Grand Grimoire

The Grand Grimoire, also known as Le Dragon Rouge or The Red Dragon, is a black magic goetic grimoire. Different editions date the book to 1521, 1522 or 1421. Owen Davies suggests 1702 is when the first edition may have been created and a Bibliothèque bleue version (a popular edition, similar to a chapbook) of the text may have been published in 1750. The 19th-century French occultist Éliphas Lévi considered the contemporary edition of Le Dragon Rouge to be a counterfeit of a true, older Grand Grimoire. The "introductory chapter" was written by Antonio Venitiana del Rabina, who said he had gathered his information from original writings of King Solomon. Much of the material of this grimoire derives from the Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon, pseudepigraphical grimoires attributed to King Solomon. The first book contains instructions for summoning Lucifer or the demon Lucifuge Rofocale, for the purpose of forming a deal with the Devil.