Book of Soyga 1

Book of Soyga

John Dee

The Book of Soyga, also titled Aldaraia, is a 16th century Latintreatise on magic, one copy of which is known to have been possessedby the Elizabethan scholar John Dee. After Dee's death, the book wasthought to be lost until 1994 when two manuscripts were located in theBritish Library (Sloane MS. 8) and the Bodleian Library (Bodley MS.908), under the title Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor, by Dee scholarDeborah Harkness. The Sloane 8 version is also described as TractatusAstrologico Magicus, though both versions differ only slightly.[1]

Provenance

Elias Ashmole recorded that the Duke of Lauderdale owned amanuscript titled Aldaraia sive Soyga vocor that had formerlybelonged to Dee. The manuscript was sold at auction in 1692 and isnow probably Sloane MS. 8, based on Jim Reeds' identification.Bodley MS. 908 was donated to the Bodleian Library in 1605.[2]

ContentsJim Reeds notes that the Bodley 908 MS consists of 197 leaves including Liber Aldaraia (95 leaves), LiberRadiorum (65 leaves), and Liber decimus septimus (2 leaves), as well as a number of shorter and unnamed workstotaling approximately ten leaves. The final 18 leaves of the MS contain 36 tables of letters. The Sloane 8 MSconsists of 147 leaves, mostly identical to the Bodley MS, with the exception that the tables of letters appear on 36leaves, and the Liber Radiorum is presented in a two leaf summarized version.[1]

Amongst the incantations and instructions on magic, astrology, demonology, lists of conjunctions, lunar mansions,and names and genealogies of angels, the book contains 36 large squares of letters which Dee was unable todecipher. Otherwise unknown medieval magical treatises are cited, including works known as liber E, liber Os, liberdignus, liber Sipal, and liber Munob.[3]

AnalysisJim Reeds, in his short work John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, notes a proclivity to record wordsbackwards in the MS, citing as examples Lapis reversed as Sipal, Bonum reversed as Munob, and the title of the MS,Soyga, as Agyos, literis transvectis, revealing a practice which sought to obscure some of the works cited.Reeds writes:

The Book of Soyga's preoccupation with letters, alphabet arithmetic, Hebrew-like backwards writing,and so on, is of course characteristic of the new Cabalistic magic which became popular in the sixteenthcentury, exemplified by the great compilation of Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486-1535), and borrowingauthority both from the Renaissance humanist interest in the Kabbala expressed by such figures as Picoand Reuchlin and from the supposed Biblical antiquity of the Kabbalah.".[3]

Of the square tables that obsessed Dee, Reeds continued, "Although... not themselves a characteristic feature of thetraditional Kabbalah, they had by Agrippa's time become an integral part of the Christian magical Cabala.".[3]

Book of Soyga 2

SignificanceIn 1556, Dee proposed the founding of a national English library to Queen Mary, but his plan was not implemented.In consequence, Dee amassed the largest library in England at the time using his personal funds, consisting of at least3,000 printed volumes and a large number of manuscripts. The library was pilfered during Dee's six year trip to theEuropean Continent between 1583 and 1589, and Dee was forced to sell many more volumes upon his return due topenury. After his death in 1608 or 1609, the still-considerable remnants of the vaunted library were ransacked untilnothing remained.[4]

During Dee's long trip to the Continent, he sought to supernaturally contact angels through the services of a scryer,Edward Kelley. On the subject of the Book of Soyga, Dee claimed to have questioned the angel Uriel about thesignificance of the book and asked for guidance. The reply that Dee received was that the book had been revealed toAdam in Paradise by angels, and could be interpreted by the archangel Michael.After Harkness rediscovered the two copies of the book, Jim Reeds uncovered the mathematical formula used toconstruct the tables (starting with the seed word given for each table), and identified errors of various types made bythe manuscripts' scribes. He showed that a subset of the errors were common to the two copies, suggesting that theywere derived from a common ancestor which contained that subset of errors (and thus was presumably itself a copyof another work).Although Reeds deciphered the construction algorithm and the code words used in crafting the tables, the actualcontents and significance of the tables remain mysterious. He writes, "The treatise in the Book of Soyga whichdiscusses the tables, Liber Radiorum, has a series of paragraphs mentioning the code words for twenty-three of thetables, together with number sequences which stand in unknown relation to the words."[5]

Notes[1] Jim Reeds, John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, pg. 3.[2] Jim Reeds, John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, pg. 1.[3] Jim Reeds, John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, pg. 4.[4] "Books owned by John Dee" (http:/ / www. joh. cam. ac. uk/ library/ special_collections/ early_books/ pix/ provenance/ dee/ dee. htm). St.

John's College, Cambridge. . Retrieved 26 October 2006.[5] Jim Reeds, John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga, pg. 7.

References• Harkness, Deborah (2006). "The Nexus of Angelology, Eschatology and Natural Philosophy in John Dee's Angel

Conversations and Library". In Stephen Clucas. John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in Renaissance Thought.Dordrecht: Springer.

• Jim Reeds (1996). "John Dee and the Magic Tables in the Book of Soyga" (http:/ / www. dtc. umn. edu/ ~reedsj/soyga. pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 8 November 2006.

• Roberts, Julian (2006). "Additions and Corrections to 'John Dee's Library Catalogue'". In Stephen Clucas. JohnDee: Interdisciplinary Studies in Renaissance Thought. Dordrecht: Springer.

• James Orchard Halliwell (1842) (Full view book with PDF download at Google Books). The Private Diary of Dr.John Dee, and the Catalogue of His Library of Manuscripts (http:/ / books. google. com/books?id=H5c8AAAAIAAJ& printsec=frontcover& dq=inauthor:john+ inauthor:dee& lr=& num=100&as_brr=1& ie=ISO-8859-1). Retrieved 27 June 2009.

Article Sources and Contributors 3

Article Sources and ContributorsBook of Soyga  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=465967399  Contributors: 999, AndrewHowse, Calidore Chase, Doug, Emeth6332, Estéban, Goldenrowley,IPAddressConflict, JoshuaZ, KathrynLybarger, Kirbytime, LadyofShalott, Moncrief, Pegship, Rjwilmsi, S8333631, Woohookitty, Yomangani, 6 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:John Dee Ashmolean.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:John_Dee_Ashmolean.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Gabor, Ham, Kevyn, Lukius, Marcok,Rlbberlin

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