The Lemegeton is one of the famous medieval grimoires, also known as The Lesser Key of Solomon. The work consists of five separate works or parts: the Goetia, the Theurgia Goetia, the Art Pauline, the Art Almadel, and the Artem Novem. Each of these works focuses on a separate branch of evoking spirits. The meaning of the term “Lemegeton” is unknown.
The first book, the Goetia, is the most famous and remains so with its collection of 72 spirits along with their seals, powers, and instructions for evoking them. It has been reprinted several times with different variations.
Its list of spirits with their seals is incorporated in the Book of Art Magical, the first version of Gerald Gardner’s Book of Shadows. The Goetia remains popular because it produced Goetia magic and a war-game.
The remaining works feature additional rituals for summoning for special collections of spirits and commands for special purposes. The concern of the Theurgia Goetia is with evoking good and bad aerial spirits; the Art Pauline discusses spirits governing the planetary hours, degrees of the zodiac, and planets; the Art Almadel deals with twenty associated with the seasons who can be summoned for specific purposes; and the or “New Art” is concerned with instructions for summoning good spirits by theurgic means. Recently these latter works have fallen into neglect. A.G.H.
Sources:
Greer, John Michael. The New Encyclopedia of the Occult. St. Paul, MN, Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 269
The Lesser Key of Soloman. <http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/The_Lesser_Key_of_Solomon>.