The corpus of German grimoires attributed to the semi-mythic patronage of the infamous early modern sorcerer Faust were composed and re-articulated in popular circulation from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. They instruct on the ritual protocols for calling, pacting, and trafficking with a range of devilish and elemental spirits and shades; from circle casting and tool consecration to the spoken acts of conjuration, deployments of seals and sigil, and other such intricacies of these cunning nigromantic arts.

In this class, we will investigate the Nigromantishes Kunstbuch (or, Nigromantic Arts Book), a compendium of various experiments of Germanic goetic spiritwork and sorcery, to analyse the range of talismans, tools, and operations used in such Faustian nigromancy; as well as charting the presence and influence of Solomonic and even Cyprianic sorcery in the corpus of Faustian grimoiric magic.