De occulta philosophia libri tres.

A masterpiece of Western Renaissance magic

First collected edition of this masterpiece of Western Renaissance magic. The first part of this summa of occult and magical thought was originally published in 1531, probably under the influence of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Würzburg, whose notable students included Agrippa and Paracelsus.



The privilege of the Emperor Charles V, to whom Agrippa was archivist and historiographer, is printed in French on the title verso, a "double anomaly", as Caillet notes, for a Latin work printed in Germany. Adams gives the place of publication as Basle.

There are several variants with the same anonymous imprint; the present work shows, to name but a few, the correct spelling of "Romains" in the first line of the dedication (others have "Romaine" or "Romaines", both grammatically incorrect), and the proper use of French "ss" instead of the German "ß" seen in the digitized copies from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the Bibliothèque municipale d'Orléans. These two copies also differ from each other in textual layout and spellings, but have matching opening initials, although different from the ones in this copy. No precedence has been established between these variants: this copy has the same setting of the Ad Lectorem leaf as the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel copy.