Albertus Magnus was one of the greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages: a Dominican friar, teacher of Thomas Aquinas and author of monumental works of philosophy, theology and natural science. Yet for many readers of the modern period his name was linked above all to two small books of secrets sold for a few coins in squares and markets: the Grand Albert and the Petit Albert. The history of these texts is a fascinating example of how an illustrious name can turn into popular legend.
Albertus Magnus and his reputation as a magician
Albertus Magnus genuinely took an interest in natural science, and in his works he dealt with minerals, plants and animals, gathering and discussing what ancient and Arabic authors knew. This vast knowledge of nature, combined with his fame, earned him a reputation as a magician as early as the Middle Ages, one he had not sought. Legends flourished about him, such as that of a talking head he was said to have built.
Onto this reputation were grafted numerous apocryphal texts that bore his name but were not his work.
The Liber aggregationis
The most important of these apocrypha is the Liber aggregationis, also known as the Liber secretorum, a treatise on the virtues of herbs, stones and animals, often accompanied by a short text on the marvels of the world. It was composed in the Middle Ages, probably in the thirteenth century, by an unknown author, and circulated under Albert's name.
The book enjoyed extraordinary success with the arrival of printing: between the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries it was printed a great many times, in Latin and then in the vernaculars. The Grand Albert derives largely from this text.
The Grand Albert
In France the Liber aggregationis and other pseudo-Albertine material merged into a volume called Le Grand Albert, which contained:
- the supposed occult properties of plants, stones and animals;
- notions about conception and generation according to the ideas of the time;
- astrological guidance and information on planetary influences;
- curiosities and marvels of nature.
Its tone is that of a popular encyclopaedia of marvels rather than a treatise on ceremonial magic.
The Petit Albert
The Petit Albert, whose full title speaks of marvellous secrets of natural and cabalistic magic, is a different and later work. It appeared in France in the eighteenth century, often with fictitious places and publishers, as was customary for books considered dangerous.
It is a heterogeneous collection of recipes, talismans and secrets for the home, for love, for gambling, for protection against thieves and other concerns of daily life. Among its most famous passages is the description of the so-called "hand of glory", a macabre object that, according to legend, allowed thieves to enter houses without waking the inhabitants. The book also describes ways of protecting oneself against it: interest in the object is part of a wider folklore found in several European countries.
Spread among the people
The success of these books was due largely to the network of pedlars, the colporteurs, who travelled the French countryside selling cheap booklets: almanacs, saints' lives, chivalric romances and books of secrets as well. An important part of this production was linked to the so-called Bibliothèque bleue, the series of popular books printed in Troyes with blue paper covers.
Thanks to this network, the Grand Albert and the Petit Albert entered many country homes, where they were kept with a mixture of curiosity and fear. In some regions the belief circulated that owning these books was dangerous, and that whoever read them without preparation might draw uncontrollable forces upon himself.
Historical value
Today these texts interest historians for several reasons:
- they document the transformation of medieval learning into popular culture;
- they show what readers' daily concerns were, from health to safety, from love to money;
- they bear witness to the role of cheap print in spreading ideas;
- they preserve beliefs and practices of European folklore.
The recipes they contain have no practical value and should be read solely as documents of a mentality.
In short
- The Grand Albert and the Petit Albert are books of secrets falsely attributed to Albertus Magnus.
- The Grand Albert derives largely from the medieval Liber aggregationis on the virtues of herbs, stones and animals.
- The Petit Albert is an eighteenth-century French work, a collection of recipes and talismans.
- Both spread through pedlars and popular literature such as the Bibliothèque bleue.
- Today they are valuable as evidence of European popular culture and belief.
