“Solomonari. And their Codex of Secrets”: an Historical and Occult Analysis of the 16th-Century Grimoire
Is the “Solomonari codex of secrets” historically accurate? In a way, yes, but not as Early Modern historians will probably appreciate, because this is a blend of different references from the same time period, and, as we’ll see, works more like a visual storytelling device for the viewer to connect it with Count Orlok, than anything else. Nevertheless, it offers a broader understanding into his Solomonar beliefs and Magical practices.
A better look at the “Solomonari Codex of Secrets” from the “Nosferatu Experience” (via @thehauntkeeper Instagram account). In the exibition, but also on the script, the book is called “The Evil Eye”, in reference to the sigil on the cover.
In Romanian folklore, this codex is called a “book of wisdom”, and one of the key elements of a Solomonar, considered the source of all their magic power. This manuscript not only belongs to Count Orlok, but it was written by him, and contains all of his occult and magical knowledge; providing more insight into his backstory, his beliefs, but also placing him in a specific time period (Renaissance) and magic tradition (Solomonic).
A “codex” is a manuscript book (handwritten), made with bound pages of papyrus, parchment, or vellum. It’s earlier version is said to date from the 5th century (“Codex Alexandrinus”) to replace scrolls, and it’s the ancestor to modern books. It’s often written in Latin or Greek, and it usually deals with topics like Scripture, early Literature, or mythological or historical annals. It fell out of use with the advent of the printed book, and with Johann Fust, Peter Schoffer, and Johannes Gutenberg’s innovations in the printing press, in 1440.
What Professor Von Franz calls the “Solomonari codex of secrets” (where the instructions to break Nosferatu curse are found), like the historical codex, is written in Latin. I’ll elaborate on this in a moment, but historical context is needed, first.
During the 15th and 17th centuries, unknown scribes, throughout Europe, wrote different manuscripts which are now part of a collection of grimoires called “Clavicle of Solomon” (“The Key of Solomon”). Written in diverse languages (such as Latin, Greek and Hebrew), dealt with several types of subjects, yet they were all inspired by the Kabbalistic and Talmudic teachings, and Arab alchemical practices (transformation and purification) of King Solomon. It created a system of ceremonial magic, which involved sacred geometry, sacred names, talismans, invocations/conjuring and command and binding of spiritual entities (angels and demons), but also of the dead (Necromancy). Some of these manuscripts dealt with darker topics than others, and even blood was used on its pages. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many of these manuscrites were compiled to give way to the modern books of “The Key of Solomon” available today.
These grimoires are considered a part of what’s called “Renaissance Magic”, which marked the resurgence of Hermeticism and Neoplatonic approaches in the magical arts, and Occultism saw a change in practices and beliefs during the Early Modern Era. The magical arts started to be seen as a another scientific method to understand the natural world, the soul, and God’s truths.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa “De occulta philosophia” (1533) was revolucionary with it’s combination of White and Black magic; Paracelsus combined medical pratices with astrology and natural elements; Nostradamus rose to fame because of his prophecies; Dr. John Dee and his scryer Edward Kelly created the Enochian magic system and said to have received Enochian language from their communications with angels.
Viewers of Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” will recognize some of these names because they are mentioned in the film: “he [Professor Von Franz] was tossed out of the university – laughed out of his home country. [...] It grieves me to speak it, but he became obsessed with the work of Paracelsus, Agrippa, and the like. [...] Alchemy, mystic philosophy... the occult.”
When we are introduced to Professor Von Franz, he’s trying to unlock the final key to Dr. John Dee’s “Mysteriorum Libri Quinque”, but he miscalculated the stars, and there would be no “redemption”, no “philosopher's stone”, for him that evening. When the Professor gets his hands on the codex, he gets the answers to unlock the “final key” of Solomon.
The Cover
The sigil on the cover appears to be inspired by The Great Pentacle of Solomon (one of the “Keys of Solomon” from “MS. 276”, a 17th-century Italian manuscript) and the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (from the Enochian magic system of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly).
The “evil eye” title appears to be a reference to the original 1922 “Nosferatu”, and to the book Thomas Hutter finds on his room at the Transylvanian Inn, which, indeed, has a evil eye sigil on the cover:
This sigil is from 19th-century “The Gnostics and Their Remains” by Charles William King, and represents the central eye surrounded by an owl, serpent, stag, scorpion, dog, lion and thunderbolt; “the evil eye surrounded by antidotes against its influence for every day in the week, in the attribute of the deity presiding over each, namely, the lion for dies Solis, the stag for dies Lunæ (Diana venatrix), the scorpion for dies Martis, the dog for dies Mercurii, etc.”
There’s seven antidotes in this evil eye sigil, also making it an heptagram, in a way, which might indicate Robert Eggers’ first inspiration for choosing this symbol for his own Count Orlok, or the heptagram as a reference to this.
On Robert Eggers’ adaptation, the inspired Sigillum Dei Aemeth (“Sigil of Truth” or “Sigil of God”) is a angelic magical sigil, populazired by Dr. John Dee, and central to the Enochian magical pursuits. It’s an example of sacred geometry, it was used for protection (ward off evil, hence the “evil eye” motif); communication with spirits, angels and archangels; authority (establishing the magician magician's divine authority); and consecration (sanctify the space).
The “Great Pentacle of Solomon” establishes the connection to the Solomonari, and it works in a similar way to the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (many even say it might have been inspired by it). Overall these sigils (or “keys”, based on sacred geometry) were used for several magical purposes, including protection and curse-breaking.
Caligraphy
The caligraphy appears to be a “polished” version of what’s found in mid 17th-century “Clavicula Salomonis de secretis: In nomine Adonay, Tetragrammaton, Apyruch, Exbranor” (“The Secrets of Solomon and the art Rabidmadar”), considered the ancestor of 18th-century “Grimorium Verum”.
This grimoire has a particularity; it’s addressed to both men and women, uncommon for these sort of books in this time period. The first text deals with Chthonic Spirits (from the Underworld), considered very dangerous because they can cause great harm, and even death. Next, it’s the thirteen orders of Amalthea Spirits, associated with the nine “movable spheres” (the seven planets + Primum Mobile and the Starry Heavens). Third, are the “Planetary Intelligences” and the spirits under them.
This text was translated and published in 2018 by Joseph Peterson, and on his introduction note, the author says a grimoire with this very title was property of Leonardo Longo and Francesco Viola, and was confiscated by the Inquisition of Venice, and preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia. The two men were on trial for witchcraft in 1636.
The first chapter is very fitting with the themes of “Nosferatu”, as well with the “Solomonari codex of secrets” created for the film, since the first text also appears to deal with the same topic, with instructions in how to break the curse of Nosferatu: “and lo the maiden fair did offer up her love unto the beast and with him lay in close embrace until the first cock crow. Her willing sacrifice thus broke the curse and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu.”
There is another reference to this title in “Nosferatu”; when Professor Von Franz is about to burn the Hardings bodies, alongside Thomas and Dr. Sievers, he prays: “In the name of Jehovah, and by the power and dignity of these Three names, Tetragrammaton, Anaphaxeton and Primeumaton, cast thee, O thou disobedient Spirit Nosferatu, into the Lake of Fire, there to remain until the Day of Doom, and not to be remembered before the face of God who shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world with fire.”
The trio “Tetragrammaton, Anaphaxeton and Primeumaton” is the Triangle of Solomon, with the three sacred names of God, used for protection during Ceremonial Magic of summoning or binding Kabbalistic angels and Goetic demons. In the film, the second name was replaced by “Anexhexeton”, which is not uncommon when cinema deals with occult topics.
Professor Von Franz is performing Solomonic Magic, after he read the codex, which highly implied he took it from there, because the last conjuring he did (of angels and daemons, when compelling Ellen to speak) appears to be from Agrippa’s “De occulta philosophia”, Book Three; which covers the intellectual world of Pagan gods and spirits, and gives magical procedures for invocation and communication, as well as with God; and the kabbalistic tree of life (hierarchies of angels and demons associated with each sephirot). The idea behind this conjuring is to infuse the lower angelic orders with the light they receive from God, as the magician instructs the orders).
We find the same caligraphy in analogous manuscripts, which form the collection of grimoires of the “Clavicle of Solomon”, from the Renaissance era. The idea is not so much the text itself (as we’ll see) but for the design and the title to work as a reference to that time period and that specific Magical system. It’s mostly a visual storytelling device for the audience to associate the codex with Count Orlok. Many of these manuscripts also include “secrets” or “secrets of Solomon” on their titles, further making that connection.
Internal Organization
While the caligraphy appears to be inspired by these 15th to 17th century grimoires of the “Clavicle of Solomon”, the organization of the text itself is not. The “Solomonari codex of secrets” appears to follow an older, medieval tradition of the illuminated manuscript, with the page laid out as two columns. Most likely to make it “worthy” of the term “codex”, as well, as the religious nature of the book.
The illuminated text is often decorated with illustrations (known as “miniatures”) and/or flourishes such as: borders, decorative initials, marginal decoration, etc. The style and design of these decorations vary according to the time period and subject of the text, but often serve the purpose of highlighting the topic at hand, others are merely decorative. Illumination was more common in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books, but, after the 13th century, also courtly literature, proclamations, codes of law, charters, inventories, and deeds.
In the “Solomonari codex of secrets” we find many of these decorations; and miniature of a Nosferatu feeding on a woman until daybreak. The miniature has details in gold, which were more common in religious texts, to highlight the divine, yet, an “illuminated” manuscript has to contain gold or silver (leaf), which reflects the light, to be considered “illuminated”.
This will be fully speculation from my part, but the decorative borders on the “Solomonari codex of secrets” kind of remind me of decorations found in the “Voynich manuscript”, an enigmatic codex from the early 15th-century, possibily from Italy, that no one, up to this day, was able to decipher because it's not in any known language (and many historians, cryptographers and even military codebreakers have tried, over the years). Its first owner was Georg Baresch, a 17th-century alchemist, from Prague.
Text
As mentioned above, it’s Latin script. The word “voluerunt” is underlined; “to want; to wish”, or “willingly”, as it’s used in the film.
However, the complete sentence doesn’t translate into the “breaking of the curse” Professor Von Franz speaks, it appears to say: “Hace edo antiquiffimi philofophi demon finare voluerunt in allegoris”. Which translates into: “It is said that ancient philosophers wanted to end the demon in allegories.” I wasn’t able to find any direct reference to this, but the next passage is connected to Greek mythology of Triptolemus and the Goddess Demeter: “De Triptolem [Ceres, veluti nutrix Triptolemum] interdiu lacte nutrivit, noctu fub ignibus pofuit, unde cùm puer optimè aleretur, pater Eleufius ali aliquando hocoblervavit.”
“From Triptolemus she nursed him with milk during the day, and at night she set him on fire, so that when the boy was well nourished, his father Eleuthius sometimes kept him company.”
This is a quote from “Atalanta Fugiens: Emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymica” (1618) by Michael Maier; an opera about Alchemy, and inspired by the myth of Atalanta (a heroine from Greek mythology, affiliated with the Goddess Artemis).
The majority of the text seems to be separate references to Alchemy, and in the first page we have mentions of “nigredo”, the first stage of the alchemist process of the “philosopher’s stone”.
Unlike the “covenant papers” (or should I say the “divorce papers”), what’s written in this book apparently doesn’t offer any novelty to the plot, but rather strengthens things we already know from other iconography: Count Orlok was an alchemist, and the ending of the film is connected to the Alchemist process of the “philosopher’s stone”, from a Jungian interpretation of “integration of shadow” theory.
Sigils and Notes
All over the two pages of the “Solomonari codex of secrets” there are annotations, symbols and sigils. Many of these symbols seem to be Enochian (the angelic language), probably as a reference to the original “Nosferatu” (1922), where the same alphabet could be found in Count Orlok’s letter to Herr Knock.
There are Solomonic inspired sigils on these pages, as well:
These pentacles are consecrated to each one of the seven planets, and its purpose is to conjure and work with the spirits and energies associated with them, for all kind of different goals.
This particular pentacle doesn’t seem to translate into any of the known ones, and it’s probably here to illustrate that connection with Solomonic Magic, while keeping an respectful distance from the real thing, which are considered holy and conduits for the Occult powers of the Cosmos, planets and stars, nature, and from the Inner World (soul).
Conclusion
The “Solomonari codex of secrets” isn’t historically accurate in the way one would expect an actual Renaissance codex to be, even though it combines elements of that time period.
It serves, however, as a visual storytelling device to establish Count Orlok as a ceremonial magician (whose rituals were similar to what we see Herr Knock performing in the film), and to further identify him as a Solomonar, and an alchemist. However, since Robert Eggers adapted the academic thesis which links the folkloric Solomonar with the Dacian cult of Zalmoxis, and this creates a very intricate religious system for his Count Orlok, where Paganism interwines with Jewish and Christian spiritual deities, and Alchemy.
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