<p>Sitting a block away from the U.S. Capitol, the Folger Shakespeare Library holds one of the most unusual manuscripts of magic ever discovered. The book was written around the year 1580, a decade before Shakespeare began writing in earnest. This is a manual of magicians in search of results, who scribbled down whatever secrets they could find.</p><p>One of the most unusual collections of magical lore ever assembled, <em>The Book of Oberon</em>includes:</p><ul><li>Rituals for summoning several different spirits, including Oberon (one of the main characters of Shakespeare's<em>A Midsummer Night's Dream</em>), Satan, Mosacus, Birto, and others </li><li>A ceremony to call Baron, a spirit associated with the notorious Gilles de Rais</li><li>Several intriguing drawings of spirits and other curious beings </li><li>A list of spirits similar to, but predating, that found in the magical manual the<em>Goetia</em> </li><li>Lore and rituals for the summoning of fairies </li><li>Pages of talismans for various purposes </li><li>One of the oldest known copies of the magical manual <em>The Enchiridion</em>, said to have been given to Charlemagne by Pope Leo III</li><li>Charms for toothache, bleeding, and the capture of thieves </li><li>Headings and words written in cipher, most of which we have managed to decipher</li><li>An account of a mystical brotherhood of magicians that seems to have ties to the conspiracy against the author and playwright Christopher Marlowe</li></ul>