Forbidden Rites: A Necromancerвђ™s Manual Of The ... May 2026

The manual is not a systematic treatise but a "miscellany" or scrapbook of magical practices. Kieckhefer divides the rituals into three primary categories:

The manuscript was likely compiled by a member of the lower clergy who possessed the necessary Latin literacy and knowledge of church liturgy. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the ...

, authored by Richard Kieckhefer , is an academic study and edition of a unique 15th-century Latin manuscript (Clm 849) found in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. The book provides a rare, detailed look into the "clerical underworld" of the Middle Ages, where educated clerics adapted orthodox religious rituals for illicit magical purposes. Core Content and Structure The manual is not a systematic treatise but