I was re-watching “The 9th Gate” the other day, and it got me to thinking.
I’ve always had an interest in ancient occult books, and I’ve acquired some rare ones that a lot of people told me I would never find (Grimoirium Verum, Grand Grimoire, Constitution of Honorus etc.)
What I would like to know is, how many mythical books are actually proposed to exist, and what are there standings (closer to myth or actual evidence of existance)
Any info would be appreciated,
The MeatBeast
Given my username, my contribution to this thread should be obvious.
Before anyone tells you otherwise, the Necronomicon is/was/always will be a fiction. It was invented out of whole cloth by Lovecraft to serve the plots of the stories in the Cthulhu Mythos. Anyone who claims to own a copy is either lying through his teeth or actually owns one of the various books made long after the fact by people who wanted to cash in on the gullible.
This is actually a real book, but it is just as much a legend in its own right.
http://www.thewalters.org/archimedes/frame.html
Here is how the word palimpsest came about,
http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-pal1.htm
Perhaps the greatest act of intellectual destruction took place when the library of Alexandria was burned down, the material in there, especially some unique Greek mathematics manuscripts might have contained material that could have advanced science by generations.
In Archimedes Palimpsest there are parts that hint at the idea of the square root of a megative number, and hence complex notation - something that took thousands of years to rediscover.
Must be some books in there that might fit your criteria
Poe’s The Fall of The House of Usher lists numerous mysterious sounding works in the Usher family library:
“We pored together over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse of Gresset; the Belphegor of Machiavelli; the Selenography of Brewster; the Heaven and Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm de Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean d’Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of Tieck; and the City of the Sun of Campanella. One favorite volume was a small octavo edition of the Directorium Inquisitorium, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Ægipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, however, was found in the earnest and repeated perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic — the manual of a forgotten church — the Vigilae Mortuorum secundum Chorum Ecclesiae Maguntinae.”
In addition, the climax of the story occurs as the narrator is reading from something he refers to as “the ‘Mad Trist’ of Sir Launcelot Canning”.
I’ve seen it claimed that these were all made up by Poe, (he was also fond of inventing quotes to preface his stories) but a little searching finds that at least some of them are real (I was surprised to see an actual connection between Swedenborg and Klimm de Holberg). Pity Poe’s library wasn’t preserved. I’m sure it would be fascinating in its own right.
Poe probably lost all his books to a cheated landlord or pawned them all for liquor money. Right off the bat, I can tell some of those in the Usher list are “real” (though hardly factual).
Apocryphal books are a minor obsession for some people. I once bought a used “Necronomicon,” fully aware that it was a post facto ripoff. Still, I got a couple of interesting reactions when reading it on the MUNI. I honestly cannot remember much about it… probably read only half of it.
My nomination for a new classic to the “invisible library”: Oolon Colluphid´s trilogy, “Where God Went Wrong,” “Some More Of God’s Greatest Mistakes,” and “Who Is This God Person Anyway?.”
PAZUZU mocks your ignorance. Yog shoggo tot yop naggoloth!
Simon.