"This rare and unique manuscript of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, from which the present work is translated, is a French translation from the original Hebrew of Abraham the Jew. It is in the style of script usual at about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, a...

"This rare and unique manuscript of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, from which the present work is translated, is a French translation from the original Hebrew of Abraham the Jew. It is in the style of script usual at about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, and is apparently by the same hand as another MS. of the Magic of Picatrix1 also in the "Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal". I know of no other existing copy or replica of this Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, not even in the British Museum, whose enormous collection of Occult Manuscripts I have very thoroughly studied. Neither have I ever heard by traditional report of the existence of any other copy.2 In giving it now to the Public, I feel, therefore, that I am conferring a real benefit upon English and American students of Occultism, by placing within their reach for the first time a Magical work of such importance from the Occult standpoint. S. L. MacGregor Mathers"