Steganographia: Books I-IV

Written in 1500 by Johannes Trithemius, the teacher of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, the Steganographia is a famous text about the evocation of spirits and the cryptography associated with them. In 1976, Books I and III were partially published in English, but never have all four books been published in English--until now.

This hardcover edition from Dr. Stephen Skinner and Daniel Clark contains the remaining parts of Books I and III (detailed spirit registers covering thirty-two spirits). It also features a full translation of Book II (containing another twenty-five spirits) and Book IV, which relates the Steganographia to Paracelsus, the Almadel, and the Shemhamaphorash of Solomon, Adam, and Moses.

Featuring extensively researched explanations by Skinner and Clark, the complete Steganographia can now be a celebrated part of your library.

Stephen Skinner began his career as a Geography lecturer and magazine publisher, but his long term interests have always been Western magic and feng shui.

During the 1970s he was the driving force behind Askin Publishers, producing a number of classic magical works by Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, and others. During the 1970s he co-wrote many books with Francis King, including the still popular Techniques of High Magic. Also with Francis King he wrote Nostradamus. His interest in prophecy stimulated by this book, he went on to write the best selling Millennium Prophecies.

Stephen is credited with bringing the art of Feng Shui to the West, and in 1976 he wrote the Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui, which was the first English book on feng shui in the 20th century.

Stephen has written more than 35 books, which have been published worldwide in 28 different languages. These books have had introductions by such diverse people as Colin Wilson, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, and Jimmy Choo, shoe designer to the stars.

Stephen lives in Singapore. Stephen is the first Westerner to be awarded the title of Grand Master of Feng Shui by the International Feng Shui Association.

Johannes Trithemius was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler, cryptographer, and occultist. He is considered the founder of modern cryptography (a claim shared with Leon Battista Alberti) and steganography, as well as the founder of bibliography and literary studies as branches of knowledge. He had considerable influence on the development of early modern and modern occultism. His students included Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus.

Daniel Clark was born in Hobart, Tasmania. He developed a serious interest in magic from a very early age with a particular focus on the grimoires. His interests range from Solomonic and Faustian traditions and demonology, to the more obscure esoteric areas of Japanese Onmyodo and Yokai mythology. Over the past few years Daniel has been striving to help important and often forgotten manuscripts of magic get digitized, and has tracked down and located many variant grimoires residing in universities and libraries around the world, many of which are still waiting to be re-discovered.