The Grand Grimoire with the Great Clavicle of Solomon

The Grand Grimoire with the Great Clavicle of Solomon is a book first published in the eighteenth century, commonly dated between c.1702 and 1750. Framed as an inheritance from the Solomonic tradition, the text presents a practical manual of black magic and diabolic evocation, including rites, invocations, the construction of talismans and wands, and the forms of pact-making used to compel spirits.

The book reads as a ritual handbook rather than a philosophical treatise, emphasizing step-by-step preparations, sacred names, sigils, and ceremonial tools intended to bind and bargain with powerful intelligences. Drawing heavily on earlier Solomonic collections such as the Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key, it adds its own “clavicle” of secret words and invocations, along with detailed instructions for summoning named infernal officers, including Lucifuge Rofocale.

Historically regarded with suspicion and fascination in equal measure, the Grand Grimoire has functioned as folklore, practitioner’s manual, and cultural touchstone influencing later occultists and popular imaginings of demonic pacts. Read today as a document of magical belief and practice, it is most useful to historians, folklorists, and collectors of grimoires, as well as readers curious about the technical ritual logic of traditional European ceremonial magic.