diff --git a/src/gamecode/laws.c b/src/gamecode/laws.c
index f4bc53952..27f069345 100644
--- a/src/gamecode/laws.c
+++ b/src/gamecode/laws.c
@@ -3725,7 +3725,9 @@ static void copy_spells(const spellbook * src, spellbook * dst, int maxlevel)
     for (qi = 0, ql = src->spells; ql; ql_advance(&ql, &qi, 1)) {
       spellbook_entry * sbe = (spellbook_entry *)ql_get(ql, qi);
       if (sbe->level<=maxlevel) {
-        spellbook_add(dst, sbe->sp, sbe->level);
+        if (!spellbook_get(dst, sbe->sp)) {
+          spellbook_add(dst, sbe->sp, sbe->level);
+        }
       }
     }
   }
diff --git a/src/kernel/save.c b/src/kernel/save.c
index 4a7454a48..20f1eb39d 100644
--- a/src/kernel/save.c
+++ b/src/kernel/save.c
@@ -1257,13 +1257,17 @@ void read_spellbook(spellbook **bookp, struct storage *store, int (*get_level)(c
       level = store->r_int(store);
     }
     if (sp) {
+      spellbook * sb = *bookp;
       if (level<=0 && get_level) {
         level = get_level(sp, cbdata);
       }
-      if (!*bookp) {
+      if (!sb) {
         *bookp = create_spellbook(0);
+        sb = *bookp;
+      }
+      if (store->version>=SPELLBOOK_VERSION || !spellbook_get(sb, sp)) {
+        spellbook_add(sb, sp, level);
       }
-      spellbook_add(*bookp, sp, level);
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/kernel/spellbook.c b/src/kernel/spellbook.c
index 45d2f6d50..ab73bdd09 100644
--- a/src/kernel/spellbook.c
+++ b/src/kernel/spellbook.c
@@ -18,9 +18,12 @@ spellbook * create_spellbook(const char * name)
 
 void spellbook_add(spellbook *sb, struct spell * sp, int level)
 {
-  spellbook_entry * sbe = (spellbook_entry *)malloc(sizeof(spellbook_entry));
+  spellbook_entry * sbe;
 
-  assert(sb && level>0);
+  assert(sb && sp && level>0);
+  assert(!spellbook_get(sb, sp));
+  
+  sbe = (spellbook_entry *)malloc(sizeof(spellbook_entry));
   sbe->sp = sp;
   sbe->level = level;
   ql_push(&sb->spells, sbe);