THREE BOOKS OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY: De Occulta Philosophia Libri Tres, Agrippa’s Renaissance Treatise on Natural, Celestial, and Ceremonial Magic

Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia Libri Tres) is the most ambitious attempt of the sixteenth century to set out the whole of what its author called magic in one orderly treatise. Written by the German scholar and physician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486 to 1535) and first printed in full at Cologne in 1533, it follows an old plan of three worlds: the elemental, the celestial, and the intellectual.

Book I treats natural magic: the four elements, the hidden virtues of herbs, stones, metals, and animals, the planets and signs, perfumes, divination, the passions of the mind, and the power of words and names. Book II turns to number, geometry, music, the heavens, the tables of the planets, and the making of images and characters. Book III turns to religion, the divine names, the orders of angels and demons, the human soul, the four divine frenzies, and the preparation for oracles.

This edition presents the English translation of 1651 in its original spelling, complete in 199 chapters, together with the letters and the closing retractation that accompanied it.

In this edition:

- A new introduction and a note on the text

- A headnote for each of the three books

- A glossary of names and technical terms

- Seven planetary squares checked by addition, with lost numerals restored

- Numbered figures marking the seals, characters, and diagrams of the original

- A generous page with readable, justified type