''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'' (''De Occulta Philosophia libri III'') is

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (; ; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer. Agrippa's '' Three Books of Occult Philosophy'' published in 1533 dre ...

's study of

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

philosophy, acknowledged as a significant contribution to the Renaissance philosophical discussion concerning the powers of magic, and its relationship with religion. The first book was printed in 1531 in Paris, Cologne, and Antwerp, while the full three volumes first appeared in Cologne in 1533. The three books deal with

elemental An elemental is a mythic being that is described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsus and his subsequent fo ...

, celestial and

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator o ...

magic. The books outline the

four elements Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simi ...

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...

names of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word '' god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or spec ...

, the virtues and relationships with each other as well as methods of utilizing these relationships and laws in medicine,

scrying Scrying, also known by various names such as "seeing" or "peeping", is the practice of looking into a suitable medium in the hope of detecting significant messages or visions. The objective might be personal guidance, prophecy, revelation, or in ...

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wo ...

ceremonial magic Ceremonial magic (ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an ex ...

, origins of what are from the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Chaldea Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...

n context. These arguments were common amongst other hermetic philosophers at the time and before. In fact, Agrippa's interpretation of magic is similar to the authors

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a revive ...

Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, ...

and

Johann Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin (; sometimes called Johannes; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522) was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, and Italy and France. Most of Reuchlin' ...

's synthesis of magic and religion, and emphasize an exploration of nature.

Editions

*''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'', written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa (Translated by James Freake). London: Printed by R.W. for Gregory Moule, 1651. *''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'', written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Book One – Natural Magic. Edited by Willis F. Whitehead. Chicago: Hahn & Whitehead, 1898. *''The Philosophy of Natural Magic'', written by

Henry Cornelius Agrippa Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (; ; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer. Agrippa's ''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'' published in 1533 drew ...

, Translated by James Freake, Edited by

L. W. de Laurence L. W. de Laurence (full name Lauron William de Laurence) was an American author and publisher on occult and spiritual topics. Life De Laurence was born on 31 October 1868 in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest child of William and Mary (née Walker) Law ...

(1913). (Only book one) *''The Philosophy of Natural Magic'', written by

, Translated by James Freake, Edited by Leslie Shepherd (1974). University Books. (, Only book one; reprint of the Laurence edition) *Three Books of Occult Philosophy, written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa (Translated by J. F.). Hastings, England: Chthonios Books, 1986. Facsimile edition – First Thus. *''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'', written by

, Translated by James Freake, Annotated by Donald Tyson (2005). Llewelyn Worldwide. () *''De Occvlta Philosophia'', written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Translated by Paul Summers Young (2020). Black Letter Press. *''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'', written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Translated by Eric Purdue (2021). Inner Traditions. ()

References

External links

Three Books of Occult Philosophy (London, 1651)
– From the Michigan State University digital collections
PDF

''De occulta philosophia''
– From the Collections at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

''De occulta philosophia. Book 4''
– From the Collections at the

* Book One - Natural Magic (Chicago: Hahn & Whitehead, 1898) - From the Cornell collection at the Internet Archive
Selected images from ''De occulta philosophia''
From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library

– From Internet Sacred Text Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Three Books of Occult Philosophy 1531 books Astrological texts Christian Kabbalah Grimoires Hermetic Qabalah Kabbalah texts

Editions

See also

References

External links