Unsolved:Petit Albert

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Short description: 18th-century grimoire
Petit Albert
AuthorAlbertus Parvus Lucius[1] ("Lesser Albert")
Original titleSecrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du petit Albert.
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
SubjectMagic
GenreGrimoire
PublisherHéritiers de Beringos fratres
Publication date
circa 1706[2][3]
Published in English
2012 (as "The Spellbook of Marie Laveau")
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
OCLC164442497
Preceded byGrand Albert 
Followed byGrand Grimoire (the Red Dragon) 

Petit Albert (English: Small Albert) is an 18th-century grimoire of natural and cabalistic magic.[4][5] It may have been inspired by the writings of Albertus Parvus Lucius (the Lesser Albert).[6][7] Brought down to the smallest hamlets in the saddlebags of peddlers,[3] it represents publishing success, despite its association with "devil worshipers"[8]—or rather because of it. It is associated with a second work, the Grand Albert. It is a composite, heterogeneous work, collecting texts written by various authors; most of these authors are anonymous but some are notable such as Cardano and Paracelsus. Due to its historical nature, Albertus Magnus' attribution to the text is considerably uncertain and since the text quotes from many later sources, it is an ethnological document of the first order.

Grand Albert and the Petit Albert

Under the aegis of the Grand Albert

The Little Albert is generally mentioned at the same time as the Grand Albert, another grimoire. The Little Albert, however, is neither a summary nor an abridged version of the Grand Albert; it is a separate text, as can be seen in a comparison of the two works by Claude Seignolle in a French work titled, Les Évangiles du Diable (in English: The Gospels of the Devil).[9]

The author of these two works is speculated to be Albertus Magnus ("Albert the Great"), born around 1193, a theologian and professor at Sorbonne University. The Place Maubert (etymologically "Master Albert Square") in Paris is named after him. The text of Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du Petit Albert published by Chez les Heritiers Beringos in 1752 specifically credits authorship to Alberti Parvi Lucii.[10] In Tarl Warwick's 2016 English translation, the warning to the reader says: "Here is a new edition of the Wonderful Natural Secrets of the Little Albert, known in Latin by the title 'Libellus Alberti Parvi Lucii of mirabilibus Arcanis naturae'"; the author was among those accused of witchery by the masses.[8]

The writings of Master Albert were known to not be printed in his day before his death in 1280 until the invention of the printing press. The earliest known edition appeared in France in 1706 and was published by "Chez les Heritiers Beringos", a fictional company also described as being "at the sign of Agrippa",[3][11] in Lyon and represented a gap of more than 400 years between the estimated date of writing and printing—a range of time that opened up many possibilities for the evolution of the text. Publishing controversial and illegal grimoires under a fictional name was a common tactic in the 18th and 19th centuries[3] as grimoires became increasingly censored by the Catholic Church.[11]


From 1850, the Grand and the Petit Albert were published under the following titles:

  1. Le Grand Albert et ses secrets merveilleux (the Grand Albert)
  2. Les secrets mystiques de la magie naturelle du Petit Albert
  3. Le Dragon Rouge (also known as the Grand Grimoire)

These three works were collected in a grand three-volume work, which was published in Paris in the 1860s and entitled Le Grande et Veritable Science Cabalistique.[1]

Reactions of the Church

Editorial phenomenon

The two Alberts, sold by peddling[3] and inseparable from the Almanac (with astrological calendar, another great success of the popular edition)[11] made a fortune for their publishers since, according to Seignolle, it sold 400,000 a year in the Belgian Ardennes alone.[9]


Thus, the audience it catered to occupied the whole social spectrum. The hand of glory from the book, for example, was an instrument appreciated by burglars. The soap recipes and eau de toilette which included many expensive ingredients from around the world were probably appreciated by the apothecaries of the ladies of the Court. Copies of Le Petit Albert have been located among the 19th century French peasantry, like the Hoodoo practitioners of New Orleans, and the Obeah men of the French West Indies."[1]

The Petit Albert later became a meme. In simple terms, "To say one had the Petit Albert was shorthand for saying one was deep in magic."[3]

Petit Albert

Contents of the book

Depiction of a "hand of glory" from the Petit Albert
  • A warning to the reader
  • Sexual magic (ways to obtain romantic love, seduction, and even to make a woman dance naked)
  • Means to improve agricultural efficiency
  • Means to avoid various inconveniences (such as menaces who destroy crops or kill chickens)
  • Cooking recipes
  • Other recipes for daily life, such as "a soap for faces and hands alike"[8]
  • Means for people and horses to move quickly and without fatigue
  • Making a "hand of glory"

Other parts of the book represent alchemical or cabalist theories whose origin is attributed mainly to Paracelsus. These also include talismans in accordance with cabalist methods, like making gold artificially or dissolving it. Other instructions include turning lead into gold, creating faux currency with tin, utilizing borax to melt gold and the process of creating imitation pearls.[8]

Cultural references

In literature

  • Voltaire mentions the Petit Albert in his Dictionnaire philosophique.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hayes, Kevin (1997). Folklore and Book Culture. University of Tennessee Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780870499784. https://archive.org/details/folklorebookcult00haye. Retrieved 24 February 2019. "Petit Albert in popular culture." 
  2. ↑ "The earliest report I have found to a magical text of this name is in d'Argenson's report of 1702...." The earliest known French edition was published in 1706 under the imprint of Beringos Fratres." Owen Davies, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. Oxford University Press, 2009.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Davies, Owen (2010). Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 9780191509247. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0191509248. Retrieved 24 February 2019. 
  4. ↑ Albert, Petit (1782) (in fr). Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du petit Albert.. Lyon: Héritiers de Beringos fratres. OCLC 164442497. http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/petitalb.htm. 
  5. ↑ Davies, Owen (2008-04-04). "Owen Davies's top 10 grimoires". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/08/history. 
  6. ↑ "Albertus Parvus Lucius Archives". https://library.hrmtc.com/tag/albertus-parvus-lucius/. 
  7. ↑ "Other: Ms. Codex 1699 - Albertus Parvus, Lucius - Curious experiments in natural magick and cabalistic from Albertus Parvus". http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/pageturn.html?id=MEDREN_9962936093503681. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Warwick, Tarl; Magnus, Albertus (2016). The Petit Albert: The Marvellous Secrets of the Little Albert: English Edition (Illustrated ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781523429790. https://books.google.com/books?id=yeU5jwEACAAJ. Retrieved 24 February 2019. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Claude Seignolle, Les Évangiles du Diable, Paris, Robert Laffont, collection " Bouquins ". The Petit Albert occupies the pages 807–895.
  10. ↑ Parvus Lucius, Albertus (1752). Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du Petit Albert. Complutense University of Madrid: chez les heritiers de Beringos frates. https://books.google.com/books?id=M9MfIypxkvAC. Retrieved 20 March 2019. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "La Magie naturelle: Grimoires Priaulx Library". 2019-02-24. https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/articles/article/la-magie-naturelle-grimoires. 
  12. ↑ "Page:Voltaire - Œuvres complètes Garnier tome18.djvu/548 - Wikisource". https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Voltaire_-_%C5%92uvres_compl%C3%A8tes_Garnier_tome18.djvu/548. 

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