Dr. John Dee and the Necronomicon

It is claimed that Dr. John Dee, right about the year 1586, translated the Greek version of the Necronomicon, which Theodoras Philetas translated from the original Arabic version in c. 950 CE.
My question is: Is there any proof that Dr. John Dee actually possessed and translated the Greek Necronomicon and was subsequently in possession of the Latin version?

Since the Necronomicon is fictional and was invented by HP Lovecraft in the 1920s, I’m going to say “no”.

The following presentation by Joseph H. Peterson titled Necronomicon–shedding some light on Lovecraft’s sources is by far the best proof I’ve managed to gather, which reads in part:

In addition to this, there’s the pictorial evidence for the Latin Necronomicon dating c. 14th or early 15th Century also provided in the article, in addition to a fragment of Dr. Dee’s actual translation of the Necronomicon and the seal of Cthulhu.
In the absence of further evidence refuting the aforementioned proof, I’m afraid I will have to go by Joseph H. Peterson’s premise that H.P. Lovecraft derived his version of the Necronomicon from Dr. Dee’s fragments of the Necromonicon and modified it to suit his storyline.

Source

Source

It’s fiction. Your source is a crackpot.

Thanks for the input. But can you substantiate your claim that J.H. Peterson is a crackpot?

Here’s a book that does into some detail about the John Dee translation hoax. Make up your own mind about Peterson.

Well, given that the link to that page on Peterson’s homepage says:

necronom/necronom.html - A FICTIONAL note about Lovecraft and the Necronomicon

one suggests that Mr. Peterson isn’t a crackpot so much as joking with his audience a little. At any rate, Lovecraft claimed that he and his friends made up all the occult books he used in his stories, saying that actual occult books tended to be pretty dull and uninteresting and it was more fun as an author to create your own.

I find it an excellent joke. Many academics amuse themselves by constructing pseudo-erudite studies of nonsense. (The opening stanza of Jabberwocky has been “proven” to be a surviving fragment of an otherwise lost Anglo-Saxon epic.)

No, *the *Necronomicon is fictional. Whether Lovecraft stole the title from an actual medieval grimoire is irrelevant to the fact that any “translated lines” were created to add verisimilitude to otherwise uninspired stories sold to horror pulp magazines.

I’m sorry, but if you’re referring to this particular link from J.H. Peterson’s page:

http://www.esotericarchives.com/necronom/necronom.html

then NOWHERE is it stated in the manner you’ve put here. You must have the wrong link.

It is on this page: Twilit Grotto -- Esoteric Archives: site map

As Captain Amazing says, Mr (Dr?) Preston is having his little joke there. I note that the “Necronomicon” page is not linked from the site’s true home page, but only (so far as I can see) from that sitemap page. By the looks of it, the rest of the stuff at the site consists of material from genuine esoteric works.

Someone honestly thinks there is a REAL tomb to summon elder abomination?

It’s just as real as Lovecraft’s other fictional books, including the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, “the Cultes des Goules of Comte d’Erlette, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, and old Ludvig Prinn’s hellish De Vermis Mysteriis” (Haunter of the Dark).

It is an excellent joke. Of course, the only problem with this kind of gag is that someone out there is going to take it seriously. Snopes slips several gag pages into its debunking site, such as Mister Ed was a zebra.

Compared to some of the odd ideas out there, that hardly registers on the Absurdometer.

Is this a joke thread?

Here, courtesy of Project Gutenberg, is a catalog by John Dee of the manuscripts in his possession. The Necronomicon does not appear.

Actually, all the joke entries are grouped in The Repository of Lost Legends (TROLL) for obvious reasons.

HP Lovecraft gleefully admitted in his letters that the Necronomicon was a fiction he invented. He also said that he made up the name Abdul Al Hazred when he was a preteen and reading A Thousand And One Arabian Nights.

I’ve got

2 plush Cthuhlu.

the 4th ed Call Of Cthulhu rp game.

the original Arkham Horror board game

the video game Call Of Cthulhu- Dark Corners Of The Earth

The original Alone In The Dark

Shadow Of The Comet

Cthulhu Fluxx

The Arkham Alphabet book

The Insmouth Hymnal
I also have a Cultist Of Cthulhu outfit I made myself and a Cthulhu leaflet.

With all this Cthulhu collecting, I have not come across a single reputable source saying that the Necronomicon was a real book.

Since this is about a fictional work, let’s move it to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator