History Main / SpellBook

* Seen extremely often in the [[Literature/Dragonlance Dragonlance]] novels. Based heavily on the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] mythos, wizards in the series memorize spells from spellbooks, written either by themselves or from another source. These spellbooks contain all the information needed about the spell, including the words needed to cast it, any material components needed, and the expected effects (or side effects). This makes books written by particularly thorough or scholarly mages prized commodities, and spellbooks from particular "authors" will have a better reputation. These spells, when cast, are erased from the wizard's memory and must be studied and learned again from scratch before it can be cast again. Powerful and/or wealthy mages can have collections, or entire libraries, of spellbooks, with many wizards rescribing a small collection of especially powerful or useful spells into personal traveling volumes for portability. Wizards can scribe spells onto scrolls, using just the words and in effect "pre-casting" the spell, so that the scroll can be used by any wizard that can read the words, even if the spell itself is normally beyond their skill.

* ''Manga/ZatchBell'': A cornerstone of the plot. Each of the 100 demons/mamodos sent to Earth for the battle has a book that's tied to their magic, and [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield only one person in the world can read it and unleash the spells within]]. The book's magic allows for borderline telepathy between partners with a strong enough bond and turns the willpower of anyone who touches it into pure energy to fuel the spells. Furthermore, new spells appear as new power awakens in the demon and the amount of text on one page that that spell takes up demonstrates how powerful it is; it can be anywhere from one line to the whole page. And most importantly, if the book is destroyed, the demon tied to it loses all claim to the throne and is sent back to the Demon World.

%%The examples on this page have been alphabetized.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Small_spell_book_red.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Franchise/{{Barbie}}'s First Spellbook[[superscript:[[TradeSnark TM]]]]: Comes with its very own athame!]]

** Grimoires are enchanted to contain [[MagicAIsMagicA rote spells]], allowing a reader to cast the spell as if they knew the rote or adding power to the spell if they already know it. The creator literally transfers the rote from their mind to the grimoire, losing knowledge of the spell until they [[PointBuildSystem spend XP to re-learn it]].

* One of the more entertaining ones: In ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', the Hucksters carry spellbooks... ''Hoyle's Book of Games''. Turns out Hoyle left coded secrets of magic in the pages, and if you know the key (and are willing to accept the price), you can mimic his better tricks.

** Classic OD&D and the first three editions and 5th of AD&D all require the Wizard class and its variants to use spellbooks along with the VancianMagic system. Certain races, classes, and class variants have dispensed with this requirement, usually at the cost of a reduction in versatility. Generally, divine casters do not use spellbooks, with the exception of the Archivist from the ''Heroes of Horror'' supplement that does it instead of praying for spells[[note]]or rather, they pray for spells with the help of a spellbook ---archivists' books of spells are called prayerbooks instead of spellbooks[[/note]].

*** And, of course, MoralGuardians still insist that the D&D rulebooks themselves include actual directions for summoning demons and the like.
** In the ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' setting, since magic (and literacy) are outlawed, Wizards' spellbook-equivalents are as diverse as pictogram-inscribed bones or knotted, beaded clusters of string.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' each spellcaster's (save for Druids and Blessed, who follow oral traditions and don't even need to be literate) trappings Gift includes one copy of a published spellbook. ''On Elementalism'' for Elementalists, ''Thamauturgoria'' by Kyndranigar the Shadow Magus for Thaumaturge's, an anonymous treatise on Green and Purple magic for [[PsychicPowers Cognoscenti]], ''Ye Book of Black Magic'' for Necromancers, and [[strike: a Bible]] ''The Testaments of Helloise'' for Clerics.
** 1st edition had an advancement system that required wizards to either find a mentor or read the appropriate spellbook (requiring a literacy check) to improve their spell skills or career trait. 2nd edition converted many [[SkillScoresAndPerks skills to perks]], including literacy and all spells, and made the aforementioned trappings the base of each school's spell tree.

* ''Literature/LegendsOfTheRedSun'': In the far future, humans go beyond MagicFromTechnology and discover that magic is real and the right sequence of words can be miraculous. The godlike {{Archmage}} Frater Mercury is the [[ScienceWizard scientist turned wizard]] who discovered and mastered magic, he would write many of his spells in what's known as the Book of Transformations and create the various inhuman races in the setting.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' features grimoires, books of information on the structure and development of rotes. Unlike most spell books, however, grimoires act more like hard drives for magical knowledge; the mage literally writes all the information out of his mind and into the grimoire, where it can then be picked up by whoever reads it. The mage can even relearn the spell invested into a grimoire from one he wrote himself (at the same cost it took to learn it in the first place), and having it on hand when he casts the spell makes it easier to do.

* Jax from ''ComicBook/JaxEpochAndTheQuickenForbidden'' took this along with the magic boots and gloves from an old cabin after she went through a door in Realmsend.
* In the Marvel universe, there are at least two major spellbooks -- The Book of the Vishanti, containing every light magic spell, and the Darkhold, its evil counterpart. ComicBook/DoctorStrange owns a copy of both.
* Deimos in ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'' ''thinks'' he has a Spell Book, but it's actually [[ClarkesThirdLaw an ancient technical manual]] from Atlantis and everything he's doing that looks like magic is actually electricity, holograms, and so on. He calls these texts "The Scrolls of Blood," misreading the title which is actually "Technical Operations Manual, Computer No. B-100-D". (The bigger mystery is how an Atlantean text has a title in English.)
* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1987}}'': When Circe was viciously looking for revenge on humanity after her MemoryGambit worked too well and she nearly became ''nice'' while pretending to be human she came to Themyscira to steal Magala's spell book, as it is the only handwritten and personally researched book as old as her own and is full of unique spells she can use to widen her repertoire.

* In ''Fanfic/AncientLanguages'', some ancient books contain spells in the Sindarin language. One of these books brings Lyla to Rivendell in Middle-earth, the setting of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Because of limits, no one can use the spells except when the plot demands.

* Unlike most Persona users, [[VideoGame/Persona4 Nanako]] doesn't possess a Persona of her own in ''Fanfic/StealTheTruthReachOutForYourHeart''. Instead, she uses Yu's Compendium and summons the Personas recorded in it, such as Yu's own Persona Izanagi.