Speaking as a collector of this sort of thing, it's rather annoying to watch horror movies that feature old dusty grimoires that tell you exactly how to summon the ancient evils and get all the mystic magic powers, and cast fireball, because those books just don't exist and never did. They just never, ever did and nothing even close to that ever existed, because that's just not how books were back then (if books even existed yet at the time referenced, hello schmoob it's called A SCROLL) and if you look through "spooky" books that were from even just four hundred years ago they are almost always
Even when you're absolutely sure it's not about astrology, it's about astrology
It's definitely about astrology
If they are illustrated the illustrations are all astrological
The few books that are close to being "grimoires" in the more Hollywood sense are the same five books every other mage on Earth has already got a copy of and read because they're mass-produced in reprint now. Everybody already knows the books don't summon Satan to give you a solid gold guitar for learning how to pronounce French half-assedly.
75% of the books' content is devoted to describing which spirits and sigils will help you find "hidden treasures" because they were written back when it was way more common for people to bury their money and valuables underground to keep it safe.
The "original books" aren't bound in human skin or anything and they're really in no condition to haul around on an adventure or into a graveyard. They're in preservation rooms with humidity control. If they were left in an ancient cave or an abandoned shrine they'd probably become a pile of tatters and mold before any hapless protagonist could read anything in them.
And even if they could read anything in them all the information inside would be about astrology anyway!!!
gummygunk
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
janainaart
