History:
Theban emerged during the medieval period when Cabbalistic
studies were prominent in the practices of European Magi.
Agrippa provided the Theban Script in Book III (3),
Chapter XXIX (29) and wrote: "Of this kind of character
therefore are those which Peter Apponus notes, as delivered by Honorius
of Thebes". This is almost certainly a reference to the
author of the early 14th century "Liber Juratus, or the Sworne
Booke of Honorius". However, it is believed that the Theban
alphabet actually originated as a Latin cipher before the 11th-century.
Agrippa mentions that the alphabet was attributed
to Honorious by the magician Peter of Abano (or more properly Petrus
de Apono), an Italian writer whose dates are 1250-1316.The English
writer on Magick, Francis Barrett, reproduced the Theban Alphabet
in his book The Magus (II, Part I, Chapter XIV).
The origin of the letterforms is obscure at best,
but all the evidence is consistent with an origin as an early alchemical
cipher alphabet influenced by Avestan. The Theban alphabet has been
primarily employed for talismanic inscriptions and Magickal work
through the ages, and is still in use today.
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