Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Wandering Rocks/233

Annotations
Eighth and ninth book of Moses   The first five books of the Bible, the Torah, are traditionally ascribed to Moses. In the 18th century German pamphlets of magical spells and incantations were printed that purported to be of Mosaic origin. In 1849 several of these were collated and published in Stuttgart as Volume 6 of Johann Scheible's Bibliothek der Zauber-Geheimniss- und Offenbarungs-Bücher, etc. (Library of the Books of Magical Secrets and Revelation, etc.) under the title Das sechste und siebente Buch Mosis (The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses). English translations appeared in the late 19th century

Two versions of Achtes und neuntes Buch Mosis (Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses) appeared in Germany in the 19th century. No English translation has yet been discovered, but it is possible that Joyce used a translation as his source. Note that the German title has been mistranslated (book of Moses instead of books of Moses), a mistake easily made by someone familiar with the language but not fluent in it: would Joyce have made this mistake? And Peter Salanka is a misreading of Pater Salanka (Father Salanka), who is described in the German text as the prior of a famous Spanish Trappist monastery. What's more, he did not compose the magical charm that Stephen reads out: he merely discovered it and made it available for the benefit of all mankind. These discrepancies with the German text support the hypothesis that Joyce's source was a poor English translation.

Secret of all Secrets   The subtitle of the original German version of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses includes the phrase: Geheimnis aller Geheimnisse (Secret of all Secrets).

Seal of King David   There is no mention of the Star of David in the original German version of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses. However, in another version of the text, the Star of David is depicted on the front cover.

'''How to soften chapped hands. Recipe for white wine vinegar'   Neither of these items is included in the German versions of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses''.

How to win a woman's love   The German text of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses includes the following charm:

'Se el yilo nebrakada femininum! Amor me solo! Sanktus! Amen'   (Macaronic) ''Little heaven of blessed femininity! Love only me! Holy! Amen''? In the German text of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses, this charm is described as a: Formula to win the love of a particular woman surely and permanently. The formula differs slightly from Stephen's version: ''Sel el yilo in nebrakada Femininum! Amo me solo! The charm preceding this one ends with the words: Sanktus! Amen''. These discrepancies support the hypothesis that Joyce's source was a faulty English translation of the German text.

Sel el yilo is glossed by Gifford as, possibly, a phonetic rendering of the Spanish Cielillo (Little Heaven). In the Romani language of the Roma Gypsies jilo means heart, while shero means head.

Nebrakada is related, I presume, to the familiar magical incantation Abrakadabra, the meaning of which is still disputed. Gifford's surmise that the word is Spanish-Arabic for blessed seems a little far-fetched. An allusion to Goethe's Eternal Feminine (Das Ewig-Weibliche) from Faust may lie behind Nebrakada femininum. In Latin, femininum is an adjective, meaning feminine or female.

Charms and invocations of the most blessed abbot Peter Salanka to all true believers divulged   The German text of The Eighth and Ninth Books of Moses includes a chapter called The Charms of St Ignatius, the full title of which is:

Nebrakada femininum   See above (233.08).