The Immaterial Book of St. Cyprian
$26.30
Folk Concepts & Views on The Book as a Cultural Item through the Reading of Folk Narratives
The Immaterial Book of St. Cyprian is a collection of 31 Iberian stories, myths, and “rural legends” about the infamous spellbook of the saint of occultists. It charts the purported powers of this grimoire, and the powers such a tome confers upon the bearer. Newly translated from the Portuguese by José Leitão, these collected legends of Cyprian’s Book illuminate Iberian conceptions of local witchcraft and countermagic, enchanted treasures, the Devil and the mysterious mouros and mouras – faerie-like denizens that manifest to tempt and terrify the unwary and the foolhardy. Each legend appears in the original Portuguese as well as in English, in facing-page translation. Leitão also provides a rich introduction contextualizing the legends and discussing the various themes arising in them. This volume is an indispensable companion to Leitão’s The Book of St. Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure (Hadean Press, 2014).
The Immaterial Book of St. Cyprian is the second volume in the Folk Necromancy in Transmission series, conceived and curated by Dr Alexander Cummins and Jesse Hathaway Diaz for Rubedo Press.
About José Leitão
José Leitão is a Portuguese St. Cyprian devotee. He holds a PhD in experimental physics and has recently finished a second Master’s degree in religious studies in the University of Amsterdam. His current research focuses on understudied Portuguese esoteric or heterodox ideas and folk magico-religious practices, as well as their current manifestations in South America and other regions of the former Portuguese Empire. Within that vein, he has produced the first English translation of one of the traditional Portuguese grimoires attributed to St. Cyprian, published in 2014 by Hadean Press under the title The Book of St. Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure.