Book of Saint Cyprian

Did You Know?

• The Scandinavian Cyprianus svarteboken (black books) are a distinct tradition with no connection beyond the shared story of St Cyprian.
• One of these, the Black Books of Elvarum, dates back to 1682 and claims to go back to 1529.

The Iberian Cyprian

The collection of texts known as the Iberian Cyprian is not a single book but a family of Spanish and Portuguese manuscripts and printed works, most dating from the 1800s. An older, pre-modern Cyprianic literature once existed, inspired by the legend of Saint Cyprian, but it has been lost and shows no clear link to the surviving texts. Portuguese versions of the Book of Cyprian frequently carry titles like "Great and True," "Only Complete," or "Authentic," and are usually subtitled "The Sorcerer's Treasure" (ou thesouro de feiticeiro).

Although the content appears Catholic on the surface, it is heavily grounded in Bruxaria, a form of folk witchcraft, and remains popular in Brazil among followers of Quimbanda, Umbanda, and Candomblé. The Sorcerer's Treasure includes very little ritual evocation; instead, it relies on oral traditions covering divination, healing spells, prayers (including those addressed to one's guardian angel), exorcisms, love magic, the locations of buried treasure across Galicia, and occasionally treatises on animal magnetism, all wrapped in a folk Catholic framework.

Most editions open with the legend of Saint Cyprian and contain sections on alchemy, astrology, cartomancy, conjuring devils, divination, exorcisms, ghosts, hidden treasures, love magic, luck magic, omens, dream interpretation, palmistry, and prayers. Some editions also include stories about a French peasant named Victor Siderol, who supposedly found hidden treasures using the book. Brazilian versions of the Sorcerer's Treasure differ widely from one another, whereas Portuguese editions are comparatively consistent.

The most representative edition is the one from Livraria Económica, later translated into English as The Book of St. Cyprian - The Sorcerer's Treasure by José Leitão, with extra material added from more recent editions like the Moderna Editorial Lavores. According to Leitão, Portuguese Cyprianic literature blends Iberian magical traditions with traditional African religion. The Portuguese Inquisition focused on Crypto-Judaism rather than witchcraft, which made it easier for magical practitioners to Christianize both native Iberian magic and imported African beliefs.

The Inquisition unintentionally helped this process by treating traditional African religious practices as merely deviant forms of Catholicism rather than as separate faiths.

The Wellcome Cyprian

A Latin manuscript known as Wellcome MS 2000, credited to a figure called M: L: Cypriani or Magistri Ludi Cypriani, bears the title Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona. Stephen Skinner and David Rankine uncovered it in 2004. Its creation is placed in either 1717 or 1757, though clues within the text point to 1857 as another possibility. Beyond sharing a patron saint, this work has no connection to Iberian or Scandinavian Cyprianic traditions. It does, however, link directly to the Heptameron attributed to pseudo-d'Abano, works by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, Faustbuchen from Das Kloster, Liber Lunae, Trithemius's Polygraphie, and the Magical Calendar.