Provenance · Attribution
Codex Arcanum publishes the full text of ancient manuscripts only where doing so is unambiguously lawful. Every chapter carries the citation of its source translation and a statement of its copyright status.
Islamic / Sufi / al-Andalus
Original Classical Arabic texts are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Renaissance Ceremonial Magic
Mathers 1889 translation is public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Hermetic Tradition (Greco-Egyptian & Modern)
The Kybalion (1908) is US public domain. Everard's Divine Pymander (1650) is worldwide public domain. Together they comprise the readable Hermetica codex in this app.
Thelema
Received April 1904. US public domain (pre-1929). UK public domain since 2018 (>70 yrs post-Crowley d. 1947).
Mesoamerican
Original codices are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Late Shang Dynasty China
Original inscriptions are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Andalusian / Islamic Astral Magic
The Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (10th–11th c.) is in the public domain. This English rendering was produced by Claude Sonnet 4.5 from the Arabic OCR text on archive.org and is a Codex Arcanum original translation, © Codex Arcanum. Translation covers Books I–III; further chapters pending.
Vedic / Hindu / Buddhist
Original Sanskrit texts are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Jewish Mysticism / Hasidei Ashkenaz
Hebrew original is public domain (Amsterdam 1701). Modern English translations (Savedow 2000) are under copyright. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Jewish Mysticism / Merkabah
Translator d. 1925. Public domain US (pre-1929) and UK (>70 years post-mortem).
Mesopotamian
Original tablets are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Renaissance Christian Hermetism
All authors d. before 1700. Worldwide public domain.
Second-Temple Jewish Apocrypha
Charles d. 1931. US public domain (pre-1929 publication). UK public domain (>70 yrs post-mortem).
Ancient Egyptian Funerary
Translator d. 1934. Public domain US (pre-1929) and UK (>70 years post-mortem).
Germanic / Norse
Original inscriptions are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Levantine / Mediterranean
Original Phoenician inscriptions are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Unknown / Possibly Central European 15th c.
Original manuscript is public domain (15th c.). The reader-guide commentary in this codex is original Keeper's Edition material, © Codex Arcanum.
Renaissance Christian Hermetism
Agrippa d. 1535; Freake 17th c. Worldwide public domain.
Vajrayāna Buddhism / Bon
Classical Tibetan canonical texts are public domain. Commentary © Codex Arcanum.
Where an English translation has entered the public domain — generally those published before 1929 in the United States, or whose translator died over seventy years ago in the United Kingdom and European Union — we publish that translation verbatim, with full citation. Examples in the current library include Westcott's Sefer Yetzirah (1887), Budge's Book of the Dead (1895), and Casaubon's edition of Dee's diaries (1659).
Where no clean public-domain English exists — as with the Picatrix, whose modern English translations remain under copyright — the Keeper offers a synthesis: a reader's guide that describes, summarises, and contextualises the work without reproducing copyrighted translation text. These chapters are clearly marked Keeper's Edition.
The Voynich Manuscript itself is in the public domain (it is over six centuries old), but no decipherment has ever held up to scrutiny. The text in this codex is therefore an original commentary on the manuscript's history, sections, and proposed solutions — published as a Keeper's Edition.
If you believe any material in this app infringes a copyright, please contact us through the Support page and we will review the citation within one business day.
Made with Emergent