The Book of Mystic Wisdom

The Book of Mystic Wisdom is included with Ultima IV as a companion manual to The History of Britannia, detailing the mechanics of Britannian magic and its individual spells. It is 61 pages long and written by Dave Albert, fictionally as Lord British's court magician Philpop the Weary. The book appears in the introduction sequence of Ultima IV when discovered by the player's in-game counterpart, who shies from opening it for fear of its ominous appearance.

The Book of Mystic Wisdom contains numerous full-page illustrations, including one to accompany each spell. Metallic gold runic text is inscribed into the faux-leather cover, however some editions of the manual lack this embellishment. Detailed casting instructions for each spell and the required reagents are covered are provided.

There do exist different versions of this book. The release by the publisher U.S. Gold was printed on smooth, yellowish paper and the cover was just black on the same paper. The release for the Japanese MSX-computers was translated (it stayed content-wise the same) but the cover had the correct colors. The also Japanese release on the FM-Towns got a totally different cover, but was content-wise like the original, apart from the translation. There also is a rare French release that combines both books and is fully translated.

For the Sega-Port of Ultima IV, the book was somewhat shrunk down in size, but stayed content-wise the same. Each of the three languages sported a different cover color (blue=English, red=French, yellow=German) and was fully translated.

The book was later re-printed in the Age of Virtue manual. The book was compressed onto less pages, the full-page illustrations for each spell were shrinked down to fit beside the text and the illustrated page borders were removed.

Book Content
Within, the following topics are described:


 * The reagents of magic


 * The 26 magic spells

Trivia

 * Translated, the runic script framing the cover reads, "Being a compendium of the processes and effects of combining human will and natural forces as discovered and recorded by the greatest sorcerors since the beginning of time."