The 72 demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon all have ranks. Most of the ranks are royal/noble ones like king, duke, prince, and count. Why are there some listed as presidents and how does that relate to the other ranks?

by tripleblacktri

I've been trying to figure out how all the demons ranked, and I can see how the ones with titles of nobility relate to each other, but the ones with president throw me off. It looks like the book was penned in the 1500's. At that time, where did they get the president title from and where did it rank along with king, duke, prince, marquis, and count?

Here is the list of demons and their ranks.

Lipno

The Ars Goetia from the Lesser Key of Solomon is taken from Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, via a translation in Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft. Here is a side by side comparison of the Latin source and the English translation.

http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/weyer.htm

"President" is used to translate the Latin "praeses" (related to the English word 'preside'). Today, a "president" is the head of state of a country which is not a monarchy. However, president (meaning someone who is at the head of something) has not always had this meaning - under the French monarchy judges were called president, for instance. Praeses was originally a title used for provincial governors in the later Roman empire.

There does not seem to be any sort of order of precedence given for the demons in Weyer's list; sometimes one demon holds multiple ranks.