What Is A Grimoire?
That’s debatable, really. The standard definition varies of course, like all grand things, no one is quite sure what is technically is, and how to be properly semantical about it. A grimoire, according to the handy little dictionary that always seems to be floating around my desk, isn’t important enough to mention. Either that, or no one thought of including it. Grimoire also is nowhere to be found in my dictionary’s constant companion, thesaurus either. That should actually give you an idea of just how antiquated the term actually is. Although, it is by many standards, an actual literary genre, despite the fact that so few of them exist.
Many people consider a grimoire to be any book of magical spells, but this is more generalised of a term that is usually used to refer to specifically medieval European magical textbooks. This isn’t just a collection of briefly explained poetic magic, like those found today, in Pagan and Wiccan bookstores. Also, typically, grimoires revolve around Jewish, Muslim, and medieval Christian rituals, and text. The spells and rituals were used usually to summon up demons, and angels; unlike pagan rituals which are used to invoke gods and goddesses. Although there isn’t much actual difference, as we’ll look into in the Controversy section.
A grimoire usually contains things like astrological dioramas, and correspondences, detailed lists and summaries of angels and demons, the instructions for casting spells and invoking these angels and demons, making talismans, and even some things as benign as the directions for mixing medicines. In medieval ages, magicians, and even doctors, and early scientists were considered usually to be the devil incarnate. The reason so few medieval grimoires exist, is because if Christian soldiers discovered the existence of such books, they were burned. And I doubt their owners fared very well either.
The word “grimoire” comes from the very antiquated Old French dialect, the word “grammaire”, from which came both glamour, and grammar. Glamour, for influential appeal, and grammar, for a system of language. Throughout medieval European times, books were called “grammars”, teaching Latin and mostly religious subjects generally only used by the church. Any other books, were believed to most likely be of sorcerous intent. Over the years, the term “grimoire” gradually just became the name for that specific literary genre.
