The Ordines Descendens of John Dee

Softcover, large quarto (12ins x 8.5ins), xviii + 79pp. (text printed and paginated on one side only). Tables, diagrams, etc. Although unstated the edition was limited to 200 copies, each of which is individually numbered. A grimoire purportedly based on material prepared by John Dee. The grimoire is presented as the long-lost counterpart to Dee's well-known Enochian material: for the 'Ordines Descendens' deals with Demonic rather than Angelic forces. According to the prefaratory material, the text itself is that of a previously unknown work by Dee text, a printed version of which had been produced for Sir Francis Dashwood (of Hellfire Club fame) in the eighteenth century by one Jeremiah Hobbs. Whilst the editors present a cogent argument for the authenticity of the work as part of the Dee canon, it really seems quite unlikely, not least because there are no references to the work in any of the mass of Dee scholarship, and no copies of the 'privately-printed edition' can be traced (in classic grimoire fashion, the copy from which the text is said to have been taken is not available for verification.) One certainty is that whoever did write this particular work was very familiar with the Enochian work and writings of Dee.