The Book of St. Cyprian: The Sorcerer's Treasure

This is a fine book. All you have heard about it is true, José Leitão has done a wonderful job of research and translation.I purchased the book in hardback because I wanted a hardback reference rather than a paperback reading copy. The typography of the book is lovely and even the quality of the paper is excellent. However, the standard of structural binding is very poor. It is so bad I regret paying for the hardback; might as well have made do with the paperback.My copy states it has been printed in America rather than directly by the Hadean Press. Whoever bound it definitely did a shoddy job.

The translator does a better job rendering a book out of Portuguese than I could, for sure; but it appears that his English isn't the best, as there are a lot of errors. For example, he doesn't appear to know the English word "oration" (or "prayer" might be just as good a word) and so uses instead the obsolete term "orison" in its place, which is extra obnoxious since the word comes up A LOT in this text. Page 63 we get, for example, "Orison of the Custodian Angel." He also has a bad habit of making you check the footnotes to gain information that would have been unnecessary had he translated the word correctly in the first place.The book itself is mostly of value, to me anyway, as a historical text. There are a lot of old spells, such as one finds in Hyatt's collection of hoodoo spells, that make so much more sense after you read the original forms in this text!There's conflicting information available about whether it was the choice of the translator or the choice of the original publication being translated from to promise a recipe and then leave out the actual method due to its being 'too evil' -- so I'm just going to remark that it does that, in the book, and leave it up in the air as to who should be blamed.

This book was clearly a labor of love--Mr. Leitao must be lauded for his edition of this Roman Catholic grimoire. Am not certain if this is a "complete" Book of St. Cyprian, but what is, exactly? This is not the fine book that, I believe, Stephen Skinner and Rankine put out (am going on memory here), but is instead the, or maybe a, version of the Catholic Iberian grimoire. It's involved in more earthy things, such as findin' treasure, gettin' help from God and the Saints, etc., etc. Mr. Leitao probably did not make a killin' off of this book, but he should have! The extra material he added is alone worth the cost of this book. Now, your old uncle don't know how much you can use this in your work (maybe a little, maybe a lot), but I've never been sorry I bought it.

A "living" book full of interesting content for both the serious occultist and the curious academic. Though the author puts what may sometimes seem like too personal of a spin on narrative commentary, it is a passionate piece of work that seems well researched and packed full of information. There is bound to be something for just about anyone with any degree of occult or magic(k)al interests.This is not the slant little Cyprian grimoire you have in Spanish or Portuguese, but a hefty (English) composite volume that the author clearly put his foot in to bring to you as one cohesive work.

Great translation. It's definitely a good read and gives a picture of how St. Cyprian is viewed in the Iberian traditions. Might even get a second copy to have and keep in mint condition. Definitely recommend it whether you practice or not.

I was very excited to get this book, but was quickly disappointed by it. The translator states how he is intentionally leaving out information on the nature of the wand and communication with demons because it goes against his ideological code. Further more there references towards modern day groups like the Golden Dawn, Crowley and the like.I don't mind the commentary but I bought this book expecting it to be a complete translation not just another book cenesored by the church('s ideaologies).The book does have a good amount of different enchantments, mostly in regards to purifying away evil, love, and divination (mostly with playing cards)I would give this book 3 stars but the translators choice to leave out very key information (especially about the wand) based on personal ideaologies was infuriating to me.

A very mixed bag of tricks. Mostly old Catholic magick. If you are looking for some "controversial" book, look elsewhere. This book may be valuable for those who are well experienced in magick and who want to complete their library. But there are hundreds of great chaos magick books out there that are much more worth your money. Look into Hoodoo if you really want something controversial.

Excellent book! Researched and written by a true mystic, wizard and esotericist. A must have for your collection.

Great hardback book of over 500 pages, which offers an English translation of the Portuguese magical text and contains an interesting commentary full of information on Catholic and Iberian folk magic. There is much more in this edition than Skinner's St Cyprian book and it is far better than the overpriced, misleadingly titled edition by Jake Stratton Kent.

Very Interesting book

Wonderful resource with great annotations, providing important contextualizatiin.

Useless book

very good to learn and get knowledge and researching work