The Language of Demons and Angels Brill’S Studies in Intellectual History
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THE LANGUAGE OF DEMONS AND ANGELS BRILL’S STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY General Editor A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen Editorial Board M. Colish, Oberlin College J.I. Israel, University College, London J.D. North, University of Groningen R.H. Popkin, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA VOLUME 119 THE LANGUAGE OF DEMONS AND ANGELS Cornelius Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy BY CHRISTOPHER I. LEHRICH BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2003 This book is printed on acid-free paper. The cover image shows the harmony and proportion of the human body with respect to the seven heavenly bodies, demonstrating the theory of the microcosm. From De occulta philosophia 2.27, 331/347 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lehrich, Christopher I. The language of demons and angels : Cornelius Agrippa’s occult philosophy / by Christopher I. Lehrich. p. cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; v. 119) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 90-04-13574-X 1. Agrippa von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius. 1486?-1535. 2. Occultism. I. Title. II. Series. B781.A34L44 2003 130’.92-dc22 2003055665 ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 90 04 13574 X © Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherland Vos igitur, doctrinae et sapientiae filii, perquirite in hoc libro colligendo nostram dispersam intentionem quam in diversis locis proposuimus et quod occultatum est a nobis in uno loco, manifestum fecimus illud in alio, ut sapientibus vobis patefiat. Vobis enim solis scripsimus. You, therefore, sons of wisdom and learning, search diligently in this book, gathering together our dispersed intentions, which in divers places we have propounded; and what is hid in one place, we make manifest in another, that it may appear to you wise men. For, for you only have we written. — Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim This page intentionally left blank TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ...................................... ix Abbreviations ......................................... xi List of Illustrations .................................... xiii Chapter One Introduction .............................. 1 Theory and Method .................................. 2 Cornelius Agrippa: Life ............................... 25 Works ............................................ 32 Chapter Two Logos and Nature ........................ 43 The Natural Magic Problem ........................... 45 The Practice of Natural Magic: Man as Operator ........... 66 Magic and Skeptical Philosophy ........................ 73 Conclusions ....................................... 91 Chapter Three Sign, Sigil, Text ......................... 98 Exemplum: Magic Squares and Figures .................. 100 Exemplum: the Practice of Images ..................... 110 Theories of Signification ............................. 116 The Elementary Forms of Language .................... 124 The Power of the Sign .............................. 134 Inscribing the Powers ............................... 142 Conclusions ...................................... 146 Chapter Four The Language of Demons and Angels ........ 147 Magical Kabbalah .................................. 149 Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic ..................... 159 Ritual Magic ...................................... 164 Ritual, Belief, and Secrecy ............................ 172 Manipulating the Demonic .......................... 185 viii CONTENTS How to Summon a Demon .......................... 200 Conclusions ...................................... 206 Chapter Five Conclusion ............................. 213 Agrippan Interpretations ............................. 214 Historical Speculations .............................. 219 Theoretical Meditations ............................. 220 Appendix One Latin Quotations, De occulta philosophia ..... 227 Appendix Two De vanitate on Alchemy .................. 233 Bibliography ........................................ 239 Works by Agrippa (abbreviated) ....................... 239 Works on Agrippa ................................. 240 Premodern Sources ................................. 243 Modern Works .................................... 245 Index ............................................. 253 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Any significant work of research incurs many debts. I should first of all like to thank my dissertation advisors, Allen G. Debus, Jonathan Z. Smith, and Anthony C. Yu, for support and guidance through the long process. A Mrs. Giles Whiting fellowship allowed me financial freedom to complete the dissertation. Michael Bathgate, Richard Blum, Stephen Clucas, Nicholas Clulee, Alex Dent-Young, Heather Hindman, Armando Maggi, Hajime Nakatani, Allan Tulchin, and Robert Yelle all read and discussed with me bits and pieces of the book in progress. My anonymous review reader provided essential critical advice on philological issues outside my competence. Jean Rainwater and the staff at the John Hay Library of Brown University made the potentially agonizing process of acquiring images simple and even enjoyable. Chris Mills of Lizard Lounge Graphics (www.lizardlounge.com) helped immeasurably with all the technical details of typesetting the text. Most of all, my wife, Sarah Frederick, has supported me throughout the process in more ways than I can count. This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS DOP De occulta philosophia libri tres, in Opera, 1.1-499; also in a critical edition, ed. Vittoria Perrone Compagni (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992); also an English translation by J.F. (London, 1651); reprint, ed. and annotated by Donald Tyson (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1993). References are in the form: book:chapter, page in Perrone Compagni edition/page in Tyson edition; thus (DOP II:5, 258/245). De vanitate De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum atque artium, in Opera, 2.1-314; also in an English translation Of the Vanitie and Vncertaintie of Artes and Sciences, trans. James Sanford (London:1569); reprint, ed. Catherine M. Dunn (Northridge, CA: California State University Foundation, 1974). References are in the form: chapter, page in Opera /page in Dunn; thus (De vanitate 17, 46/65). I have regularized the English spelling in Of the Vanitie. Epistolae Epistolae ad familiares, libri VII, in Opera, 2.593-1073. Opera Opera, quaecumque hactenus vel in luem prodierunt, vel inveniri potuerunt omnia in duos tomos concinne digesta . ., 2 vols. (Lyon, s.a. Reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1970). Compagni Notes and introduction to critical edition of DOP. Morley Henry Morley, Cornelius Agrippa. The Life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Doctor and Knight, Commonly known as a Magician, 2 vols. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1856). xii ABBREVIATIONS Nauert Charles G. Nauert, Jr., Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965). Prost Auguste Prost, Les sciences et les arts occultes au XVIe siècle. Corneille Agrippa. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, 2 vols. (Paris, 1881-82; reprint Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1965). Van der Poel Marc van der Poel, Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist Theologian and his Declamations, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, vol. 77 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997). W Juvenile Draft of DOP, noted interlinearly in Perrone Compagni. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Ficino’s system of forces (after D. P. Walker). ....... 50 Figure 2 Magic squares, sigils, and characters . ............. 101 Figure 3 Magic square of order 3 ....................... 102 Figure 4 Nine chambers system ........................ 104 Figure 5 Construction of the Hismael sigil ................ 105 Figure 6 Character of Saturn .......................... 106 Figure 7 Construction of Mars and Venus characters ........ 107 Figure 8 Construction of character for Jupiter ............. 108 Figure 9 Construction of character of the Sun ............. 109 Figure 10 Right Table of Commutations ................. 189 Cover image and Figure 2 courtesy Brown University Library. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ‘Tis Magic, Magic that hath ravished me. Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt; And I . Will be as cunning as Agrippa was, Whose shadows made all Europe honour him. —Christopher Marlowe Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535), as befits a great magician, left behind him a number of mysteries for posterity. In two letters to his friends, in which he discussed the progress of his great treatise on magic De occulta philosophia libri tres1 [Three Books of Occult Philosophy, hereafter DOP ], Agrippa wrote of a “secret key” to the occult philosophy, a key which would be revealed only to his closest friends.2 In the latter half of the sixteenth century, it was commonly believed that this “key” referred to a text of black magic spuriously attributed to Agrippa,3 thus lending credence to the legends of Agrippa the black magician, which in turn led to Agrippa’s importance as a source for the Faust legends. But if the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy was certainly a spurious work, what was Agrippa’s secret