Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia libri III) is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's study of occult 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.[1]
De Occulta Philosophia, Libri tresMan inscribed in a pentagram, from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy. The signs on the perimeter represent the 5 visible planets in astrology.
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, Pico della Mirandola and Johann Reuchlin's synthesis of magic and religion, and emphasize an exploration of nature.
The first draft of the Three Books was presented by Agrippa in 1510 to Abbot Johannes Trithemius. The text survives to this day and draws heavily from Ficino, Pliny the Elder and Pico Della Mirandola, among other works well-known to scholars of the Renaissance.[2]
In 1526-27, Agrippa published a satirical-critical work called De Incertitudine Et Vanitate Scientiarum Liber, in which he seemingly retracted his Three Books, apparently admitting that his occult studies were misguided. However, whether Agrippa was genuine remains a matter of scholarly debate.[2]
The final and complete edition of the Three Books was published in Cologne in 1533. A first English translation was published in 1651.[3]
Agrippa, Henry Cornelius (1651). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Translated by James Freake. London: Printed by R.W. for Gregory Moule.
——— (1898). Whitehead, Willis F. (ed.). Three Books of Occult Philosophy: Book One – Natural Magic. Chicago: Hahn & Whitehead.
——— (1913). de Laurence, L. W. (ed.). The Philosophy of Natural Magic. Translated by James Freake. (Book One only)
——— (1974). Shepherd, Leslie (ed.). The Philosophy of Natural Magic. Translated by James Freake. University Books. ISBN0-82160-218-7. (Book One only; reprint of the Laurence edition)
——— (1986). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Translated by J. F. (Facsimile ed.). Hastings, England: Chthonios Books.
