Cyprianus

Cyprianus is a name given in Scandinavian traditions of folk magic to the "black book" ("Svarteboken"): a grimoire or manuscript collection of spells; and by extension to the magical tradition that these spells form a part of. There is no standard text called "Cyprianus"; it was a general label given to a collection of spells.

Manuscripts called or referring to Cyprianus had a dark reputation; in some versions, you obtained the text by renouncing your baptism and devoting yourself to Satan. The common people's opinion of the book was that it was a standard grimoire concerned with the summoning of demons and spirits. Ministers were often thought to have obtained it through their studies at university; it is not coincidence that ministers' wives often functioned as folk healers in rural communities. Like many such texts, it is bound to its owner and hard to get rid of; it will not burn nor be destroyed by water, and attempting to discard it will only result in its supernatural return. These compilations nevertheless were widely circulated among the cunning folk of Scandinavia, who in a rural land with few physicians were the folk healers sought out by ordinary people beset by injury or illness.

"Cyprianus" is the name frequently given to the compiler or author of the spells contained in the tradition. A variety of stories are told concerning the identity of this Cyprianus.

Saint Cyprian of Antioch was a bishop and martyr in early Christianity. In the Middle Ages, a variety of legends attached to his name, including a tradition that he practiced magic before his conversion, and as such was the author of a magical textbook. In another medieval tradition, Cyprianus was a sorcerer who sought to seduce St. Justina, but was foiled and converted when she made the sign of the cross and he followed suit, freeing himself from the power of the devil. The sorcerer and the historical bishop were likely confounded in later legend. The Black Books of Elverum claim to be a summary of a Cyprianus by a "Bishop Johannes Sell" from Oxford, England in 1682. The British bishop John Fell may be the person who is meant here; Fell did publish an edition of the works of St. Cyprian.

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