolved, and charting their development and evolution.» — y el marco con que las trata: la magia como una tecnología más, de la que se puede establecer cómo evolucionaron sus técnicas

«The idea for this book came from two passages in Richard Greenfield's Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology in which he sets out his work on Byzantine demonology.» — Skinner declara de dónde le vino la idea: de dos pasajes de *Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology*, de Richard Greenfield

«My research is therefore primarily drawn from ancient texts, many still in manuscript; specifically those written by the practitioners of magic themselves, rather than those written by their critics and adversaries.» — y la consecuencia metodológica que saca: trabajar sobre textos antiguos, muchos aún manuscritos, escritos por practicantes y no por sus críticos

«In the course of researching the main questions, a number of subsidiary questions arose, some of which needed to be answered before further progress could be made with addressing the main question:» — Skinner declara que las preguntas subsidiarias fueron surgiendo durante la investigación y que algunas había que responder antes de seguir con la principal

«Any accurate definition of magic must involved the concepts of another world of spirits, demons and gods.» — el axioma con que Skinner funda su definición: no hay definición exacta de magia que no cuente con otro mundo de espíritus, demonios y dioses

«These entities formed the bedrock of how magicians thought of their art. Without considering gods, daimones, angels and spirits it is well nigh impossible to form a sensible definition of magic which relies solely upon the works of the magicians, rather than on that of commentators.» — y su razón: esas entidades son el lecho de roca de cómo pensaban su arte los magos, de modo que una definición apoyada en las obras de los magos y no en las de los comentaristas no puede prescindir de ellas

«Such attempts at defining magic are on a par with a scientist who does not believe in the existence of radio waves, yet» — el símil con que Skinner descarta las definiciones que excluyen a los espíritus: es el científico que no cree en las ondas de radio; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en la 20

«tries to explain the functioning of a radio: it cannot be done without making a complete nonsense of the definition.» — continuación del símil en la plana siguiente: explicar la radio sin las ondas hace de la definición un disparate. La frase arranca a media plana porque el encabezado corrido del libro se interpone en la capa de texto

«It is like an attempt to describe chess without acknowledging the existence of the invisible rules which govern the movement of the individual pieces.» — segundo símil, el del ajedrez: describir el juego sin admitir las reglas invisibles que gobiernan el movimiento de las piezas

«Such rules have no real existence, but without them the game of chess is impossible to play, or to write sensible commentary upon.» — y su límite, en la misma plana: Skinner concede que las reglas no tienen existencia real, y sostiene que sin ellas no se puede jugar ni comentar el juego con sentido

«In the ancient world the existence of daimones, spirits and gods was a given.» — el dato histórico en que apoya el criterio: en el mundo antiguo la existencia de daimones, espíritus y dioses se daba por supuesta

«Any definition recognizable to, and welcomed by, its ancient practitioners would have to include mention of daimones, gods, spirits, etc.» — de donde saca su prueba de aceptabilidad: una definición que el propio mago antiguo reconociera tiene que nombrar daimones, dioses y espíritus

«My working definition of magic is therefore basŬd on how magic was actually practised and how it was understood in Graeco-Egyptian Egypt, in the Greek speaking Mediterranean, and in the Greek and Latin grimoires of Europe.» — Skinner declara sobre qué corpus está calibrada su definición de trabajo; el escaneo corrompe *based* en la plana

«Magic is the art of causing change through the agency of spiritual creatures rather than via directly observable physical means: such spiritual creatures being compelled or persuaded to assist, by the use of sacred words or names, talismans, symbols, incense, sacrifices and materia magica.» — la definición de trabajo, entera: arte de causar cambio por agencia de criaturas espirituales y no por medios físicos observables, compelidas o persuadidas con palabras y nombres sagrados, talismanes, símbolos, incienso, sacrificios y materia magica

«Here 'spiritual' is defined to mean non-physical, with no ethical connotation, and 'spiritual creature' to mean a non-physical entity, ranging in definition or substance from elementals, spirits, demons, daimones, angels, archangels, even gods and goddesses, to discarnate humans (both saintly and prematurely dead).» — y la aclaración terminológica que la acompaña: *espiritual* significa aquí no físico, sin connotación ética, y la escala de criaturas espirituales va de los elementales a los dioses e incluye a los humanos descarnados

«Magic divides this universe into a specific hierarchy of spiritual creatures in order to deal with it more effectively. Like any science, one of the first steps is analysis, where the constituent parts need to be identified and labelled.» — según Skinner, la jerarquía de criaturas espirituales cumple en la magia la función analítica de cualquier ciencia: identificar y etiquetar las partes

«Utilising the practitioners own world view, and their own records, might be construed as taking an entirely ernie point of view, but as the subject is treated from the point of view of a technology, with an objective examination of the materials and methods of the practitioners, the vantage point from which these are viewed is therefore really quite an etic one.» — y su respuesta a la objeción de emismo: tratar la magia como tecnología, examinando materiales y métodos, deja el punto de mira en lo ético aunque los datos sean los del practicante; el escaneo imprime *ernie* por *emic*

«Although divination is often seen as part of magic, divination is essentially a passive method, whereas magic is an active method for changing things. Magic seeks to change the future proactively whilst divination only seeks to foretell it.» — la línea que Skinner traza entre magia y adivinación: la adivinación es método pasivo que solo busca predecir, la magia es método activo que busca cambiar

«That part of astrology that calculates the correct time for certain actions ( electional and katarchic astrology) is however a part of magic.» — con la excepción que él mismo marca: la astrología eleccional y katárquica, la que calcula el momento propicio, sí cuenta como magia

«Techniques like lychnomanteia, lekanomanteia and hygromanteia, which occur in the PGM and were practised throughout the Byzantine period, are not divination but are evocation supplemented by the use of a skryer.» — y la reclasificación que propone para las tres técnicas homónimas de los papiros: no son adivinación sino evocación asistida por un vidente

«Learned magic is much better documented, as it was usually practised by literate members of the ruling establishment or priestly class in every culture.» — el corte entre magia aprendida y magia popular: la aprendida está mejor documentada por practicarse entre la clase letrada

«Folk magic is, by its very nature, passed on verbally, often by illiterate practitioners.» — y su reverso: la magia popular se transmite de palabra, a menudo entre practicantes analfabetos

«In contrast Egyptian magicians were mostly of the priestly class, and later in both Byzantium and Latin Europe of the Middle Ages, grimoires beautifully written in Ecclesiastical Latin were found often in the possession of aristocrats or highly educated monks or clerics.» — el dato con que ilustra el corte: los magos egipcios eran sacerdotes, y los grimorios medievales estuvieron en manos de aristócratas, monjes o clérigos muy formados

«There is in fact no word for 'witch' in Latin, because the concept in its current form was absent from the ancient world, no matter how often commentators have attempted to impose it retrospectively.» — Skinner niega que exista palabra latina para el término inglés *witch* y adjudica su uso a una imposición retrospectiva de los comentaristas

«Despite this title often being translated as 'The Hammer of the Witches', the W<?rd maleficus simply meant 'wicked or criminal,' and initially had no specific tinge of 'magic' about it.» — y lo apoya en el título del *Malleus*: sostiene que *maleficus* significaba malvado o criminal y no tenía al principio matiz de magia; el escaneo imprime *W<?rd* por *word*

«Magic is not, as the followers of Epicurus and Aristotle think, utterly incoherent, but, as the experts in these things prove, is a consistent system, which has principles known to very few." Origen, Contra Celsus 1.24.» — primer epígrafe del libro, con que Skinner abre: Orígenes, contra Epicuro y Aristóteles, da la magia por sistema coherente cuyos principios conocen muy pocos

«Magica est scientia arctandi spiritus malignos et benignos per nomen dei et per . '' nomzna sua. - Berengarii Ganelli, Summa Sacre Magice. Kassel MS 4» — segundo epígrafe, la definición latina de Berengario Ganell —magia como ciencia de constreñir espíritus malignos y benignos por el nombre de Dios y por los suyos propios—, citada por su manuscrito de Kassel; el escaneo imprime *nomzna* por *nomina* y mete unas comillas sueltas en medio

«It is clear from even a brief reading of the Treatise [the Hygromanteia]l and material related to it_ that it has close connections with texts and practices of ritual magic which were current in the West in many languages and in many countries from the 13th century onwards, although again the best and most elaborate of these texts only survive in manuscripts of the 16th or 17th centuries.» — Greenfield, citado en bloque: la Hygromanteia tiene conexión estrecha con la magia ritual que circula en Occidente desde el siglo XIII, aunque los mejores testimonios solo sobrevivan en manuscritos de los siglos XVI y XVII

«Very little comparative work has been done on the literature of this ritual magic, the magic of the notorious Claviculae and Grimo!res of the later Middle Ages, and not much is known of its precise development and origin.» — y su queja sobre el estado del campo, en el mismo bloque: apenas se ha hecho trabajo comparativo sobre la literatura de esa magia ritual

«Although any attempt to answer such questions . . . must be the subject of a great deal of further research, it is nevertheless clear from the Greek Treatise [the Hygromanteia] and related material, which is what is of concern here, that traces, and in some cases quite large portions, of much older traditions are preserved in these now rather muddled and confused texts.» — el cierre del bloque de Greenfield: en el Tratado griego y su material afín se conservan trazas —y a veces porciones grandes— de tradiciones mucho más antiguas, dentro de textos hoy confusos

«What has been, and still is needed is a systematic and comprehensive study of the history and content of Byzantine beliefs about demons and other supernatural evil beings . . . Ideally such a study would also enable these beliefs to be placed in relation to their antecedents in early Christianity and in Classical, Hellenistic, Jewish and other branches of Near Eastern thought, as well as to contemporary and parallel beliefs in Western Europe . . .» — segundo bloque de Greenfield, el que Skinner toma por encargo: hace falta un estudio sistemático de las creencias bizantinas sobre demonios, puesto en relación con sus antecedentes clásicos, helenísticos, judíos y próximo-orientales

«I am further emboldened by Mastrocinque' s observation: Let us then, just for once, leave aside the endless and often fruitless arguments about method and abstract philosophical concepts, and concentrate on ancient texts and monuments.» — Mastrocinque, citado a continuación: propone dejar de lado las discusiones interminables de método y conceptos filosóficos abstractos para concentrarse en los textos y monumentos antiguos

«More recent scholarly definitions of magic have come much closer to defining magic as a technology than those of 20th century academe:» — Skinner sitúa el estado de la cuestión: las definiciones académicas recientes se acercan más a tratar la magia como tecnología que las del siglo XX

«[Magic] is a reasoned system of techniques for influencing the gods and other supernatural powers that can be taught and learned . . . Magic is a praxis, indeed a science, that through established and for the most part empirical means seeks to alter or maintain earthly circumstances, or even call them forth anew» — la definición que cita en apoyo, de Frantz-Szabo por vía de Walton según la nota al pie: sistema razonado de técnicas enseñables para influir en los dioses, praxis y aun ciencia de medios empíricos

«The centrality of spiritual creatures to the operation of any magic is confirmed by Johnston:» — y el segundo apoyo que invoca, Johnston, para la centralidad de las criaturas espirituales

«In short, it seems that many Mediterranean magicians considered the control of ghostly or demonic entities to be essential to the completion of their work: the better one was at controlling demons, the greater a magician one was.» — Johnston, citada en bloque: los magos mediterráneos tenían el control de entidades fantasmales o demoníacas por esencial, y medían al mago por su destreza en dominar demonios

«By this period popular magic and intellectual magic were essentially two different activities, overlapping at certain points, but to a large extent carried on in virtual independence of each other. Most of the magical techniques of the village wizard [or witch] had been inherited from the Middle Ages, and had direct links with Anglo-Saxon [magical practice] . . . they were only slightly affected by the Renaissance revival of magical inquiry or by the learned volumes which were its most characteristic product.» — Keith Thomas, citado en bloque: hacia esa época la magia popular y la intelectual eran ya dos actividades distintas, superpuestas en algunos puntos pero en buena medida independientes, y la del brujo de aldea venía de la Edad Media

«The first point to be made here is that evidence of late Byzantine belief concerning the use of demons by men falls almost entirely into the realm of sorcery as opposed to witchcraft.» — Greenfield, citado en bloque: la evidencia bizantina tardía sobre el uso de demonios cae casi entera en la hechicería y no en la brujería

«The idea of the inherently evil, inherently demonic man or woman, the classic figure of witchcraft, is absent, and it is apparent that the Byzantines thought of magic as being almost exclusively performed by sorcerers and magicians who learnt their techniques from teachers or books, who practiced and perfected their . . . craft.» — y el cierre de ese bloque: falta en Bizancio la figura clásica de la bruja, malvada por naturaleza, porque allí la magia se tenía por oficio de hechiceros y magos formados por maestros o por libros

«Amongst modern scholars, Ronald Hutton has divided the progress of magic in Western Europe into three periods,1 and makes a distinction between:» — Ronald Hutton, entre los modernos: divide el avance de la magia en Europa occidental en tres periodos

«Astral magic coming via Arabic texts translated into Latin (from Harran, via Spain and Byzantium) in the 12th-13th centuries; and» — el primero de los que Skinner le atribuye: magia astral por textos árabes traducidos al latín desde Harrán, vía España y Bizancio

«Grimoire magic derived from the Hygromanteia in the late 15th - 16th centuries.» — y el segundo: magia de grimorio derivada de la Hygromanteia

«Maybe he should have presented these as separate streams, rather than separate periods, as they continued to co-exist through to the 17th century.» — la objeción que Skinner le pone: convendría presentarlos como corrientes y no como periodos, porque coexistieron hasta el siglo XVII

«Unlike the later [ritual] magic of the grimoires, these workings [of astral magic] required little ceremony and made only limited use of divine names and words of power; their effectiveness came from the heavens [i.e. astrology].» — Michael Greer y Christopher Warnock, citados en bloque: la magia astral pedía poca ceremonia y poco uso de nombres divinos, y su eficacia venía del cielo

«Frank Klaassen suggests that there were only two streams of magic prior to 1500.» — Frank Klaassen: propone que antes de 1500 hubo solo dos corrientes de magia

«This statement is definitely an over-simplification, but his geographic analysis is useful as it separates out the strand of astral magic that derives from Persia via Arabia and Mesopotamia and contrasts it with ritual magic which arrived via the Graeco-Egyptian texts, the route that is analysed in the present book.» — y el juicio doble que Skinner le da: tiene la afirmación por simplificación excesiva y a la vez por útil su análisis geográfico, que separa la magia astral de Persia y Arabia de la ritual llegada por los textos greco-egipcios

«He categorises his first stream as "scholastic image magic . . . epitomized by certain texts of Arabic image magic," which is usually referred to as I astral magic.» — la primera corriente de Klaassen según Skinner: magia de imágenes escolástica, epitomizada por ciertos textos árabes, lo que suele llamarse magia astral

«Works of this type include the books of Thabit ibn Qurra, De imaginibus (lOth century), the De imaginibus of Belenus,5 Liber Lunae,6 the» — y las obras que Skinner pone en esa corriente: el De imaginibus de Thabit ibn Qurra, el De imaginibus de Belenus y el Liber Lunae; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana, con el escaneo imprimiendo *lOth* por *10th*

«work of the Brethren of Purity, the Ikwan al Safa and significant portions of the Picatrix» — y la continuación en la plana siguiente: la obra de los Hermanos de la Pureza y porciones considerables del Picatrix. La fuente escribe *Ikwan al Safa*, sin la h

«The second stream he categorises as comprising "ritual magic texts, such as the notary art or necromancy" which: . . . employ complex Christian ritual and are, very much, the progeny of the liturgy and Christian religious sensibilities.» — la segunda corriente de Klaassen, citada en bloque: textos de magia ritual —arte notoria o nigromancia— que emplean ritual cristiano complejo y son progenie de la liturgia

«Belenus or Bali:niis is the Arabic form of Apollonius of Tyana, formed by dropping the initial I A' (as if it were the Arabic definite article) and swapping 'p' and 1b' which sound very alike to an Arabic speaker.» — en nota, la identificación que Skinner propone: Belenus es la forma árabe de Apolonio de Tiana, por caída de la A inicial y trueque de p y b

«as has been maintained by some scholars like Jonathan Smith for example, who erroneously opined that illegality was the "one universal characteristic» — Jonathan Smith, a quien Skinner atribuye haber sostenido que la ilegalidad era el rasgo universal de la magia, y a quien objeta con el adverbio puesto

«This very limited and legalistic view of the nature of magic does not allow for its toleration in other cultures, or ancient times. This particular strand of sociological thinking probably ultimately derives from a limited reading of Roman law by Mauss (1972) and Durkheim (1965).» — en nota, Skinner rastrea esa posición: la considera lectura limitada y legalista, y la hace derivar de una lectura corta del derecho romano en Mauss y Durkheim

«In fact there is only one known record of a trial for sorcery in Ancient Egypt, and as that was sorcery designed to kill the Pharaoh, it was probably technically a case of treason, sorcery against the Pharaoh, rather than sorcery per se.» — el dato que Skinner toma de Ritner para el caso egipcio: un solo proceso conocido por hechicería, y por atentar contra el faraón

«affords direct proof that in Egypt magic, as such, was by no means regarded as a forbidden art. It was only when magic was used for illegal purposes . . . that it became punishable; in such instances it was the end, not the means, that incurred the penalties of the law.» — Gardiner, citado en la misma nota: en Egipto la magia no se tenía por arte prohibida, y solo el fin ilegal la hacía punible

«Betz concludes that "no magician who is worth his reputation would ever claim to have invented or made up his own spells.» — Betz, citado en apoyo de la continuidad: ningún mago que se precie alegaría haber inventado sus propios conjuros

«There is hardly any Jewish literature in the north of Europe devoted specifically to magic. Sefer Raziel, probably compiled in the thirteenth century and containing much Geonic mystical material (so potent were its contents considered that mere possession of the book was believed to prevent fires), and the anonymous Shimmush Tehillim, "The (Magical) Use of the Psalms," were all, besides some of the works of Eleazar of Worms and his school, such as Hochmat HaNefesh, which contains more or less pertinent material.» — Trachtenberg, citado en bloque: apenas hay literatura judía del norte de Europa dedicada a la magia, fuera del Sefer Raziel, el Shimmush Tehillim y algunas obras de Eleazar de Worms

«He goes on to add that he believes there must be more materia» — y la reserva del propio Trachtenberg que Skinner suscribe: tiene que haber más material escondido en bibliotecas europeas

«Gershom Scholem sensibly characterises the hekhalot material as 'ecstaticism' as opposed to magic.» — Gershom Scholem, a quien Skinner suscribe: caracteriza el material hekhalot como extaticismo y no como magia

«Interestingly the angel ambiguously referred to as the 'Lord God of Israel' is Zoharariel, which might better be read as 'Zohar Ariel,' an angel name possibly generated from the title of that great classic of the Kabbalah, the Sepher ha-Zohar.» — en nota, la lectura que Skinner propone para el ángel llamado ambiguamente Señor Dios de Israel: leer Zoharariel como Zohar Ariel, nombre acaso formado desde el título del Zohar

«Mathiesen states that all the Hebrew manuscripts of Maphteah Shelomoh were: ... written in the very late 17th or the 18th century.3 They all contain recent Hebrew translations from Italian or Latin magical texts, including passages from the [Latin or Italian] Key of Solomon. They have no bearing on the problem of a possible Hebrew original for that work.» — Mathiesen, citado en bloque: todos los manuscritos hebreos del Maphteah Shelomoh son traducciones recientes de textos mágicos italianos o latinos y no tocan el problema de un original hebreo

«I concur with his view. Scholem also assumed that the Maphteah Shelomoh was a late Jewish adaptation of a "Latin (or rather Italian) Clavicula [Salomonis] text of the Renaissance period" which "contains Christian, Jewish, and Arabic elements which either lie unmixed side by side or show in parts a mutual permeation.» — Skinner suscribe a Mathiesen y suma a Scholem, para quien el Maphteah Shelomoh es adaptación judía tardía de una Clavicula latina o italiana renacentista con elementos cristianos, judíos y árabes

«His conclusion stems from the frequency of Latin and Italian words, whose presence only makes sense if it were a Hebrew copy of a Latin or Italian Clavicula Salomonis text, rather than the reverse.» — con el fundamento de la conclusión de Scholem: la frecuencia de palabras latinas e italianas solo tiene sentido si el hebreo copia al latín

«Research by Rohrbacher-Sticker, Schiffman and Swartz, also supports Scholem» — y las investigaciones que, según Skinner, apoyan lo mismo: Rohrbacher-Sticker, Schiffman y Swartz

«A hurried survey of these very MSS [of the Clavicula Salomonis] might easily convince one that they are anything but Jewish in character, several of them containing illustrations which, in the eye of the Jewish Law, would be regarded as blasphemous;» — Gollancz, citado en bloque, concediendo contra su propia tesis: un vistazo a esos manuscritos convencería a cualquiera de que no tienen nada de judíos, con ilustraciones que la ley judía tendría por blasfemas