Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article includes

a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2010) Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Born 15 September 1486 Cologne, Holy Roman Empire Died 18 February 1535 (aged 48) Grenoble, Kingdom of France Cause of death Unknown Occupation magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, alchemist, physician , legal expert and soldier Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (15 September 1486 18 February 1535) was a German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist. Contents [hide] 1 Life 2 Legacy 3 Works 3.1 Modern editions of Agrippa's works 4 See also 5 Notes and references 6 Further reading 7 External links Life[edit] Agrippa was born in Cologne on 15 September 1486. In 1512, he taught at the University of Dole in the Free County of Burgundy, lecturing on Johann Reuchlin' s De verbo mirifico; as a result, Agrippa was denounced, behind his back, as a "Ju daizing heretic." Agrippa's vitriolic response many months later did not endear him to the University. In 1510, he studied briefly with Johannes Trithemius, and Agrippa sent him an early draft of his masterpiece, De occulta philosophia libri tres, a kind of summa of early modern occult thought. Trithemius was guardedly approving, but suggested that Agrippa keep the work more or less secret; Agrippa chose not to publish, perhaps for this reason, but continued to revise and rethink the book for twenty years. During his wandering life in Germany, France and Italy he worked as a theologian , physician, legal expert and soldier.

He was for some time in the service of Maximilian I, probably as a soldier in Italy, but devoted his time mainly to the study of the occult sciences and to problematic theological legal questions, which exposed him to various persecutions through life, usually in the mode described above: He would be privately denounced for one sort of heresy or another. He would only reply with venom considerably later (Nauert demonstrates this pattern effectively.) There is no evidence that Agrippa was seriously accused, much less persecuted, for his interest in or practice of magical or occult arts during his lifetime, apart from losing several positions. It is impossible of course to cite negatively, but Nauert, the best bio-bibliographical study to date, shows no indication of such persecution, and van der Poel's careful examination of the various attacks suggest that they were founded on quite other theological grounds. According to some scholarship, "As early as 1525 and again as late as 1533 (two years before his death) Agrippa clearly and unequivocally rejected magic in its totality, from its sources in imagined antiquity to contemporary practice." Some aspects remain unclear, but there are those who believe it was sincere (not out of fear, as a parody, or otherwise).[1] Recent scholarship (see Further Reading below, in Lehrich, Nauert, and van der Poel) generally agrees that this rejection or repudiation of magic is not what it seems: Agrippa never rejected magic in its totality, but he did retract his early manuscript of the Occult Philosophy - to be replaced by the later form. In the Third Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa concludes with: "But of magic I wrote whilst I was very young three large books, which I called Of Occult Philosophy, in which what was then through the curiosity of my youth erroneous, I now being more advised, am willing to have retracted, by this recantation; I formerly spent much time and costs in these vanities. At last I grew so wise as to be able to dissuade others from this destruction. For whosoever do not in the truth, nor in the power of God, but in the deceits of devils, according to the operation of wicked spirits persume to divine and prophesy, and practising through magical vanities, exorcisms, incantions and other demoniacal works and deceits of idolatry, boasting of delusions, and phantasms, presently ceasing, brag that they can do miracles, I say all these shall with Jannes, and Jambres, and Simon Magus, be destinated to the torments of eternal fire."[2] According to his student Johann Weyer, in the book De praestigiis daemonum, Agrippa died in Grenoble, in 1535. Legacy[edit] After Agrippa's death, rumors circulated about him summoning demons. In the most famous of these, Agrippa, upon his deathbed, released a black dog which had been his familiar. This black dog resurfaced in various legends about Faustus, and in Goethe's version became the "schwarze Pudel" Mephistopheles. Mary Shelley mentioned Agrippa in some of her works. In her 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, Agrippa's works were read and admired by Victor Frankenstein. In her 1833 short story "The Mortal Immortal", Agrippa is imagined as having created an elixir allowing his apprentice to survive for hundreds of years. Sren Kierkegaard mentioned Agrippa's book On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex, and the Superiority of the Same over the Male Sex in his 1845 book

Stages on Life's Way.[3] The novel The Fiery Angel (1908) by Valery Bryusov (on which Sergei Prokofiev's opera The Fiery Angel is based), set in the sixteenth century, features a visit paid to Agrippa by the protagonist Ruprecht who is seeking advice on the occult. Agrippa is a major character in Alex Comfort's 1980 novel "Tetrarch", supposing that in the last few minutes of his life, he "shamanized" into the world of the novel, became an "adept" and an ally and lover to the central characters of the novel. His treatise "On the Excellence and Preeminence of Women" is particularly mentioned. Agrippa is a major character in Steve Englehart's series of Max August novels, beginning with The Point Man in 1980, and continuing through The Long Man and The Plain Man. Agrippa is mentioned to be a famous wizard in the Harry Potter books, appearing as a featured Famous Wizard on Chocolate Frog Cards. A medallion accredited to Cornelius Agrippa is used in Mike Mignola's comic book short story Hellboy: The Corpse. Agrippa is a key figure in Peter Straub's 2010 novel A Dark Matter. Agrippa is a character in Frictional Games' 2010 video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Works[edit] Agrippa is perhaps best known for his books. An incomplete list: De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum atque artium declamatio invectiva (Decl amation Attacking the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and the Arts, 1526; printed in Cologne 1527), a skeptical satire of the sad state of science. This book, a significant production of the revival of Pyrrhonic skepticism in its fideist mode, was to have a significant impact on such thinkers and writers as Montaigne , Ren Descartes, and Goethe.[citation needed] Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex, 1529[4]), a book pronouncing the theological and moral superiority of women. Edition with English translation, London 1670[5] De occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy, Book 1 printed Paris 1531; Books 1-3 in Cologne 1533). This summa of occult and magical thought, Agrippa's most important work in a number of respects, sought a solution to the skepticism proposed in De vanitate. In short, Agrippa argued for a synthetic vision of magic whereby the natural world combined with the celestial and the divine through Neoplatonic participation, such that ordinarily licit natural magic was in fact validated by a kind of demonic magic sourced ultimately from God. By this means Agrippa proposed a magic that could resolve all epistemological problems raised by skepticism in a total validation of Christian faith.

One example of the text, not especially indicative of its broader contents, is Agrippa's analysis of herbal treatments for malaria in numeric terms: "Rabanus also, a famous Doctor, composed an excellent book of the vertues of numbers: But now how great vertues numbers have in nature, is manifest in the hearb which is called Cinquefoil, i.e. five leaved Grass; for this resists poysons by vertue of the number of five; also drives away divells, conduceth to expiation; and one leafe of it taken twice in a day in wine, cures the Feaver of one day: three the tertian Feaver: foure the quartane. In like manner four grains of the seed of Turnisole being drunk, cures the quartane, but three the tertian. In like manner Vervin is said to cure Feavers, being drunk in wine, if in tertians it be cut from the third joynt, in quartans from the fourth." The book was a major influence on such later magical thinkers as Giordano Bruno and John Dee[citation needed], but was ill-understood[citation needed] after the decline of the Occult Renaissance concomitant with the Scientific Revolution. The book (whose early draft, quite different from the final form, circulated in manuscript long before it was published) is often cited in discussions of Albrecht Drer's famous engraving Melencolia I (1514). (Note that Philosophy of Natural Magic: Complete Work on Natural Magic, White & Black Magic, 1569, ISBN 1 -56459-160-3, is simply book 1 of De occulta philosophia libri tres.) A spurious Fourth book of occult philosophy, sometimes called Of Magical Ceremonies, has also been attributed to him; this book first appeared in Marburg in 1559 and was certainly not by Agrippa.[citation needed] (A semi-complete collection of his writings were also printed in Lyon in 1550; arguably more complete editions followed, but none is without serious textual problems.) Modern editions of Agrippa's works[edit] De occulta philosophia libri tres. Ed. Vittoria Perrone Compagni. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 1992: ISBN 90-04-09421-0. Three Books Of Occult Philosophy. Trans. James Freake Edited by Donald Tyson. St . Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1993: ISBN 0-87542-832-0. Three Books of Occult Philosophy Book One: A Modern Translation, Trans. Eric Purdue. IA City, IA: Renaissance Astrology Press, 2012: ISBN 1-10589-879-2 Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex. Trans. Albert Rabil, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996: ISBN 0-226-01059-7 Of the Vanitie and Vncertaintie of Artes and Sciences. Edited by Catherine M. Dunn. Northridge, CA: California State University Foundation, 1974. ASIN: B0006C M0SW See also[edit] Pentagram Paracelsus

Notes and references[edit] 1. ^ http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Anno%20Borchardt%20Magi.htm (p.71) 2. ^ Tyson, Donald (1992). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Llewellyn Publications. p. 706. ISBN 978-0875428321. 3. ^ Stages on Life's Way (126-127 Hong) 4. ^ http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=Gallica&O=NUMM-71692 5. ^ http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/preem.htm Further reading[edit] Lehrich, Christopher I. The Language of Demons and Angels. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003: ISBN 90-04-13574-X. The only in-depth scholarly study of Agrippa's occult thought. Morley, Henry. "Cornelius Agrippa: The Life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim" Vol. I, London: Chapman & Hall, 1856. Nauert, Charles G. Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965: ASIN B000BANHI6. The first serious bio-bibli ographical study. van der Poel, Marc. Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist Theologian and His Declamations. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 1997: ISBN 90-04-10756-8. Detailed examination of Agrippa's minor orations and the De vanitate by a Neo-Latin philologist. Yates, Frances A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. University of Chicago Press, 1964: ISBN 0-226-95007-7. Provides a scholarly summary of Agrippa 's occult thoughts in the context of Hermeticism. McDonald, Grantley. Cornelius Agrippas School of Love: Teaching Platos Symposium in the Renaissance, in Practices of Gender in Late-Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Peter Sherlock and Megan Cassidy-Welch (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), pp. 15175. An examination of one of Agrippa's university orations, on the subject of love, from a Neoplatonic and Cabalistic perspective. Agrippa was also a character that aided the protagonist in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. A game developed by Frictional Games External links[edit] Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica article Agrippa Von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius. Wikisource has original works written by or about: Henry Cornelius Agrippa Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim entry by Charles Nauert in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Website devoted to Agrippa's Life Writings of Agrippa

Article in the Catholic Encyclopedia Mary Shelley's The Mortal Immortal "The Magus as Renaissance Man" (scholar's article about the whole context) Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Agrippa in .jpg and .tiff format. [hide] v t e

Alchemy (Outline) Concepts Alkahest Chrysopoeia Classical planets (Suns) Elements Elixir of life H omunculus In art and entertainment Philosopher's stone Substances Symbols Branches Daoist Hindu Islamic Spagyric Iatrochemistry Chemistry Magnum opus Nigredo Albedo Citrinitas Rubedo Processes Calcination Ceration Cohobation Congelation Digestion Distillation Fer mentation Filtration Fixation Multiplication Projection Solution Sublimation Alchemists Agastya Arthur Dee Fulcanelli Ge Hong Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Isaa c Newton Jbir ibn Hayyn John Dee Albertus Magnus Khlid ibn Yazd Bernard of Trev ary the Jewess Nicolas Flamel Paracelsus Rhazes Robert Boyle Roger Bacon Wei Boy ang Zosimos of Panopolis Works Alchemical Studies Aurora consurgens Baopuzi Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigk eit Cantong qi Cyranides Emerald Tablet Fasciculus Chemicus Hermetic Definitions Hermetic Journal Hermetica Kitab al-Kimya Liber Ignium Musaeum Hermeticum Mutus Liber Occult Chemistry Psychology and Alchemy Rosary of the Philosophers Splend or Solis Suspicions about the Hidden Realities of the Air Theatrum Chemicum Thea trum Chemicum Britannicum Turba Philosophorum Authority control VIAF: 24596804 Categories: 1486 births1535 deaths16th-century German physicians16th-century Latin-language writersGerman alchemistsGerman astrologersGerman feministsGerman occult writersGerman occultistsGerman Renaissance humanistsInventors of writing systemsOccultistsPeople from CologneMale feminists Navigation menu Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Interaction Help

About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Toolbox Print/export Languages Afrikaans

Brezhoneg esky Dansk Deutsch Eesti Espaol Franais Galego Hrvatski Italiano Latina Magyar

Nederlands Norsk bokml Polski Portugus

Romn Simple English Slovenina Srpskohrvatski / Suomi Svenska Yorb Edit links This page was last modified on 21 June 2013 at 15:28. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prof it organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view