The Grimorium Verum was ostensibly a magical textbook that was first published in 1517, and purported to be translated from the
Hebrew. It is based to some extent upon the Key of Solomon, and is quite honest in its statement that it proposes to invoke 'devils,'
which it refers to the four elements, so that these would appear to be of the type of elementary spirits. A part of the account it gives
regarding the hierarchy of spirits is taken from the Lemegeton. The work is divided into three portions: the first describing the
characters and seals of the demons, with the forms of their evocation and dismissal; the second gives a dsecription of the supernatural
secrets which can be learned by the power of the demons; and the third is the key of the work and its proper application.
But these divisions only outline what it purports to place before the reader, as the whole work is a mass of confusion. The plates
which supply the characters do not apply to the text. The book really consists of two parts - the Grimorium Verum itself, and a second
portion, which consists of magical secrets. The first supplies directions for the preparation of the magician based on those of the
Clavicle of Solomon. Instructions for the manufacture of magical instruments, and the composition of a parchment on which the characters
and seals are to be inscribed, as well as the processes of evocation and dismissal. The second part contains the 'admirable secrets' of
the pretended Albertus Magnus, the 'Petit Albert'. The work is only partially diabolical in character, and some of its
processes might claim to be classed as 'white' (or non-evil) magic. Some accounts, however, claim the book bequeaths to its holder
powers of untold magnitude.
