Preface

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006718757

Cornell University Library
BF 1410.L69 1655a

Henry Cornelius Agrippa's Fourth book of

3 1924 006 718 757

Henry Cornelius Agrippa

Henry Qornelius (iAgrip])a->

HIS

Fourth BOOK

OF

O ecu It P hilofophy.

Of Geomancy.

Magical Elements ofTeterde
<iAbano.

Astronomical Geomancy.

The Nature of Spirits.

zArbatel of Magick.

Tranflated into Englifh by Robert Turner,

,w\W

LONDON",

Printed by^fkln Publifhers, 16 Ennismore Ave

at the Eaft-endof Chyfvvick.1978

First English edition published 1655
First Facsimile edition 1978

Published by Askin Publishers Ltd

1 6 Ennismore Avenue

Chiswick London W4

England

ISBN 9503876 7 3

© Askin Publishers Ltd

Distributed in the USA by

Samuel Weiser Inc, 625 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10012 USA

Typographic restitution by Graham Knight
Typeset by Academic Typesetting
printed by Unwin Brothers Limited

TBE GRESHAM PRESS OLD WOKING SURREY ENGLAND

Limited Edition of 500 copies
handbound in leather
of which this is number... Jti-o.

This is volume 4 of:

Source Works of Mediaeval and Renaissance Magic

Volume 1: A True & Faithful Relation of what Passed
for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee...
and some Spirits . . .
Meric Casaubon

Volume 2: The Archidoxes of Magic
Paracelsus

Volume 3: Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Henry Cornelius Agrippa

CONTENTS

The Preface to the unprejudiced Reader
Commendatory Poems

I Of Geomancy 1

— Henry Cornelius Agrippa

II Of Occult Philosophy, or Of Magical Ceremonies:

The Fourth Book 32

— Henry Cornelius Agrippa

III Heptameron: or, Magical Elements 73

— Peter de Abano

IV Isagoge: An Introductory Discourse on the nature
of such Spirits as are exercised in the sublunary
Bounds; their Original, Names, Offices, Illusions,
Powers, Prophecies, Miracles; and how they may

be expelled and driven away 107

— Georg Pictorius Villinganus

V Of Astronomical Geomancy 155

— Gerard Cremonensis

VI Of the Magick of the Ancients 177

— Arbatel

INTRODUCTION

It is amazing how often it is said that The Fourth Book of
Occult Philosophy is spurious. This is repeated by one
'authority' after another, obviously without any reference
to the text itself. For this volume is not so much a single
book as a collection of six treatises on various aspects of
practical magic and divination. A glance at the table of
contents will confirm that only the first two treatises actually
claim to be by Henry Cornelius Agrippa.

Agrippa (1486—1535) was in many ways an all round
Renaissance man, being a writer, soldier, and physician.
However, his main claim to an important place in the history
of the thought of the period is as a magician, and this is by
no means a belittlement of his other attainments for as
Agrippa himself says:

'Some that are perverse .... may take the name of Magick
in the worse sense and, though scarce having seen the
title, cry out that I teach forbidden Arts, sow the seed of
Heresies, offend pious ears, and scandalize excellent wits;
that I am a sorcerer, and superstitious and divellish, who
indeed am a Magician: to whom I answer, that a Magician
doth not, amongst learned men signify a sorcerer, or one
that is superstitious or divellish; but a wise man, a priest,
a prophet'

Turning to the contents of this volume let us examine each
treatise in turn: