Liber Ivonis
Description
A large (25” x 36”) vellum manuscript bound in brass-capped leather. The interior of the work (entitled Liber Ivonis) is in illuminated Latin, accompanied by copious marginal illustrations, miniatures, and decorated initials. The manuscript binding is in fair condition—some of the brass fittings have been lost, the inside cover has been gouged repeatedly, and there are recent small scorch marks on the rear cover. The manuscript interior is in excellent condition. The artwork within depicts many strange scenes, some of which are rather disturbing.
Text
Notes
Investigators hoping to probe the history of this particular copy of the Book of Eibon will find no trace of it prior to the 18th century. An oblique mention of it can be found in The Life of the Late Lord Philip Nicholas of Harwich, the biography of an otherwise unremarkable English nobleman from Essex, killed during the siege of Pondichéry in 1748. During a discussion of Lord Philip’s Grand Tour, there are several paragraphs devoted to one Orin Planter, another Englishman encountered by Philip’s party while in Naples. Planter is described as a scholar and translator who persuaded his new companion into aid him in the (illicit) purchase of several books from the city’s archive. Lord Philip was given a copy of Dante’s Paradiso while Planter obtained a lesser book described as “a medieval manuscript described as The Book of Ivanus, a brass-bound medical text from the court of Frederick the Great.” The two parted company soon after, Lord Philip tiring of the “banker's earnest son's company[1].”
Planter is identified as a minor figure in 18th century Swedenborgian occult circles as well as grandfather to Nicholas Planter (1798-1857), the Victorian Spiritualist and trance medium[2].
Additionally, there is an 1853 newspaper account of a séance, in which a curious brass-bound book was placed at the center of the table during an attempt to contact the spirit of Lord Nelson. The séance was broken off when the elderly Planter cried out something about feeling the presence of “Sataga,” an evil spirit. Further research into the Planter family uncovers the curious fact that one line of the Planter family formerly owned Gavigan’s estate, “Misr House” (so named by Maurice Planter (1824-1887), an amateur Egyptologist and historian); the estate owner previous to Gavigan, Sir Tristan Planter, died in the sinking of the Shetland ferry Shoney in 1900[1].
According to the monk-librarians at Sacra di San Michele, this book was copied in the early 13th century in the Sicilian court of Frederick the 2nd. The cover of the book was added maybe in the 16th century. This book is a biography of a sorcerer and grimoire.
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