THE HAND OF GLORY

A RECIPE

The Petit Albert is an 18th century grimoire of natural cabalistic magic. Supposedly authored by Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great), a professor at Sorbonne University born around 1193. It is a collection of works from various sources and a companion volume to another grimoire, The Grand Albert.

The Petit Albert contains instructions for making a Hand of Glory, the only extant example of which resides in Whitby Museum. The grisly charm was used to render the occupants of a house comatose so burglary of the property could take place. As long as the flame burned, the sleepers would not awake. In one version the clenched hand is used as a candleholder for a candle incorporating human fat, but in another the outstretched hand has its own fingers lit. 

Should you choose to make such an object for some nefarious purpose, here are the instructions for manufacturing one read by none other than the actor Vincent Price.

The Hand of Glory and Protection Against it.

Read by VINCENT PRICE

THE GHOSTLY HAND OF SPITAL HOUSE

Dorothy Gladys Spicer (1893 - 1975) was an American folklorist and prolific author, often of stories with a decidedly ghostly tinge. She penned this captivating account of an attempt to rob a Yorkshire Inn using a Hand of Glory, and once again the voice of Vincent Price adds a chilling tone to the atmosphere of this spooky tale.

The Ghostly Hand of Spital House

Read by VINCENT PRICE

The recordings are from the 1974 album Vincent Price: Graveyard of Ghost Tales (Caedmon TC-1429)

LINKS: More about The Hand of Glory in OUT ON YE!
The Hand in an American comic book story

Gareth S. Brown discusses the cabinets in Whitby Museum

ST. HILDA ON THE RADIO

 If you ever want to take a deep dive into any subject, you could do far worse than search for the topic in the archive of In Our Time, the Radio 4 programme which examines history, religion, culture, science and philosophy. If you want to find out about the evolution of lungs, silicon, Dadaism or cybernetics, this is the place.

In this episode Melvyn Bragg and his guests John Blair (Fellow in History at The Queen's College, Oxford), Rosemary Cramp (Emeritus Professor in Archaeology at Durham) and Sarah Foot (Professor of Early Medieval History at Sheffield) forensically explore the life of St. Hilda (or Hild, as she would have been known). They speak about the Synod of Whitby, the Song of Caedmon, everyday life in the monastery and the evolution of Whitby as an important centre of learning for the early Christian church.

You can listen and download from BBC Sounds: In Our Time: Saint Hilda

Or just click the play arrow to listen to the programme here and now.