About this title:

Until this edition the grimoire was known only to exist only in the form of several nineteenth century manuscripts, which are said to have been transcribed by Frederick Hockley (1809-1885) from “an ancient Latin manuscript,” dated 1519. However, recent research suggests the these manuscripts were probably actually written by Hockley himself, although he obviously made use of a variety of earlier sources. Curiously the work known as ‘The Secret Grimoire of Turiel,’ seems to have been derived from it, although “A Complete Book of Magic Science” is lengthier and contains much additional material. One of Hockley’s manuscript copies, complete with beautiful color drawings of the sigils, magical circles etc., was recently discovered, and it is from this Hockley manuscript, that the Teitan Press edition was prepared. Hockley was a dedicated occultist and Freemason, who in later in life joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and other esoteric fraternities, although his real passion lay in magick of the type that involved contact with Spirits. He worked for the bookseller John Denley, who knew Francis Barrett and had provided him with many of the books that he used in compiling “The Magus.” Hockley himself put together a huge library on the occult, and sought out and copied a number of manuscripts and grimoires that he found hidden in collections around England. After his death Hockley’s library was dispersed, and is it known that Hockley manuscripts made their way into the hands of a number of members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the famous magical group in which Aleister Crowley started his career. There is a persistent speculation that Hockley was the source of the famous ‘cipher manuscripts’ from which the basic structure and rituals of Order were drawn and one of the groups founders, W. Wynn Westcott, not only wrote that Hockley’s manuscripts were “highly esteemed,” and claimed him as one of the Order’s prominent Adepts. This First Edition of the ‘Complete Book of Magic Science’ faithfully reproduces the text and diagrams of Hockley’s manuscript. It is prefaced with an Introduction by Dietrich Bergman.