As a Buffy fan and a bibliophile, I've wanted Gile's library. Actually, to be more accurate, I have Gile's library--at least the books that actually exist (which so far numbers one). However, I thought other Buffy fans might like to take a look at Gile's library--and the related collections of Willow, Amy and Tara--and possibly gather a collection of their own.
First off, the one "real world" book of esoteric lore that I've been able to identify appeared in "Hush," the thick trade paperback that Tara drops when she's running from the Gentlemen. I recognized the marbled cover, and it's a volume I have in my personal library: Whitcomb's The Magician's Companion.This is an excellent book with well researched tables of magickal correspondences from all of the world's major magickal systems up to the modern age, done by numerical groupings. The only problem with it is that one of the alchemical glyphs was printed upside-down (alchemy buffs will know which); however, I contacted the author and he said it should be fixed in the next printing.
In the sixth season, amid a research session gone bad, Xander is looking for a diamond-eating frost monster and finds one in a book. Unfortunately, this is a Dungeons and Dragons book, most likely the Monster Manual, but possibly a note in the Dungeon Masters Guide or Players Handbook. It could not have been the current Monster Manual II or Epic Level Handbook as those weren't out yet, though could have been older editions. (Title-wise, Tome and Blood would sound cool for an episode.) (It was almost certainly not the Munchkin D20 Players Handbook, the Munchkin D20 Munchkin Masters Guide, or the Munchkin D20 Monsters Manual.)
Season 6's Halloween episode also had Willow confronting a girl in the Magic Box, the girl dressed in green face paint, but obviously holding Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft.
, one of the more well respected neo-pagan how-to books.
I'm not certain what the other two books that Tara had were, but from the size and shape, they could have been Valerie Worth's The Crone's Book of Charms & Spells.
and The Crone's Book of Words. Both of these are modern books, but very much in the old tradition.
. Then again, they could have been something older and more classical, such as The Galdrabok (a medieval Icelandic grimoire, now with a modern translation) or something more esoteric.
The first two are good candidates for Willow's books of witchcraft from "Lover's Walk" and "Gingerbread," and Amy's spellbook from "Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered," and the second is the sort of thing Willow was likely using at the end of "Wild at Heart," though I haven't found that particular spell in it. I don't have it in my collection yet, but a likely title listed at Amazon is Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World.
So far as "Hush" goes, there was also Giles book of fairytales. I didn't recognize the particular binding of that book, but Joss has already said that the tale of the Gentlemen was made up. However, it had elements of the darker tales from The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
. and Hans Christian Andersen.
. I've linked to the two best modern collections, the complete and unexpurgated translations of Zipes and Haugaard, which have all the gory stories that are left out of the the more "sanitized" versions.
So far as other books go, it's hard to track everything down, but I know where most of the references come from.
In "I Robot, You Jane," we've got the Book of Moloch. It doesn't exist, but the idea of an Agrippa--that is, a demon bound into a book--does, and so does the original "Agrippa" from which we get the name. Specifically the
Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, and their sequel, The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. Agrippa was pretty much the greatest wizard of the middle ages and there's tons of fascinating material in these books, including rituals for drawing down the moon and raising the dead (though you need phoenix ashes to pull off the second trick).
In "Fear Itself," the frat boys have decided to draw a sigil out of a book of demonology. Though I'm pretty certain the fear demon was made up (though Moloch is a classic demon), there are a lot of classics works of demonology and good candidates for the one from the UC Sunnydale library are The Grand Grimoire, The Greater Key of Solomon,
The Goetia, the Lesser Key of Solomon the King (very likely, since it has over seventy different sigils in it),
The Grimoire of Armadel, or The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
For the part in "The Zeppo" where Giles is conjuring spirits in Latin, it's likely he used something like either
Forbidden Rites : A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century, Conjuring Spirits : Texts & Traditions of Late Medieval Ritual Magic. or perhaps a standard classic such as Dr. Dee's (Queen Elizabeth's court astrologer) True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee & Some Spirits (1659)
The other books, so far as I've seen, are merely mentioned. I've taken these samples from Alexander's transcripts and annotated them with likely candidates for the books or books which inspired the writers to include them in the show.
From "The Witch", first season.
Buffy: Okay, alright, (gets up) so, you're in high school, you are desperate to make the team and please your mom, so you turn to witchcraft. What's the first thing you're gonna do?
Willow: Check out the books on witchcraft!
She and Buffy go over to the computer to access the on-line library card catalog.
Xander: Uh, no! No, that would be the last thing you would do! You don't wanna leave a paper trail. Forget that!
Willow: It'll just take a minute.
Xander gets up and stands behind them.
Xander: We don't have a minute! Cheerleaders are in danger. Buffy's in danger. (to Buffy) You were the first alternate, you are on the team now that Cordelia's out. You could be next. We gotta get you to a safe house.
Willow: Xander...
Xander: Yeah.
Willow: (exhales) 'Witches: Historic Roots to Modern Practice.' Checked out by Alexander Harris.
No such book exists, but likely candidates are Janet and Stewart Farrar's A Witches' Bible.
, Leland's classic Aradia: Gospel of the Witches.
, or possibly Erica Jong's beautiful coffee table volume Witches.
Buffy: 'The Pagan Rites', checked out by Alexander...
Possibly the 1964 Gramercy printing of Thedore Reik's Pagan Rites in Judaism, but also possibly Herman Slater's modern classic of witchcraft A Book of Pagan Rituals.Pauline Campanelli's Pagan Rites of Passage.
or (less likely, but still good) Starhawk's The Pagan Book of Living and Dying : Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over.
Xander: Alright, alright, it's not what you think.
Willow: You like to look at the semi-nude engravings?
Xander: Oh, well, uh, I-I guess it *is* what you think.
If you want the semi-nude engravings in a real available book, the best is Grillot de Givry's Witchcraft : Magic and Alchemy, translated from the French with all the illustrations. I have a 1960s hardcover of it called The Picture Museum of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy, which I think is a better title, but it's the same book.
From "Revelations," which introduces rogue Watcher Mrs. Gwendolyn Post:
Gwendolyn: Mr. Giles, where do you keep the rest of your books?
Giles: I-I'm sorry. (slips on his glasses) The rest?
Gwendolyn: Yes, the actual library.
Giles gives her a confused look.
Gwendolyn: Oh. (smiles thinly) I see.
Giles: I can assure you, Mrs. Post, this is the finest occult reference collection...
Gwendolyn: (interrupts) ...this side of the Atlantic, I'm sure. Do you have Hume's Paranormal Encyclopedia?
(Doesn't exist. However, most likely candidate is Lewis Spence's 1920 classic Encyclopedia of Occultism, many times reprinted but now unfortunately again out of print. I've owned the 1964 edition, and sold it after getting the better quality 1993 edition, which was retitled The Encyclopedia of the Occult.
Excellent modern books in the same vein are Rosemary Ellen Guiley's The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft.
, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits.
