fbpx
Wikipedia

Renaissance magic

Renaissance magic was a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries CE. During the Renaissance period, magic and occult practices underwent significant changes that reflected shifts in cultural, intellectual, and religious perspectives. C. S. Lewis, in his work on English literature, highlighted the transformation in how magic was perceived and portrayed. In medieval stories, magic had a fantastical and fairy-like quality, while in the Renaissance, it became more complex and tied to the idea of hidden knowledge that could be explored through books and rituals. This change is evident in the works of authors like Spenser, Marlowe, Chapman, and Shakespeare, who treated magic as a serious and potentially dangerous pursuit.[1]

Woodcut illustration from an edition of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (1582)

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, a scholar, physician, and astrologer, popularized the Cabbalistic and Hermetic magic of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Agrippa's ideas on magic were revolutionary, and he faced persecution for his criticism of authorities and ruling classes. His work, De occulta philosophia, explored both benevolent and malevolent magic, but he rejected forbidden forms of sorcery. Similarly, Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist, combined medical practice with astrology. He introduced elemental beings and viewed the cosmos as interconnected, assigning spiritual significance to natural elements.

Nostradamus, a French astrologer and reputed scryer, gained fame for allegedly predicting future events through his prophecies. His works contained cryptic verses and calendars, attracting both admirers and skeptics. Johann Weyer, a Dutch physician and disciple of Agrippa, advocated against the persecution of witches and argued that accusations of witchcraft were often based on mental disturbances. John Dee, an English mathematician and occultist, explored alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. His collaboration with Edward Kelley resulted in elaborate angelic communications and mystical teachings.

Collectively, these figures wove a complex fabric of Renaissance magic, a time marked by a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, as well as a redefinition of the perception of magic. This era saw magic evolve from a fanciful element in stories to a domain of spiritual exploration and hidden knowledge.

History edit

 
Portrait of Gemistus Pletho, detail of a fresco by acquaintance Benozzo Gozzoli, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy

Both bourgeoisie and nobility in the 15th and 16th centuries showed great fascination with the seven artes magicae, which exerted an exotic charm by their ascription to Arabic, Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and Egyptian sources. There was great uncertainty in distinguishing practices of vain superstition, blasphemous occultism, and perfectly sound scholarly knowledge or pious ritual. Intellectual and spiritual tensions erupted in the Early Modern witch craze, further reinforced by the turmoils of the Protestant Reformation, especially in Germany, England, and Scotland. The people during this time found that the existence of magic was something that could answer the questions that they could not explain through science. To them it was suggesting that while science may explain reason, magic could explain "unreason".[2]

Late Middle Ages to early Renaissance edit

Georgius Gemistus Pletho edit

Georgius Gemistus Pletho (c. 1355/1360 – 1452/1454) was a Greek scholar[3] and one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byzantine era.[4] He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe.[5] As revealed in his last literary work, the Nomoi or Book of Laws, which he only circulated among close friends, he rejected Christianity in favour of a return to the worship of the classical Hellenic Gods, mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi.[6] Plethon may also have been the source for Ficino's Orphic system of natural magic.[7]

 
Marsilio Ficino from a fresco painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Tornabuoni Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Marsilio Ficino edit

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with the major academics of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.[8] His Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Plato's Academy, influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy.

Ficino's letters, extending over the years 1474–1494, survive and have been published. He wrote De amore (Of Love) in 1484. De vita libri tres (Three books on life), or De triplici vita[9] (The Book of Life), published in 1489, provides a great deal of medical and astrological advice for maintaining health and vigor, as well as espousing the Neoplatonist view of the world's ensoulment and its integration with the human soul:

There will be some men or other, superstitious and blind, who see life plain in even the lowest animals and the meanest plants, but do not see life in the heavens or the world ... Now if those little men grant life to the smallest particles of the world, what folly! what envy! neither to know that the Whole, in which 'we live and move and have our being,' is itself alive, nor to wish this to be so.[10]

One metaphor for this integrated "aliveness" is Ficino's astrology. In the Book of Life, he details the interlinks between behavior and consequence. It talks about a list of things that hold sway over a man's destiny.

His medical works exerted considerable influence on Renaissance physicians such as Paracelsus, with whom he shared the perception on the unity of the micro- and macrocosmos, and their interactions, through somatic and psychological manifestations, with the aim to investigate their signatures to cure diseases. Those works, which were very popular at the time, dealt with astrological and alchemical concepts. Thus Ficino came under the suspicion of heresy; especially after the publication of the third book in 1489, which contained specific instructions on healthful living in a world of demons and other spirits.[citation needed]

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola edit

 
Portrait from the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher.[11] He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance",[12] and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation".[13] He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key element of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church.[14]

In November 1484, he settled for a time in Florence and met Lorenzo de' Medici and Marsilio Ficino. It was an astrologically auspicious day that Ficino had chosen to publish his translations of the works of Plato from Greek into Latin, under Lorenzo's enthusiastic patronage. Pico appears to have charmed both men, and despite Ficino's philosophical differences, he was convinced of their Saturnine affinity and the divine providence of his arrival. Lorenzo would support and protect Pico until his death in 1492.

Pico spent several months in Perugia and nearby Fratta. It was there, as he wrote to Ficino, that "divine Providence ... caused certain books to fall into my hands. They are Chaldean books ... of Esdras, of Zoroaster and of Melchior, oracles of the magi, which contain a brief and dry interpretation of Chaldean philosophy, but full of mystery."[15] It was also in Perugia that Pico was introduced to the mystical Hebrew Kabbalah, which fascinated him, as did the late classical Hermetic writers, such as Hermes Trismegistus. The Kabbalah and Hermetica were thought in Pico's time to be as ancient as the Old Testament.

 
Johann Reuchlin, woodcut depiction from 1516

Pico's tutor in Kabbalah was Rabbi Johannan Alemanno (1435/8–c. 1510), who argued that the study and mastery of magic was to be regarded as the final stage of one's intellectual and spiritual education.[16] This contact, initiated as a result of Christian interest in Jewish mystical sources, resulted in unprecedented mutual influence between Jewish and Christian Renaissance thought.[16] The most original of Pico's 900 theses concerned the Kabbalah. As a result, he became the founder of the tradition known as Christian Kabbalah, which went on to be a central part of early modern Western esotericism.[14]

Pico's approach to different philosophies was one of extreme syncretism, placing them in parallel, it has been claimed, rather than attempting to describe a developmental history.[17] Pico based his ideas chiefly on Plato, as did his teacher, Marsilio Ficino, but retained a deep respect for Aristotle. Although he was a product of the studia humanitatis, Pico was constitutionally an eclectic, and in some respects he represented a reaction against the exaggerations of pure humanism, defending what he believed to be the best of the medieval and Islamic commentators, such as Averroes and Avicenna, on Aristotle in a famous long letter to Ermolao Barbaro in 1485.

It was always Pico's aim to reconcile the schools of Plato and Aristotle since he believed they used different words to express the same concepts. It was perhaps for this reason his friends called him "Princeps Concordiae", or "Prince of Harmony" (a pun on Prince of Concordia, one of his family's holdings).[18] Similarly, Pico believed that an educated person should also study Hebrew and Talmudic sources, and the Hermetics, because he thought they represented the same concept of God that is seen in the Old Testament, but in different words.

In 1490 Pico met with Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522), who became heir to his Kabbalistic doctrines. Following Pico, Reuchlin seemed to find in the Kabbala a profound theosophy which might be of the greatest service for the defence of Christianity and the reconciliation of science with the mysteries of faith, a common notion at that time. Reuchlin's mystico-cabbalistic ideas and objects were expounded in the De Verbo Mirifico, and finally in the De Arte Cabbalistica (1517).[19]

 
Title page of one of the Höllenzwang grimoires attributed to D. Faustus Magus Maximus Kundlingensis (18th century)

The legendary Doctor Faustus edit

Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480 or 1466 – c. 1541) was a German itinerant alchemist, astrologer and magician of the German Renaissance. Because of his early treatment as a figure in legend and literature, it is difficult to establish historical facts about his life with any certainty.

For the year 1506, there is a record of Faust appearing as performer of magical tricks and horoscopes in Gelnhausen. Over the following 30 years, there are numerous similar records spread over southern Germany. Faust appeared as physician, doctor of philosophy, alchemist, magician and astrologer, and was often accused as a fraud. The church denounced him as a blasphemer in league with the devil.

On 23 February 1520, Faust was in Bamberg, doing a horoscope for the bishop and the town, for which he received the sum of 10 gulden.[20] In 1528, Faust visited Ingolstadt, whence he was banished shortly after.

In 1532 he seems to have tried to enter Nürnberg, according to an unflattering note made by the junior mayor of the city to "deny free passage to the great nigromancer and sodomite Doctor Faustus" (Doctor Faustus, dem großen Sodomiten und Nigromantico in furt glait ablainen). Later records give a more positive verdict; thus the Tübingen professor Joachim Camerarius in 1536 recognises Faust as a respectable astrologer, and physician Philipp Begardi of Worms in 1539 praises his medical knowledge. The last direct attestation of Faust dates to 25 June 1535, when his presence was recorded in Münster during the Anabaptist rebellion.

 
Page of Praxis Magia Faustiana (1527)

Doctor Faust became the subject of folk legend in the decades after his death, transmitted in chapbooks beginning in the 1580s, and was notably adapted by Christopher Marlowe in his play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604). The Faustbuch tradition survived throughout the early modern period, and the legend was again adapted in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's closet drama Faust (1808), Hector Berlioz's musical composition La damnation de Faust (premiered 1846), and Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony of 1857.

There are several prints of grimoires or magical texts attributed to Faust. Some of them are artificially dated to his lifetime, either to "1540", or to "1501", "1510", etc., some even to unreasonably early dates, such as "1405" and "1469". The prints in fact date to the late 16th century, from ca. 1580, i.e. the same period of the development of the Volksbuch tradition.[a]

Other early writers edit

Other writers on occult or magical topics during this period include:

  • Johannes Hartlieb (1410-1468) wrote a compendium on herbs in ca. 1440, and in 1456 the puch aller verpoten kunst, ungelaubens und der zaubrey (book on all forbidden arts, superstition and sorcery) on the artes magicae, containing the oldest known description of witches' flying ointment.
  • Thomas Norton (b. <1436 – d. c. 1513) was an English poet and alchemist best known for his 1477 alchemical poem, The Ordinal of Alchemy.
  • Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) Trithemius' most famous work, Steganographia (written c. 1499; published Frankfurt, 1606), was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1609[21] and removed in 1900.[22] This book is in three volumes, and appears to be about magic—specifically, about using spirits to communicate over long distances. However, since the publication of a decryption key to the first two volumes in 1606, they have been known to be actually concerned with cryptography and steganography. Until recently, the third volume was widely still believed to be solely about magic, but the magical formulae have now been shown to be covertexts for yet more material on cryptography.[23][24]

Renaissance and Reformation edit

C. S. Lewis in his 1954 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama differentiates what he takes to be the change of character in magic as practiced in the Middle Ages as opposed to the Renaissance:

Only an obstinate prejudice about this period could blind us to a certain change which comes over the merely literary texts as we pass from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century. In medieval stories there is, in one sense, plenty of “magic”. Merlin does this or that “by his subtilty”, Bercilak resumes his severed head. But all these passages have unmistakably the note of “faerie” about them. But in Spenser, Marlowe, Chapman, and Shakespeare the subject is treated quite differently. “He to his studie goes”; books are opened, terrible words pronounced, souls imperiled. The medieval author seems to write for a public to whom magic, like knight-errantry, is part of the furniture of romance: the Elizabethan, for a public who feel that it might be going on in the next street. [...] Neglect of this point has produced strange readings of The Tempest, which is in reality [...] Shakespeare’s play on magia as Macbeth is his play on goeteia.[25]

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa edit

 
Woodcut print portrait of Agrippa

The Cabalistic and Hermetic magic, which was created by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), was made popular in northern Europe, most notably England, by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), via his De occulta philosophia libra tres (1531–1533). Agrippa had revolutionary ideas about magical theory and procedure that were widely circulated in the Renaissance among those who sought out knowledge of occult philosophy.

Agrippa himself was famous as a scholar, physician jurist, and astrologer, but throughout his life he was continually persecuted as a heretic. His problems stemmed not only from his reputation as a conjurer, but also from his vehement criticism of the vices of the ruling classes and of the most respected intellectual and religious authorities.[26]

While some scholars and students viewed Agrippa as a source of intellectual inspiration, to many others, his practices were dubious and his beliefs serious. The transitive side of magic is explored in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia, and at times it is vulgarized. Yet in Ficino and Pico and we never lose sight of magic's solemn religious purposes: the magician explores the secrets of nature so as to arouse wonder at the works of God and to inspire a more ardent worship and love of the Creator.

Considerable space is devoted to examples of evil sorcery in De occulta philosophia, and one might easily come away from the treatise with the impression that Agrippa found witchcraft as intriguing as benevolent magic.[27]

However, at the peak of the witch trials, there was a certain danger to be associated with witchcraft or sorcery, and most learned authors took pains to clearly renounce the practice of forbidden arts. Thus, Agrippa while admitting that natural magic is the highest form of natural philosophy unambiguously rejects all forms of sorcery (goetia or necromancy).[citation needed]

 
1538 portrait of Paracelsus by Augustin Hirschvogel

Paracelsus edit

Paracelsus (c. 1493[b]–1541) was a Swiss[c] physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.[29][30] As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance, a world-view exemplified by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.

Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus's medicine and he was a practising astrologer – as were many of the university-trained physicians working at that time in Europe. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. He largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the theory of humours. Although he did accept the concept of the four elements as water, air, fire, and earth, he saw them merely as a foundation for other properties on which to build.[31] Paracelsus also described four elemental beings, each corresponding to one of the four elements: Salamanders, which correspond to fire; Gnomes, corresponding to earth; Undines, corresponding to water; and Sylphs, corresponding to air.[32][33]

He often viewed fire as the Firmament that sat between air and water in the heavens. Paracelsus often uses an egg to help describe the elements. In his early model, he wrote that air surrounded the world like an egg shell. The egg white below the shell is like fire because it has a type of chaos to it that allows it to hold up earth and water. The earth and water make up a globe which, in terms of the egg, is the yolk. In De Meteoris, Paracelsus wrote that the firmament is the heavens.[34]

Nostradamus edit

 
Nostradamus: original portrait by his son Cesar

Nostradamus (1503–1566) was a French astrologer, physician and reputed seer, who is best known for allegedly predicting future events. Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time in print Latinising his name to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies,[35][36] as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March.

It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and psychic advice from him, though he generally expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures for his clients' place or time of birth.[37][38][39]

He then began his project of writing his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains[d] which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today. Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds,[41] however, he devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using "Virgilianised" syntax, word games and a mixture of other languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, and Provençal.[42] For technical reasons connected with their publication in three instalments (the publisher of the third and last instalment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a "Century," or book of 100 verses), the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not survived in any extant edition.

 
Century I, Quatrain 1 in the 1555 Lyon Bonhomme edition

Les Prophéties received a mixed reaction when it was published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise. Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II of France, was one of Nostradamus's greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded,[43] but by the time of his death in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, the young King Charles IX of France.

In the years since the publication of his Les Prophéties, Nostradamus has attracted many supporters, who, along with much of the popular press, credit him with having accurately predicted many major world events.[44][45] Most academic sources reject the notion that Nostradamus had any genuine supernatural prophetic abilities and maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate).[46] These academics also argue that Nostradamus's predictions are characteristically vague, meaning they could be applied to virtually anything, and are useless for determining whether their author had any real prophetic powers.

Johann Weyer edit

 
Engraving of Johann Weyer, age 60, from De Lamiis Liber

Johann Weyer (1515–1588) was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, and a disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches. His most influential work is De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis ('On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons'; 1563).

Weyer criticised the Malleus Maleficarum and the witch hunting by the Christian and Civil authorities; he is said to have been the first person that used the term mentally ill or melancholy to designate those women accused of practicing witchcraft.[47] In a time when witch trials and executions were just beginning to be common, he sought to derogate the law concerning witchcraft prosecution. He claimed that not only were examples of magic largely incredible but that the crime of witchcraft was literally impossible, so that anyone who confessed to the crime was likely to be suffering some mental disturbance (mainly melancholy, a very flexible category with many different symptoms).

While he defended the idea that the Devil's power was not as strong as claimed by the orthodox Christian churches in De Praestigiis Daemonum, he defended also the idea that demons did have power and could appear before people who called upon them, creating illusions; but he commonly referred to magicians and not to witches when speaking about people who could create illusions, saying they were heretics who were using the Devil's power to do it, and when speaking on witches, he used the term mentally ill.[48]

Moreover, Weyer did not only write the catalogue of demons Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, but also gave their description and the conjurations to invoke them in the appropriate hour and in the name of God and the Trinity, not to create illusions but to oblige them to do the conjurer's will, as well as advice on how to avoid certain perils and tricks if the demon was reluctant to do what he was commanded or a liar. In addition, he wanted to abolish the prosecution of witches, and when speaking on those who invoke demons (which he called spirits) he carefully used the word exorcist.

Weyer never denied the existence of the Devil and a huge number of other demons of high and low order. His work was an inspiration for other occultists and demonologists, including an anonymous author who wrote the Lemegeton (The Lesser Key of Solomon). There were many editions of his books (written in Latin), especially Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and several adaptations in English, including Reginald Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584).

Weyer's appeal for clemency for those accused of the crime of witchcraft was opposed later in the sixteenth century by the Swiss physician Thomas Erastus, the French legal theorist Jean Bodin and King James VI of Scotland.

John Dee and Edward Kelley edit

 
A 16th-century portrait by an unknown artist[e]

John Dee (1527–1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist.[49] He was the court astrologer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I. A student of the Renaissance Neo-Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, he spent much of his time on alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated for the founding of English colonies in the New World to form a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining.[50]

Dee was an intense Christian, but his religiosity was influenced by Hermetic and Platonic-Pythagorean doctrines pervasive in the Renaissance.[51] He believed that numbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge.[52] From Hermeticism he drew a belief that man had the potential for divine power that could be exercised through mathematics.[53] His goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients.[52]

In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. Having dedicated it to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor in an effort to gain patronage, Dee attempted to present it to him at the time of his ascension to the throne of Hungary. The work was esteemed by many of Dee's contemporaries, but cannot be interpreted today in the absence of the secret oral tradition of that era.[54]

By the early 1580s, Dee was discontented with his progress in learning the secrets of nature. He subsequently began to turn energetically towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. He sought to contact spirits through the use of a scryer or crystal-gazer, which he thought would act as an intermediary between himself and the angels.[55]

 
Edward Kelley

Dee's first attempts with several scryers were unsatisfactory, but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley (1555–1597/8), then calling himself Edward Talbot to disguise his conviction for "coining" or forgery, who impressed him greatly with his abilities.[56] Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits.[56] These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and fasting.[56] Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind. The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some conclude that he acted with cynicism, but delusion or self-deception cannot be ruled out.[57] Kelley's "output" is remarkable for its volume, intricacy and vividness. Dee believed that angels laboriously dictated several books to him this way, through Kelley, some in a special angelic or Enochian language.[58][59]

In 1583, Dee met the impoverished yet popular Polish nobleman Albert Łaski, who, after overstaying his welcome at court, invited Dee to accompany him back to Poland.[60] With some prompting by the "angels" (again through Kelley) and by dint of his worsening status at court, Dee decided to do so. He, Kelley, and their families left in September 1583, but Łaski proved to be bankrupt and out of favour in his own country.[61] Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences, which Dee detailed in his diaries and almanacs.[58][59] They had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague Castle and King Stephen Bathory of Poland, whom they attempted to convince of the importance of angelic communication.

In 1587, at a spiritual conference in Bohemia, Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered the men to share all their possessions, including their wives. By this time, Kelley had gained some renown as an alchemist and was more sought-after than Dee in this regard: it was a line of work that had prospects for serious and long-term financial gain, especially among the royal families of central Europe. Dee, however, was more interested in communicating with angels, who he believed would help him solve the mysteries of the heavens through mathematics, optics, astrology, science and navigation. Perhaps Kelley in fact wished to end Dee's dependence on him as a diviner at their increasingly lengthy, frequent spiritual conferences.[61] The order for wife-sharing caused Dee anguish, but he apparently did not doubt it was genuine and they apparently shared wives. However, Dee broke off the conferences immediately afterwards. He returned to England in 1589, while Kelley went on to be the alchemist to Emperor Rudolf II.[61][62]

By 1590 Kelley was living an opulent lifestyle in Europe, enjoying the patronage of nobility: he received several estates and large sums of money from Rosenberg. Meanwhile, he continued his alchemical experiments until he had convinced Rudolf II that he was ready to start producing gold, the purpose of his work. Rudolf knighted him Sir Edward Kelley of Imany and New Lüben on 23 February 1590 (but it is possible that this happened in 1589). In May 1591, Rudolf had Kelley arrested and imprisoned in the Křivoklát Castle outside Prague, supposedly for killing an official named Jiri Hunkler in a duel; it is possible that he also did not want Kelley to escape before he had actually produced any gold.[63] In 1595, Kelly agreed to co-operate and return to his alchemical work; he was released and restored to his former status. When he failed to produce any gold, he was again imprisoned, this time in Hněvín Castle in Most. His wife and stepdaughter attempted to hire an imperial counselor who might free Kelley from imprisonment, but he died a prisoner in late 1597/early 1598 of injuries received while attempting to escape.[63]

A few of Kelley's writings are extant today, including two alchemical verse treatises in English, and three other treatises, which he dedicated to Rudolf II from prison. They were entitled Tractatus duo egregii de lapide philosophorum una cum theatro astronomiae (1676). The treatises have been translated as The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelley (1893).[63]

 
Modern portrait of Giordano Bruno based on a woodcut from Livre du recteur, 1578

Giordano Bruno edit

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist.[64] He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets, and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no "center".

In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Islamic astrology (particularly the philosophy of Averroes),[65] Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and Genesis-like legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth.[f] Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language.[66][67]

In 1584, Bruno published two important philosophical dialogues (La Cena de le Ceneri and De l'infinito universo et mondi) in which he argued against the planetary spheres (Christoph Rothmann did the same in 1586 as did Tycho Brahe in 1587) and affirmed the Copernican principle. In particular, to support the Copernican view and oppose the objection according to which the motion of the Earth would be perceived by means of the motion of winds, clouds etc., in La Cena de le Ceneri Bruno anticipates some of the arguments of Galilei on the relativity principle.[68]

Bruno's cosmology distinguishes between "suns" which produce their own light and heat, and have other bodies moving around them; and "earths" which move around suns and receive light and heat from them.[69] Bruno suggested that some, if not all, of the objects classically known as fixed stars are in fact suns.[69] According to astrophysicist Steven Soter, he was the first person to grasp that "stars are other suns with their own planets."[70] Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different from that of our Earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants".[69]

In 1588, he went to Prague, where he obtained 300 taler from Rudolf II, but no teaching position. He went on to serve briefly as a professor in Helmstedt, but had to flee when he was excommunicated by the Lutherans.[citation needed] During this period he produced several Latin works, dictated to his friend and secretary Girolamo Besler, including De Magia (On Magic), Theses De Magia (Theses on Magic) and De Vinculis in Genere (A General Account of Bonding). All these were apparently transcribed or recorded by Besler (or Bisler) between 1589 and 1590.[71] He also published De Imaginum, Signorum, Et Idearum Compositione (On the Composition of Images, Signs and Ideas, 1591).

Starting in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines, including eternal damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and transubstantiation. Bruno's pantheism was not taken lightly by the church,[g] nor was his teaching of the transmigration of the soul (reincarnation). The Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600. After his death, he gained considerable fame, being particularly celebrated by 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science, although most historians agree that his heresy trial was not a response to his cosmological views but rather a response to his religious and afterlife views.[72][h][i][j][k] However some historians[73] do contend that the main reason for Bruno's death was indeed his cosmological views. Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the emerging sciences.[l][m]

 
Portrait of della Porta from Jo. Bapt. Portae Neapolitani Magiae naturalis libri XX, Naples, 1589

Giambattista della Porta edit

Giambattista della Porta (1535-1615) was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation. His most famous work, first published in 1558, is entitled Magia Naturalis (Natural Magic).[74] In this book he covered a variety of the subjects he had investigated, including optics, occult philosophy, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, meteorology, and natural philosophy. He was also referred to as "professor of secrets".[75]

In Natural Magic, della Porta describes an imaginary device known as a sympathetic telegraph. The device consisted of two circular boxes, similar to compasses, each with a magnetic needle, supposed to be magnetized by the same lodestone. Each box was to be labeled with the 26 letters, instead of the usual directions. Della Porta assumed that this would coordinate the needles such that when a letter was dialed in one box, the needle in the other box would swing to point to the same letter, thereby helping in communicating,[75]

In 1563, della Porta published De Furtivis Literarum Notis, a work about cryptography. In it he described the first known digraphic substitution cipher.[76] Charles J. Mendelsohn commented:

He was, in my opinion, the outstanding cryptographer of the Renaissance. Some unknown who worked in a hidden room behind closed doors may possibly have surpassed him in general grasp of the subject, but among those whose work can be studied he towers like a giant.[77]

Della Porta invented a method which allowed him to write secret messages on the inside of eggs. During the Spanish Inquisition, some of his friends were imprisoned. At the gate of the prison, everything was checked except for eggs. Della Porta wrote messages on the egg shell using a mixture made of plant pigments and alum. The ink penetrated the egg shell which is semi-porous. When the egg shell was dry, he boiled the egg in hot water and the ink on the outside of the egg was washed away. When the recipient in prison peeled off the shell, the message was revealed once again on the egg white.[citation needed]

Della Porta was the founder of a scientific society called the Academia Secretorum Naturae (Accademia dei Segreti). This group was more commonly known as the Otiosi, (Men of Leisure). Founded sometime before 1580, the Otiosi were one of the first scientific societies in Europe and their aim was to study the "secrets of nature." Any person applying for membership had to demonstrate they had made a new discovery in the natural sciences.[78]

The Academia Secretorum Naturae was compelled to disband when its members were suspected of dealing with the occult. A Catholic, della Porta was examined by the Inquisition and summoned to Rome by Pope Gregory XIII. Though he personally emerged from the meeting unscathed, he was forced to disband his Academia Secretorum Naturae, and in 1592 his philosophical works were prohibited from further publication by the Church. The ban was lifted in 1598.[citation needed]

Despite this incident, della Porta remained religiously devout and became a lay Jesuit brother. Porta's involvement with the Inquisition puzzles historians due his active participation in charitable Jesuit works by 1585. A possible explanation for this lies in Porta's personal relations with Fra Paolo Sarpi after 1579.[citation needed]

 
Portrait of Heinrich Khunrath from his Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae

Heinrich Khunrath edit

Heinrich Khunrath (c. 1560–1605) was a German physician, hermetic philosopher, and alchemist. Frances Yates considered him to be a link between the philosophy of John Dee and Rosicrucianism. His name, in the spelling "Henricus Künraht" was used as a pseudonym for the 1670 publisher of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus of Baruch Spinoza.

Khunrath, a disciple of Paracelsus, practiced medicine in Dresden, Magdeburg, and Hamburg and may have held a professorial position in Leipzig. He travelled widely after 1588, including a stay at the Imperial court in Prague, home to the mystically inclined Habsburg emperor Rudolf II. Before reaching Prague he had met John Dee at Bremen on 27 May 1589, when Dee was on his way back to England from Bohemia. Khunrath praised Dee in his later works. During his court stay Khunrath met the alchemist Edward Kelley who had remained behind after he and Dee had parted company. In September 1591, Khunrath was appointed court physician to Count Rosemberk in Trebona. He probably met Johann Thölde while at Trebona, one of the suggested authors of the "Basilius Valentinus" treatises on alchemy.

Khunrath's brushes with John Dee and Thölde and Paracelsian beliefs led him to develop a Christianized natural magic, seeking to find the secret prima materia that would lead man into eternal wisdom. The Christianized view that Khunrath took was framed around his commitment to Lutheran theology. He also held that experience and observation were essential to practical alchemical research, as would a natural philosopher.

His most famous work on alchemy is the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom), a work on the mystical aspects of that art, which contains the oft-seen engraving entitled "The First Stage of the Great Work", better-known as the "Alchemist's Laboratory". The book was first published at Hamburg in 1595, with four circular elaborate, hand-colored, engraved plates heightened with gold and silver which Khunrath designed and were engraved by Paullus van der Doort. The book was then made more widely available in an expanded edition with the addition of other plates published posthumously in Hanau in 1609.

Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae is an alchemical classic, combining both Christianity and magic. In it, Khunrath showed himself to be an adept of spiritual alchemy and illustrated the many-staged and intricate path to spiritual perfection. Khunrath's work was important in Lutheran circles. John Warwick Montgomery has pointed out that Johann Arndt (1555–1621), who was the influential writer of Lutheran books of pietiesm and devotion, composed a commentary on Amphitheatrum. Some of the ideas in his works are Kabbalistic in nature and foreshadow Rosicrucianism.

Other Renaissance writers edit

Other writers on occult or magical topics during this period include:

See also edit

References edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Engel (1885) is aware of fifteen prints (nos. 335–349, pp. 154–157) dated between 1501 and 1540. Engel's no. 334 (Dr. Johann Faustus Miracul- Kunst- und Wunder-Buch, reprinted in Kloster vol. 2, 852–897) is dated MCDXXXXXXIX, i.e. 1469.
  2. ^ Pagel (1982), p. 6, citing Bittel (1942), p. 1163, Strebel (1944), p. 38. The most frequently cited assumption that Paracelsus was born in late 1493 is due to Sudhoff (1936), p. 11.
  3. ^ Paracelsus self-identifies as Swiss (ich bin von Einsidlen, dess Lands ein Schweizer) in grosse Wundartznei (vol. 1, p. 56) and names Carinthia as his "second fatherland" (das ander mein Vatterland).[28]
  4. ^ The original edition of Nostradamus's Les Prophéties from 1555 contained only 353 quatrains. More were later added, amounting to 942 in an omnibus edition published after his death organized into ten "Centuries", each one containing one hundred quatrains, except for Century VII, which, for unknown reasons, only contains forty-two; the other fifty-eight may have been lost due to a problem during publication.[40]
  5. ^ According to Fell Smith (1909) it was painted when Dee was 67. It belonged to a grandson, Rowland Dee, and later to Elias Ashmole, who left it to Oxford University.
  6. ^ The primary work on the relationship between Bruno and Hermeticism is Yates (1964); for an alternative assessment, placing more emphasis on the Kabbalah, and less on Hermeticism, see De León-Jones (1997); for a return to emphasis on Bruno's role in the development of Science, and criticism of Yates' emphasis on magical and Hermetic themes, see Gatti (2002).
  7. ^ Birx (1997): "Bruno was burned to death at the stake for his pantheistic stance and cosmic perspective."
  8. ^ Crowe (1986), p. 10: "[Bruno's] sources... seem to have been more numerous than his followers, at least until the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century revival of interest in Bruno as a supposed 'martyr for science.' It is true that he was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600, but the church authorities guilty of this action were almost certainly more distressed at his denial of Christ's divinity and alleged diabolism than at his cosmological doctrines."
  9. ^ Frank (2009), p. 24: "Though Bruno may have been a brilliant thinker whose work stands as a bridge between ancient and modern thought, his persecution cannot be seen solely in light of the war between science and religion."
  10. ^ White (2002), p. 7: "This was perhaps the most dangerous notion of all... If other worlds existed with intelligent beings living there, did they too have their visitations? The idea was quite unthinkable."
  11. ^ Shackelford (2009), p. 66: "Yet the fact remains that cosmological matters, notably the plurality of worlds, were an identifiable concern all along and appear in the summary document: Bruno was repeatedly questioned on these matters, and he apparently refused to recant them at the end.14 So, Bruno probably was burned alive for resolutely maintaining a series of heresies, among which his teaching of the plurality of worlds was prominent but by no means singular."
  12. ^ Gatti (2002), pp. 18–19: "For Bruno was claiming for the philosopher a principle of free thought and inquiry which implied an entirely new concept of authority: that of the individual intellect in its serious and continuing pursuit of an autonomous inquiry… It is impossible to understand the issue involved and to evaluate justly the stand made by Bruno with his life without appreciating the question of free thought and liberty of expression. His insistence on placing this issue at the center of both his work and of his defense is why Bruno remains so much a figure of the modern world. If there is, as many have argued, an intrinsic link between science and liberty of inquiry, then Bruno was among those who guaranteed the future of the newly emerging sciences, as well as claiming in wider terms a general principle of free thought and expression."
  13. ^ Montano (2007), p. 71: "In Rome, Bruno was imprisoned for seven years and subjected to a difficult trial that analyzed, minutely, all his philosophical ideas. Bruno, who in Venice had been willing to recant some theses, became increasingly resolute and declared on 21 December 1599 that he 'did not wish to repent of having too little to repent, and in fact did not know what to repent.' Declared an unrepentant heretic and excommunicated, he was burned alive in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome on Ash Wednesday, 17 February 1600. On the stake, along with Bruno, burned the hopes of many, including philosophers and scientists of good faith like Galileo, who thought they could reconcile religious faith and scientific research, while belonging to an ecclesiastical organization declaring itself to be the custodian of absolute truth and maintaining a cultural militancy requiring continual commitment and suspicion."

Citations edit

  1. ^ Ashley, Leonard R. N. (1980). "Review of Sir Philip Sidney and the Poetics of Protestantism: A Study of Contexts". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 42 (2): 529. ISSN 0006-1999. JSTOR 20676176 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ Dawes (2013).
  3. ^ Humphreys & Wagner (2013), p. 125.
  4. ^ Hanegraaff (2012), pp. 29–31.
  5. ^ Clogg (2005).
  6. ^ Hanegraaff (2012), p. 38.
  7. ^ Merry (2002).
  8. ^ Voss (2006), pp. ix–x.
  9. ^ Walker (2000), p. 3.
  10. ^ Ficino (2002), from the Apologia, p. 399. (The internal quote is from Acts 17:28.).
  11. ^ "Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte" in Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, volume 15, copyright 1991. Grolier Inc., ISBN 0-7172-5300-7
  12. ^ Pico della Mirandola (1486).
  13. ^ Heiser (2011), p. [page needed].
  14. ^ a b Hanegraaff (2012), p. 54.
  15. ^ "Bibliographie Giovanni Pico della Mirandola". lyber-eclat.net. Retrieved 2016-03-21.
  16. ^ a b Chajes & Harari (2019).
  17. ^ Hanegraaff (2012), p. 59.
  18. ^ Kristeller (1964), p. 62.
  19. ^ Smith (1911), v. 23, p. 203.
  20. ^ Baron (1978), p. 42.
  21. ^ Indice de Libros Prohibidos (1877) [Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Pius IX (1877)] (in Spanish). Vatican. 1880. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
  22. ^ Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1900) [Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Leo XIII (1900)] (in Latin). Vatican. 1900. p. 298. Retrieved 2 August 2009. index librorum prohibitorum tricassinus.
  23. ^ Reeds (1998).
  24. ^ Ernst (1996).
  25. ^ Lewis (1954), p. 8.
  26. ^ Mebane, John S. (1992). Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age: The Occult Tradition and Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare. University of Nebraska Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-8032-8179-0.
  27. ^ Mebane (1989), p. [page needed].
  28. ^ Marx (1842), p. 3.
  29. ^ Debus (1993), p. 3.
  30. ^ "Paracelsus", Britannica, retrieved 24 November 2011
  31. ^ Pagel (1958), p. [page needed].
  32. ^ Silver (1999), p. 38.
  33. ^ Paracelsus (1996), p. 222.
  34. ^ Kahn (2016), p. [page needed].
  35. ^ Lemesurier (2010), pp. 23–25.
  36. ^ Chevignard (1999), p. [page needed].
  37. ^ Lemesurier (2010), pp. 59–64.
  38. ^ Brind'Amour (1993), pp. 326–399.
  39. ^ Gruber (2003), p. [page needed].
  40. ^ Brind'Amour (1993), pp. 14, 435.
  41. ^ Lemesurier (2003), p. 125.
  42. ^ Lemesurier (2003), pp. 99–100.
  43. ^ Leroy (1993), p. 83.
  44. ^ Lemesurier (2010), p. [page needed].
  45. ^ Benazra (1990), p. [page needed].
  46. ^ Lemesurier (2003), pp. 150–152.
  47. ^ Martin (1993).
  48. ^ Schoeneman (2002).
  49. ^ Roberts (2006).
  50. ^ Williams (1985), p. 124.
  51. ^ Trattner (1964), pp. 17–34.
  52. ^ a b Poole (1996).
  53. ^ Johnston (1995).
  54. ^ Forshaw (2005), pp. 247–269.
  55. ^ Harkness (1999), p. 16.
  56. ^ a b c Calder (1952).
  57. ^ Chisholm (1911).
  58. ^ a b Dee, Kelly & Casaubon (1659).
  59. ^ a b Dee (2003).
  60. ^ "Mortlake". The Environs of London: County of Surrey. 1: 364–88. 1792. from the original on 2 March 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2006.
  61. ^ a b c Mackay (1852), p. 155.
  62. ^ . International Alchemy Guild. Archived from the original on 2009-02-28. Retrieved 26 October 2006.
  63. ^ a b c Schleiner (2004).
  64. ^ Gatti (2002), p. 1.
  65. ^ "Giordano Bruno". Encyclopædia Britannica. 31 October 2023.
  66. ^ Farinella & Preston (2002).
  67. ^ Saiber (2005), p. [page needed].
  68. ^ De Angelis & Santo (2015).
  69. ^ a b c Bruno (n.d.).
  70. ^ Soter (2014).
  71. ^ Bruno (1998), p. xxxvi.
  72. ^ Yates (1964), p. 450.
  73. ^ Martínez (2018), p. [page needed].
  74. ^ Voelkel (2013).
  75. ^ a b Salomon (2007), p. 1.
  76. ^ Kahn (1967), p. 139.
  77. ^ Mendelsohn (1940), p. 113.
  78. ^ Magner (2002), p. 119.

Works cited edit

Primary sources edit

  • Agrippa, Henry Cornelius (2021) [1531-33]. Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions. ISBN 978-1644114162.
  • Bruno, Giordano (1998). Blackwell, Richard J.; de Lucca, Robert (eds.). Cause Principle and Unity, and Essays on Magic. Cambridge.
  • Bruno, Giordano (n.d.). . On the infinite universe and worlds. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012.
  • Dee, John; Kelly, Edward; Casaubon, Meric (1659). A True & Faithful Relation of what Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits. T Garthwait. ISBN 978-5-88514-094-2.
  • Dee, John (2003). Peterson, Joseph H. (ed.). John Dee's Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic. Boston: Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1-57863-178-0. From the collected works known as Mysteriorum libri quinque.
  • Ficino, Marsilio (2002). Three Books on Life. Translated by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Tempe AZ: The Renaissance Society of America.
  • Paracelsus (1996). Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus. JHU Press.
  • Pico della Mirandola (1486). . Archived from the original on 4 January 2011.

Secondary sources edit

  • Baron, Frank (1978). Doctor Faustus: From History to Legend. Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
  • Benazra, Robert (1990). Répertoire chronologique nostradamique: 1545–1989 (in French). Éd. la Grande conjonction. ISBN 978-2-85707-418-2.
  • Birx, H. James (11 November 1997). . The Harbinger. Mobile, AL. Archived from the original on 2020-11-05.
  • Bittel, K. (1942). "Ist Paracelsus 1493 oder 1494 geboren?". Med. Welt (in German). 16.
  • Brind'Amour, Pierre (1993). Nostradamus astrophile: les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie et l'œuvre de Nostradamus (in French). Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa. ISBN 978-2-252-02896-4.
  • Calder, I. R. F. (1952). John Dee studied as an English neoplatonist (PhD). University of London. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.321187. from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2004.
  • Chajes, J. H. (Yossi); Harari, Yuval (2019-01-02). "Practical Kabbalah: Guest Editors' Introduction". Aries. 19 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1163/15700593-01901001. ISSN 1567-9896. S2CID 211949570.
  • Chevignard, Bernard (1999). Présages de Nostradamus (in French). Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-035960-3.
  • Crowe, Michael J. (1986). The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900. Cambridge University Press.
  • Dawes, Gregory (2013). "The Rationality of Renaissance Magic". Parergon. 30 (2): 33–58. doi:10.1353/pgn.2013.0132. S2CID 143738035.
  • De Angelis, Alessandro; Santo, Catarina Espirito (2015). "The contribution of Giordano Bruno to the principle of relativity" (PDF). Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 18 (3): 241–248. arXiv:1504.01604. Bibcode:2015JAHH...18..241D. doi:10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2015.03.02. S2CID 118420438.
  • De León-Jones, Karen Silvia (1997). Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah: Prophets, Magicians, and Rabbis. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300239416.
  • Debus, Allen G. (1993). (PDF). www.nlm.nih.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-27.
  • Engel, Karl (1885). Faust-Schriften vom 16. Jahrhundert bis Mitte 1884 (in German).
  • Ernst, Thomas (1996). "Schwarzweiße Magie: Der Schlüssel zum dritten Buch der Stenographia des Trithemius". Daphnis: Zeitschrift für Mittlere Deutsche Literatur (in German). 25 (1): 1–205.
  • Farinella, Alessandro G.; Preston, Carole (Summer 2002). "Giordano Bruno: Neoplatonism and the Wheel of Memory in the 'De Umbris Idearum'". Renaissance Quarterly. 55 (2): 596–624. doi:10.2307/1262319. JSTOR 1262319. S2CID 31142856.
  • Fell Smith, Charlotte (1909). The Life of Dr. John Dee (1527 - 1608). London: Constable & Co. ISBN 9781291940411.
  • Forshaw, Peter J. (2005). "The Early Alchemical Reception of John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica". Ambix. 52 (3). Maney: 247–269. doi:10.1179/000269805X77772. S2CID 170221216. from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  • Frank, Adam (2009). The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate. University of California Press.
  • Gatti, Hilary (2002). Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-801-48785-4.
  • Gruber, Elmar R. (2003). Nostradamus: Sein Leben, sein Werk und die wahre Bedeutung seiner Prophezeiungen (in German). Scherz Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-502-15280-4.
  • Hanegraaff, Wouter (2012). Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521196215.
  • Harkness, Deborah E. (1999). John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-26859-3. from the original on 22 December 2020.
  • Heiduk, Matthias; Herbers, Klaus; Lehner, Hans-Christian, eds. (2020). Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110499773.
  • Heiser, James D. (2011). Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century. Malone, TX: Repristination Press. ISBN 978-1-4610-9382-4.
  • Herzig, Tamar (Winter 2011). "The Demons and the Friars: Illicit Magic and Mendicant Rivalry in Renaissance Bologna". Renaissance Quarterly. 64 (4): 1025–1058. doi:10.1086/664084. S2CID 162081348.
  • Humphreys, Sarah C.; Wagner, Rudolf G. (2013). Modernity's Classics. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-642-33071-1.
  • Johnston, Stephen (1995), The identity of the mathematical practitioner in 16th-century England, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, from the original on 27 November 2006, retrieved 27 October 2006.
  • Kahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0025604605.
  • Kahn, Didier (2016). Unifying Heaven and Earth: Essays in the History of Early Modern Cosmology. Universitat de Barcelona.
  • Kieckhefer, Richard (2002). Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (2nd ed.). University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0271017518.
  • Kristeller, Paul Oskar (1964). Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
  • Lemesurier, Peter (2003). The Unknown Nostradamus: The Essential Biography for His 500th Birthday. John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903816-48-6.
  • Lemesurier, Peter (2010). Nostradamus, Bibliomancer: The Man, the Myth, the Truth. Career PressInc. ISBN 978-1-60163-132-9.
  • Leroy, Edgar (1993) [1972]. Nostradamus: Ses origines, sa vie, son oeuvre (in French). Jeanne Laffitte. ISBN 978-2-86276-231-9.
  • Lewis, C. S. (1954). English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama.
  • Luck, Georg (2006). Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts (2nd ed.). The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Mackay, Charles (1852). "The Alchymists". Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Office of National illustrated library. from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  • Magner, Lois N. (2002). A History of the Life Sciences, Revised and Expanded. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0203911006.
  • Martin, John (November 1993). "Four Hundred Years Later: An Appreciation of Johann Weyer". Books at Iowa. 59 (1). The University of Iowa: 3–13. doi:10.17077/0006-7474.1234.
  • Martínez, Alberto A. (2018). Burned Alive: Giordano Bruno, Galileo and the Inquisition. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-1780238968.
  • Marx, Karl F. H. (1842). Zur Würdigung des Theophrastus von Hohenheim. Dieterich.
  • Mebane, John S. (1989). Renaissance Magic & the Return of the Golden Age. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Mendelsohn, Charles (1940). Proceedings, American Philosophical Society. Vol. 82. American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-1-4223-7224-1.
  • Merry, Bruce (2002). "George Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355/60–1452)". In Amoia, Alba; Knapp, Bettina L. (eds.). Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group.
  • Montano, Aniello (2007). Gargano, Antonio (ed.). Le deposizioni davanti al tribunale dell'Inquisizione (in Italian). Napoli: La Città del Sole.
  • Pagel, Walter (1958). Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance. Basel: Karger.
  • Pagel, Walter (1982). Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (2nd ed.). Switzerland: Karger Publishers. ISBN 3-8055-3518-X.
  • Poole, Robert (29 February 1996). "John Dee and the English Calendar: Science, Religion and Empire". hermetic.ch. from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  • Reeds, Jim (1998). "Solved: The ciphers in book III of Trithemius's Steganographia". Cryptologia. 22 (4): 191–317. doi:10.1080/0161-119891886948.
  • Saiber, Arielle (2005). Giordano Bruno and the Geometry of Language. Ashgate.
  • Salomon, D. (2007). Data Compression: The Complete Reference. Springer London. ISBN 978-1846286032.
  • Schoeneman, Thomas J. (2002). . Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  • Shackelford, Joel (2009). "Myth 7 That Giordano Bruno was the first martyr of modern science". In Numbers, Ronald L. (ed.). Galileo goes to jail and other myths about science and religion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Silver, Carole B. (1999). Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512199-6.
  • Soter, Steven (13 March 2014). . Discover. Archived from the original on 2020-06-25.
  • Strebel, J. (1944). Theophrastus von Hohenheim: Sämtliche Werke in zeitgemässer kurzer Auswahl (in German). Vol. 1.
  • Sudhoff, Karl (1936). Paracelsus, ein deutsches Lebensbild aus den Tagen der Renaissance (in German). Germany: Bibliographisches Institut.
  • Thorndike, Lynn (1923). A history of magic and experimental science. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0231088008.
  • Trattner, Walter I. (January 1964). "God and Expansion in Elizabethan England: John Dee, 1527–1583". Journal of the History of Ideas. 25 (1): 17–34. doi:10.2307/2708083. JSTOR 2708083.
  • Voelkel, James (2013). "Laws of Attraction". Chemical Heritage Magazine. 31 (3). Chemical Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  • Voss, Angela, ed. (2006). Marsilio Ficino. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1556435606. OCLC 65407018.
  • Walker, Daniel Pickering (2000). Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella. Penn State Press. ISBN 0-271-02045-8.
  • White, Michael (2002). The Pope and the Heretic: The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition. New York: Perennial.
  • Williams, Gwyn A. (1985). When was Wales?: A History of the Welsh. Black Raven Press. ISBN 978-0-85159-003-5.
  • Yates, Frances (1964). Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Tertiary sources edit

Further reading edit

  • Baxter, Christopher (1977). "Johann Weyer's De Praestigiis Daemonum: Unsystematic Psychopathology". The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft. London. pp. 53–75.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Borrelli, Arianna (2011). "Giovan Battista Della Porta's Neapolitan Magic & His Humanistic Meteorology". Variantology 5. Neapolitain Affairs. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. ISBN 978-3-86560-887-1.
  • Clubb, Louise George (1965). Giambattista Della Porta, Dramatist. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Cohn, Norman (2001). Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-11307-4.
  • Forshaw, Peter (2006a). "Alchemy in the Amphitheatre': Some consideration of the alchemical content of the engravings in Heinrich Khunrath's Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1609)". In Wamberg, Jacob (ed.). Art and Alchemy. Museum Tusculanum Press. Retrieved 2021-12-12 – via academia.edu.
  • Forshaw, Peter J. (2006b). "Curious Knowledge and Wonder-Working Wisdom in the Occult Works of Heinrich Khunrath". In Evans, R. J. W.; Marr, Alexander (eds.). Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Ashgate: Aldershot. Retrieved 2021-12-12 – via academia.edu.
  • Forshaw, Peter (2007). "Subliming Spirits: Physical-Chemistry and Theo-Alchemy in the Works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560–1605)". In Linden, Stanton J. (ed.). "Mystical Metal of Gold": Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture. AMS Press.
  • Franklyn, Julian, ed. (1990). A Survey of the Occult. Electric Book Company.
  • Gunnoe, Charles D. (2002). "The Debate between Johann Weyer and Thomas Erastus on the Punishment of Witches". In Melton, James Van Horn (ed.). Cultures of Communication from Reformation to Enlightenment: Constructing Publics in the Early Modern German Lands. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Press. pp. 257–285.
  • Hughes, Jonathan (2006). "The World of Thomas Charnock, an Elizabethan Alchemist". In Linden, Stanton J. (ed.). Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture. AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-62342-5.
  • Kohl, Benjamin G.; Midelfort, Erik (1998). On Witchcraft. An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer's De Praestigiis Daemonum. Ashville.
  • Montgomery, John Warwick (June 1963). "Lutheran Astrology and Lutheran Alchemy in the Age of the Reformation". Ambix: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. 11: 65–86.
  • Mora, George; et al. (1991). "Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance: Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum". Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. 73. Binghamton, NY.
  • Nauert, Charles G. (1965). Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  • Ruickbie, Leo (2009). Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5090-9.
  • Szonyi, Gyorgy E. (2005). John Dee's Occultism: Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs. S U N Y Series in Western Esoteric Traditions. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-6223-2.
  • Szulakowska, Urszula (2000). The Alchemy of Light. Brill Academic Publishers.

External links edit

  • Renaissance Magic, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Peter Forshaw, Valery Rees & Jonathan Sawday (In Our Time, Jun. 17, 2004)

renaissance, magic, resurgence, hermeticism, platonic, varieties, magical, arts, which, arose, along, with, renaissance, humanism, 15th, 16th, centuries, during, renaissance, period, magic, occult, practices, underwent, significant, changes, that, reflected, s. Renaissance magic was a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo Platonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries CE During the Renaissance period magic and occult practices underwent significant changes that reflected shifts in cultural intellectual and religious perspectives C S Lewis in his work on English literature highlighted the transformation in how magic was perceived and portrayed In medieval stories magic had a fantastical and fairy like quality while in the Renaissance it became more complex and tied to the idea of hidden knowledge that could be explored through books and rituals This change is evident in the works of authors like Spenser Marlowe Chapman and Shakespeare who treated magic as a serious and potentially dangerous pursuit 1 Woodcut illustration from an edition of Pliny the Elder s Naturalis Historia 1582 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a scholar physician and astrologer popularized the Cabbalistic and Hermetic magic of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Agrippa s ideas on magic were revolutionary and he faced persecution for his criticism of authorities and ruling classes His work De occulta philosophia explored both benevolent and malevolent magic but he rejected forbidden forms of sorcery Similarly Paracelsus a Swiss physician and alchemist combined medical practice with astrology He introduced elemental beings and viewed the cosmos as interconnected assigning spiritual significance to natural elements Nostradamus a French astrologer and reputed scryer gained fame for allegedly predicting future events through his prophecies His works contained cryptic verses and calendars attracting both admirers and skeptics Johann Weyer a Dutch physician and disciple of Agrippa advocated against the persecution of witches and argued that accusations of witchcraft were often based on mental disturbances John Dee an English mathematician and occultist explored alchemy divination and Hermetic philosophy His collaboration with Edward Kelley resulted in elaborate angelic communications and mystical teachings Collectively these figures wove a complex fabric of Renaissance magic a time marked by a blending of mystical and scientific ideas as well as a redefinition of the perception of magic This era saw magic evolve from a fanciful element in stories to a domain of spiritual exploration and hidden knowledge Contents 1 History 1 1 Late Middle Ages to early Renaissance 1 1 1 Georgius Gemistus Pletho 1 1 2 Marsilio Ficino 1 1 3 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1 1 4 The legendary Doctor Faustus 1 1 5 Other early writers 1 2 Renaissance and Reformation 1 2 1 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 1 2 2 Paracelsus 1 2 3 Nostradamus 1 2 4 Johann Weyer 1 2 5 John Dee and Edward Kelley 1 2 6 Giordano Bruno 1 2 7 Giambattista della Porta 1 2 8 Heinrich Khunrath 1 2 9 Other Renaissance writers 2 See also 3 References 3 1 Notes 3 2 Citations 3 3 Works cited 3 3 1 Primary sources 3 3 2 Secondary sources 3 3 3 Tertiary sources 4 Further reading 5 External linksHistory edit nbsp Portrait of Gemistus Pletho detail of a fresco by acquaintance Benozzo Gozzoli Palazzo Medici Riccardi Florence Italy Both bourgeoisie and nobility in the 15th and 16th centuries showed great fascination with the seven artes magicae which exerted an exotic charm by their ascription to Arabic Jewish Graeco Roman and Egyptian sources There was great uncertainty in distinguishing practices of vain superstition blasphemous occultism and perfectly sound scholarly knowledge or pious ritual Intellectual and spiritual tensions erupted in the Early Modern witch craze further reinforced by the turmoils of the Protestant Reformation especially in Germany England and Scotland The people during this time found that the existence of magic was something that could answer the questions that they could not explain through science To them it was suggesting that while science may explain reason magic could explain unreason 2 Late Middle Ages to early Renaissance edit Georgius Gemistus Pletho edit Georgius Gemistus Pletho c 1355 1360 1452 1454 was a Greek scholar 3 and one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byzantine era 4 He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe 5 As revealed in his last literary work the Nomoi or Book of Laws which he only circulated among close friends he rejected Christianity in favour of a return to the worship of the classical Hellenic Gods mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi 6 Plethon may also have been the source for Ficino s Orphic system of natural magic 7 nbsp Marsilio Ficino from a fresco painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Tornabuoni Chapel Santa Maria Novella Florence Marsilio Ficino edit Marsilio Ficino 1433 1499 was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance He was an astrologer a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with the major academics of his day and the first translator of Plato s complete extant works into Latin 8 His Florentine Academy an attempt to revive Plato s Academy influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy Ficino s letters extending over the years 1474 1494 survive and have been published He wrote De amore Of Love in 1484 De vita libri tres Three books on life or De triplici vita 9 The Book of Life published in 1489 provides a great deal of medical and astrological advice for maintaining health and vigor as well as espousing the Neoplatonist view of the world s ensoulment and its integration with the human soul There will be some men or other superstitious and blind who see life plain in even the lowest animals and the meanest plants but do not see life in the heavens or the world Now if those little men grant life to the smallest particles of the world what folly what envy neither to know that the Whole in which we live and move and have our being is itself alive nor to wish this to be so 10 One metaphor for this integrated aliveness is Ficino s astrology In the Book of Life he details the interlinks between behavior and consequence It talks about a list of things that hold sway over a man s destiny His medical works exerted considerable influence on Renaissance physicians such as Paracelsus with whom he shared the perception on the unity of the micro and macrocosmos and their interactions through somatic and psychological manifestations with the aim to investigate their signatures to cure diseases Those works which were very popular at the time dealt with astrological and alchemical concepts Thus Ficino came under the suspicion of heresy especially after the publication of the third book in 1489 which contained specific instructions on healthful living in a world of demons and other spirits citation needed Giovanni Pico della Mirandola edit nbsp Portrait from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1463 1494 was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher 11 He is famed for the events of 1486 when at the age of 23 he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion philosophy natural philosophy and magic against all comers for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man which has been called the Manifesto of the Renaissance 12 and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the Hermetic Reformation 13 He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah a key element of early modern Western esotericism The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church 14 In November 1484 he settled for a time in Florence and met Lorenzo de Medici and Marsilio Ficino It was an astrologically auspicious day that Ficino had chosen to publish his translations of the works of Plato from Greek into Latin under Lorenzo s enthusiastic patronage Pico appears to have charmed both men and despite Ficino s philosophical differences he was convinced of their Saturnine affinity and the divine providence of his arrival Lorenzo would support and protect Pico until his death in 1492 Pico spent several months in Perugia and nearby Fratta It was there as he wrote to Ficino that divine Providence caused certain books to fall into my hands They are Chaldean books of Esdras of Zoroaster and of Melchior oracles of the magi which contain a brief and dry interpretation of Chaldean philosophy but full of mystery 15 It was also in Perugia that Pico was introduced to the mystical Hebrew Kabbalah which fascinated him as did the late classical Hermetic writers such as Hermes Trismegistus The Kabbalah and Hermetica were thought in Pico s time to be as ancient as the Old Testament nbsp Johann Reuchlin woodcut depiction from 1516 Pico s tutor in Kabbalah was Rabbi Johannan Alemanno 1435 8 c 1510 who argued that the study and mastery of magic was to be regarded as the final stage of one s intellectual and spiritual education 16 This contact initiated as a result of Christian interest in Jewish mystical sources resulted in unprecedented mutual influence between Jewish and Christian Renaissance thought 16 The most original of Pico s 900 theses concerned the Kabbalah As a result he became the founder of the tradition known as Christian Kabbalah which went on to be a central part of early modern Western esotericism 14 Pico s approach to different philosophies was one of extreme syncretism placing them in parallel it has been claimed rather than attempting to describe a developmental history 17 Pico based his ideas chiefly on Plato as did his teacher Marsilio Ficino but retained a deep respect for Aristotle Although he was a product of the studia humanitatis Pico was constitutionally an eclectic and in some respects he represented a reaction against the exaggerations of pure humanism defending what he believed to be the best of the medieval and Islamic commentators such as Averroes and Avicenna on Aristotle in a famous long letter to Ermolao Barbaro in 1485 It was always Pico s aim to reconcile the schools of Plato and Aristotle since he believed they used different words to express the same concepts It was perhaps for this reason his friends called him Princeps Concordiae or Prince of Harmony a pun on Prince of Concordia one of his family s holdings 18 Similarly Pico believed that an educated person should also study Hebrew and Talmudic sources and the Hermetics because he thought they represented the same concept of God that is seen in the Old Testament but in different words In 1490 Pico met with Johannes Reuchlin 1455 1522 who became heir to his Kabbalistic doctrines Following Pico Reuchlin seemed to find in the Kabbala a profound theosophy which might be of the greatest service for the defence of Christianity and the reconciliation of science with the mysteries of faith a common notion at that time Reuchlin s mystico cabbalistic ideas and objects were expounded in the De Verbo Mirifico and finally in the De Arte Cabbalistica 1517 19 nbsp Title page of one of the Hollenzwang grimoires attributed to D Faustus Magus Maximus Kundlingensis 18th century The legendary Doctor Faustus edit Johann Georg Faust c 1480 or 1466 c 1541 was a German itinerant alchemist astrologer and magician of the German Renaissance Because of his early treatment as a figure in legend and literature it is difficult to establish historical facts about his life with any certainty For the year 1506 there is a record of Faust appearing as performer of magical tricks and horoscopes in Gelnhausen Over the following 30 years there are numerous similar records spread over southern Germany Faust appeared as physician doctor of philosophy alchemist magician and astrologer and was often accused as a fraud The church denounced him as a blasphemer in league with the devil On 23 February 1520 Faust was in Bamberg doing a horoscope for the bishop and the town for which he received the sum of 10 gulden 20 In 1528 Faust visited Ingolstadt whence he was banished shortly after In 1532 he seems to have tried to enter Nurnberg according to an unflattering note made by the junior mayor of the city to deny free passage to the great nigromancer and sodomite Doctor Faustus Doctor Faustus dem grossen Sodomiten und Nigromantico in furt glait ablainen Later records give a more positive verdict thus the Tubingen professor Joachim Camerarius in 1536 recognises Faust as a respectable astrologer and physician Philipp Begardi of Worms in 1539 praises his medical knowledge The last direct attestation of Faust dates to 25 June 1535 when his presence was recorded in Munster during the Anabaptist rebellion nbsp Page of Praxis Magia Faustiana 1527 Doctor Faust became the subject of folk legend in the decades after his death transmitted in chapbooks beginning in the 1580s and was notably adapted by Christopher Marlowe in his play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus 1604 The Faustbuch tradition survived throughout the early modern period and the legend was again adapted in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe s closet drama Faust 1808 Hector Berlioz s musical composition La damnation de Faust premiered 1846 and Franz Liszt s Faust Symphony of 1857 There are several prints of grimoires or magical texts attributed to Faust Some of them are artificially dated to his lifetime either to 1540 or to 1501 1510 etc some even to unreasonably early dates such as 1405 and 1469 The prints in fact date to the late 16th century from ca 1580 i e the same period of the development of the Volksbuch tradition a Other early writers edit Other writers on occult or magical topics during this period include Johannes Hartlieb 1410 1468 wrote a compendium on herbs in ca 1440 and in 1456 the puch aller verpoten kunst ungelaubens und der zaubrey book on all forbidden arts superstition and sorcery on the artes magicae containing the oldest known description of witches flying ointment Thomas Norton b lt 1436 d c 1513 was an English poet and alchemist best known for his 1477 alchemical poem The Ordinal of Alchemy Johannes Trithemius 1462 1516 Trithemius most famous work Steganographia written c 1499 published Frankfurt 1606 was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1609 21 and removed in 1900 22 This book is in three volumes and appears to be about magic specifically about using spirits to communicate over long distances However since the publication of a decryption key to the first two volumes in 1606 they have been known to be actually concerned with cryptography and steganography Until recently the third volume was widely still believed to be solely about magic but the magical formulae have now been shown to be covertexts for yet more material on cryptography 23 24 Renaissance and Reformation edit C S Lewis in his 1954 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama differentiates what he takes to be the change of character in magic as practiced in the Middle Ages as opposed to the Renaissance Only an obstinate prejudice about this period could blind us to a certain change which comes over the merely literary texts as we pass from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century In medieval stories there is in one sense plenty of magic Merlin does this or that by his subtilty Bercilak resumes his severed head But all these passages have unmistakably the note of faerie about them But in Spenser Marlowe Chapman and Shakespeare the subject is treated quite differently He to his studie goes books are opened terrible words pronounced souls imperiled The medieval author seems to write for a public to whom magic like knight errantry is part of the furniture of romance the Elizabethan for a public who feel that it might be going on in the next street Neglect of this point has produced strange readings of The Tempest which is in reality Shakespeare s play on magia as Macbeth is his play on goeteia 25 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa edit nbsp Woodcut print portrait of Agrippa The Cabalistic and Hermetic magic which was created by Marsilio Ficino 1433 1499 and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1463 1494 was made popular in northern Europe most notably England by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 1486 1535 via his De occulta philosophia libra tres 1531 1533 Agrippa had revolutionary ideas about magical theory and procedure that were widely circulated in the Renaissance among those who sought out knowledge of occult philosophy Agrippa himself was famous as a scholar physician jurist and astrologer but throughout his life he was continually persecuted as a heretic His problems stemmed not only from his reputation as a conjurer but also from his vehement criticism of the vices of the ruling classes and of the most respected intellectual and religious authorities 26 While some scholars and students viewed Agrippa as a source of intellectual inspiration to many others his practices were dubious and his beliefs serious The transitive side of magic is explored in Agrippa s De occulta philosophia and at times it is vulgarized Yet in Ficino and Pico and we never lose sight of magic s solemn religious purposes the magician explores the secrets of nature so as to arouse wonder at the works of God and to inspire a more ardent worship and love of the Creator Considerable space is devoted to examples of evil sorcery in De occulta philosophia and one might easily come away from the treatise with the impression that Agrippa found witchcraft as intriguing as benevolent magic 27 However at the peak of the witch trials there was a certain danger to be associated with witchcraft or sorcery and most learned authors took pains to clearly renounce the practice of forbidden arts Thus Agrippa while admitting that natural magic is the highest form of natural philosophy unambiguously rejects all forms of sorcery goetia or necromancy citation needed nbsp 1538 portrait of Paracelsus by Augustin Hirschvogel Paracelsus edit Paracelsus c 1493 b 1541 was a Swiss c physician alchemist lay theologian and philosopher of the German Renaissance 29 30 As a physician of the early 16th century Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic Neoplatonic and Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance a world view exemplified by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus s medicine and he was a practising astrologer as were many of the university trained physicians working at that time in Europe Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease He largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen as well as the theory of humours Although he did accept the concept of the four elements as water air fire and earth he saw them merely as a foundation for other properties on which to build 31 Paracelsus also described four elemental beings each corresponding to one of the four elements Salamanders which correspond to fire Gnomes corresponding to earth Undines corresponding to water and Sylphs corresponding to air 32 33 He often viewed fire as the Firmament that sat between air and water in the heavens Paracelsus often uses an egg to help describe the elements In his early model he wrote that air surrounded the world like an egg shell The egg white below the shell is like fire because it has a type of chaos to it that allows it to hold up earth and water The earth and water make up a globe which in terms of the egg is the yolk In De Meteoris Paracelsus wrote that the firmament is the heavens 34 Nostradamus edit nbsp Nostradamus original portrait by his son Cesar Nostradamus 1503 1566 was a French astrologer physician and reputed seer who is best known for allegedly predicting future events Following popular trends he wrote an almanac for 1550 for the first time in print Latinising his name to Nostradamus He was so encouraged by the almanac s success that he decided to write one or more annually Taken together they are known to have contained at least 6 338 prophecies 35 36 as well as at least eleven annual calendars all of them starting on 1 January and not as is sometimes supposed in March It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and psychic advice from him though he generally expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures for his clients place or time of birth 37 38 39 He then began his project of writing his book Les Propheties a collection of 942 poetic quatrains d which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds 41 however he devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using Virgilianised syntax word games and a mixture of other languages such as Greek Italian Latin and Provencal 42 For technical reasons connected with their publication in three instalments the publisher of the third and last instalment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a Century or book of 100 verses the last fifty eight quatrains of the seventh Century have not survived in any extant edition nbsp Century I Quatrain 1 in the 1555 Lyon Bonhomme edition Les Propheties received a mixed reaction when it was published Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil a fake or insane while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise Catherine de Medici wife of King Henry II of France was one of Nostradamus s greatest admirers After reading his almanacs for 1555 which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children At the time he feared that he would be beheaded 43 but by the time of his death in 1566 Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician in Ordinary to her son the young King Charles IX of France In the years since the publication of his Les Propheties Nostradamus has attracted many supporters who along with much of the popular press credit him with having accurately predicted many major world events 44 45 Most academic sources reject the notion that Nostradamus had any genuine supernatural prophetic abilities and maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus s quatrains are the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations sometimes deliberate 46 These academics also argue that Nostradamus s predictions are characteristically vague meaning they could be applied to virtually anything and are useless for determining whether their author had any real prophetic powers Johann Weyer edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Renaissance magic news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp Engraving of Johann Weyer age 60 from De Lamiis Liber Johann Weyer 1515 1588 was a Dutch physician occultist and demonologist and a disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches His most influential work is De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons 1563 Weyer criticised the Malleus Maleficarum and the witch hunting by the Christian and Civil authorities he is said to have been the first person that used the term mentally ill or melancholy to designate those women accused of practicing witchcraft 47 In a time when witch trials and executions were just beginning to be common he sought to derogate the law concerning witchcraft prosecution He claimed that not only were examples of magic largely incredible but that the crime of witchcraft was literally impossible so that anyone who confessed to the crime was likely to be suffering some mental disturbance mainly melancholy a very flexible category with many different symptoms While he defended the idea that the Devil s power was not as strong as claimed by the orthodox Christian churches in De Praestigiis Daemonum he defended also the idea that demons did have power and could appear before people who called upon them creating illusions but he commonly referred to magicians and not to witches when speaking about people who could create illusions saying they were heretics who were using the Devil s power to do it and when speaking on witches he used the term mentally ill 48 Moreover Weyer did not only write the catalogue of demons Pseudomonarchia Daemonum but also gave their description and the conjurations to invoke them in the appropriate hour and in the name of God and the Trinity not to create illusions but to oblige them to do the conjurer s will as well as advice on how to avoid certain perils and tricks if the demon was reluctant to do what he was commanded or a liar In addition he wanted to abolish the prosecution of witches and when speaking on those who invoke demons which he called spirits he carefully used the word exorcist Weyer never denied the existence of the Devil and a huge number of other demons of high and low order His work was an inspiration for other occultists and demonologists including an anonymous author who wrote the Lemegeton The Lesser Key of Solomon There were many editions of his books written in Latin especially Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and several adaptations in English including Reginald Scot s Discoverie of Witchcraft 1584 Weyer s appeal for clemency for those accused of the crime of witchcraft was opposed later in the sixteenth century by the Swiss physician Thomas Erastus the French legal theorist Jean Bodin and King James VI of Scotland John Dee and Edward Kelley edit Further information Enochian and Enochian magic nbsp A 16th century portrait by an unknown artist e John Dee 1527 1608 or 1609 was an English mathematician astronomer astrologer teacher occultist and alchemist 49 He was the court astrologer for and advisor to Elizabeth I A student of the Renaissance Neo Platonism of Marsilio Ficino he spent much of his time on alchemy divination and Hermetic philosophy As an antiquarian he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time As a political advisor he advocated for the founding of English colonies in the New World to form a British Empire a term he is credited with coining 50 Dee was an intense Christian but his religiosity was influenced by Hermetic and Platonic Pythagorean doctrines pervasive in the Renaissance 51 He believed that numbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge 52 From Hermeticism he drew a belief that man had the potential for divine power that could be exercised through mathematics 53 His goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients 52 In 1564 Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica The Hieroglyphic Monad an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design meant to express the mystical unity of all creation Having dedicated it to Maximilian II Holy Roman Emperor in an effort to gain patronage Dee attempted to present it to him at the time of his ascension to the throne of Hungary The work was esteemed by many of Dee s contemporaries but cannot be interpreted today in the absence of the secret oral tradition of that era 54 By the early 1580s Dee was discontented with his progress in learning the secrets of nature He subsequently began to turn energetically towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge He sought to contact spirits through the use of a scryer or crystal gazer which he thought would act as an intermediary between himself and the angels 55 nbsp Edward Kelley Dee s first attempts with several scryers were unsatisfactory but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley 1555 1597 8 then calling himself Edward Talbot to disguise his conviction for coining or forgery who impressed him greatly with his abilities 56 Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits 56 These spiritual conferences or actions were conducted with intense Christian piety always after periods of purification prayer and fasting 56 Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind The character of Kelley is harder to assess some conclude that he acted with cynicism but delusion or self deception cannot be ruled out 57 Kelley s output is remarkable for its volume intricacy and vividness Dee believed that angels laboriously dictated several books to him this way through Kelley some in a special angelic or Enochian language 58 59 In 1583 Dee met the impoverished yet popular Polish nobleman Albert Laski who after overstaying his welcome at court invited Dee to accompany him back to Poland 60 With some prompting by the angels again through Kelley and by dint of his worsening status at court Dee decided to do so He Kelley and their families left in September 1583 but Laski proved to be bankrupt and out of favour in his own country 61 Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences which Dee detailed in his diaries and almanacs 58 59 They had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague Castle and King Stephen Bathory of Poland whom they attempted to convince of the importance of angelic communication In 1587 at a spiritual conference in Bohemia Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered the men to share all their possessions including their wives By this time Kelley had gained some renown as an alchemist and was more sought after than Dee in this regard it was a line of work that had prospects for serious and long term financial gain especially among the royal families of central Europe Dee however was more interested in communicating with angels who he believed would help him solve the mysteries of the heavens through mathematics optics astrology science and navigation Perhaps Kelley in fact wished to end Dee s dependence on him as a diviner at their increasingly lengthy frequent spiritual conferences 61 The order for wife sharing caused Dee anguish but he apparently did not doubt it was genuine and they apparently shared wives However Dee broke off the conferences immediately afterwards He returned to England in 1589 while Kelley went on to be the alchemist to Emperor Rudolf II 61 62 By 1590 Kelley was living an opulent lifestyle in Europe enjoying the patronage of nobility he received several estates and large sums of money from Rosenberg Meanwhile he continued his alchemical experiments until he had convinced Rudolf II that he was ready to start producing gold the purpose of his work Rudolf knighted him Sir Edward Kelley of Imany and New Luben on 23 February 1590 but it is possible that this happened in 1589 In May 1591 Rudolf had Kelley arrested and imprisoned in the Krivoklat Castle outside Prague supposedly for killing an official named Jiri Hunkler in a duel it is possible that he also did not want Kelley to escape before he had actually produced any gold 63 In 1595 Kelly agreed to co operate and return to his alchemical work he was released and restored to his former status When he failed to produce any gold he was again imprisoned this time in Hnevin Castle in Most His wife and stepdaughter attempted to hire an imperial counselor who might free Kelley from imprisonment but he died a prisoner in late 1597 early 1598 of injuries received while attempting to escape 63 A few of Kelley s writings are extant today including two alchemical verse treatises in English and three other treatises which he dedicated to Rudolf II from prison They were entitled Tractatus duo egregii de lapide philosophorum una cum theatro astronomiae 1676 The treatises have been translated as The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelley 1893 63 nbsp Modern portrait of Giordano Bruno based on a woodcut from Livre du recteur 1578 Giordano Bruno edit Giordano Bruno 1548 1600 was an Italian Dominican friar philosopher mathematician poet cosmological theorist and Hermetic occultist 64 He is known for his cosmological theories which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no center In addition to cosmology Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles Historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Islamic astrology particularly the philosophy of Averroes 65 Neoplatonism Renaissance Hermeticism and Genesis like legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth f Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language 66 67 In 1584 Bruno published two important philosophical dialogues La Cena de le Ceneri and De l infinito universo et mondi in which he argued against the planetary spheres Christoph Rothmann did the same in 1586 as did Tycho Brahe in 1587 and affirmed the Copernican principle In particular to support the Copernican view and oppose the objection according to which the motion of the Earth would be perceived by means of the motion of winds clouds etc in La Cena de le Ceneri Bruno anticipates some of the arguments of Galilei on the relativity principle 68 Bruno s cosmology distinguishes between suns which produce their own light and heat and have other bodies moving around them and earths which move around suns and receive light and heat from them 69 Bruno suggested that some if not all of the objects classically known as fixed stars are in fact suns 69 According to astrophysicist Steven Soter he was the first person to grasp that stars are other suns with their own planets 70 Bruno wrote that other worlds have no less virtue nor a nature different from that of our Earth and like Earth contain animals and inhabitants 69 In 1588 he went to Prague where he obtained 300 taler from Rudolf II but no teaching position He went on to serve briefly as a professor in Helmstedt but had to flee when he was excommunicated by the Lutherans citation needed During this period he produced several Latin works dictated to his friend and secretary Girolamo Besler including De Magia On Magic Theses De Magia Theses on Magic and De Vinculis in Genere A General Account of Bonding All these were apparently transcribed or recorded by Besler or Bisler between 1589 and 1590 71 He also published De Imaginum Signorum Et Idearum Compositione On the Composition of Images Signs and Ideas 1591 Starting in 1593 Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines including eternal damnation the Trinity the divinity of Christ the virginity of Mary and transubstantiation Bruno s pantheism was not taken lightly by the church g nor was his teaching of the transmigration of the soul reincarnation The Inquisition found him guilty and he was burned at the stake in Rome s Campo de Fiori in 1600 After his death he gained considerable fame being particularly celebrated by 19th and early 20th century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science although most historians agree that his heresy trial was not a response to his cosmological views but rather a response to his religious and afterlife views 72 h i j k However some historians 73 do contend that the main reason for Bruno s death was indeed his cosmological views Bruno s case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the emerging sciences l m nbsp Portrait of della Porta from Jo Bapt Portae Neapolitani Magiae naturalis libri XX Naples 1589 Giambattista della Porta edit Giambattista della Porta 1535 1615 was an Italian scholar polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation His most famous work first published in 1558 is entitled Magia Naturalis Natural Magic 74 In this book he covered a variety of the subjects he had investigated including optics occult philosophy astrology alchemy mathematics meteorology and natural philosophy He was also referred to as professor of secrets 75 In Natural Magic della Porta describes an imaginary device known as a sympathetic telegraph The device consisted of two circular boxes similar to compasses each with a magnetic needle supposed to be magnetized by the same lodestone Each box was to be labeled with the 26 letters instead of the usual directions Della Porta assumed that this would coordinate the needles such that when a letter was dialed in one box the needle in the other box would swing to point to the same letter thereby helping in communicating 75 In 1563 della Porta published De Furtivis Literarum Notis a work about cryptography In it he described the first known digraphic substitution cipher 76 Charles J Mendelsohn commented He was in my opinion the outstanding cryptographer of the Renaissance Some unknown who worked in a hidden room behind closed doors may possibly have surpassed him in general grasp of the subject but among those whose work can be studied he towers like a giant 77 Della Porta invented a method which allowed him to write secret messages on the inside of eggs During the Spanish Inquisition some of his friends were imprisoned At the gate of the prison everything was checked except for eggs Della Porta wrote messages on the egg shell using a mixture made of plant pigments and alum The ink penetrated the egg shell which is semi porous When the egg shell was dry he boiled the egg in hot water and the ink on the outside of the egg was washed away When the recipient in prison peeled off the shell the message was revealed once again on the egg white citation needed Della Porta was the founder of a scientific society called the Academia Secretorum Naturae Accademia dei Segreti This group was more commonly known as the Otiosi Men of Leisure Founded sometime before 1580 the Otiosi were one of the first scientific societies in Europe and their aim was to study the secrets of nature Any person applying for membership had to demonstrate they had made a new discovery in the natural sciences 78 The Academia Secretorum Naturae was compelled to disband when its members were suspected of dealing with the occult A Catholic della Porta was examined by the Inquisition and summoned to Rome by Pope Gregory XIII Though he personally emerged from the meeting unscathed he was forced to disband his Academia Secretorum Naturae and in 1592 his philosophical works were prohibited from further publication by the Church The ban was lifted in 1598 citation needed Despite this incident della Porta remained religiously devout and became a lay Jesuit brother Porta s involvement with the Inquisition puzzles historians due his active participation in charitable Jesuit works by 1585 A possible explanation for this lies in Porta s personal relations with Fra Paolo Sarpi after 1579 citation needed nbsp Portrait of Heinrich Khunrath from his Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae Heinrich Khunrath edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Renaissance magic news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Heinrich Khunrath c 1560 1605 was a German physician hermetic philosopher and alchemist Frances Yates considered him to be a link between the philosophy of John Dee and Rosicrucianism His name in the spelling Henricus Kunraht was used as a pseudonym for the 1670 publisher of the Tractatus Theologico Politicus of Baruch Spinoza Khunrath a disciple of Paracelsus practiced medicine in Dresden Magdeburg and Hamburg and may have held a professorial position in Leipzig He travelled widely after 1588 including a stay at the Imperial court in Prague home to the mystically inclined Habsburg emperor Rudolf II Before reaching Prague he had met John Dee at Bremen on 27 May 1589 when Dee was on his way back to England from Bohemia Khunrath praised Dee in his later works During his court stay Khunrath met the alchemist Edward Kelley who had remained behind after he and Dee had parted company In September 1591 Khunrath was appointed court physician to Count Rosemberk in Trebona He probably met Johann Tholde while at Trebona one of the suggested authors of the Basilius Valentinus treatises on alchemy Khunrath s brushes with John Dee and Tholde and Paracelsian beliefs led him to develop a Christianized natural magic seeking to find the secret prima materia that would lead man into eternal wisdom The Christianized view that Khunrath took was framed around his commitment to Lutheran theology He also held that experience and observation were essential to practical alchemical research as would a natural philosopher His most famous work on alchemy is the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom a work on the mystical aspects of that art which contains the oft seen engraving entitled The First Stage of the Great Work better known as the Alchemist s Laboratory The book was first published at Hamburg in 1595 with four circular elaborate hand colored engraved plates heightened with gold and silver which Khunrath designed and were engraved by Paullus van der Doort The book was then made more widely available in an expanded edition with the addition of other plates published posthumously in Hanau in 1609 Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae is an alchemical classic combining both Christianity and magic In it Khunrath showed himself to be an adept of spiritual alchemy and illustrated the many staged and intricate path to spiritual perfection Khunrath s work was important in Lutheran circles John Warwick Montgomery has pointed out that Johann Arndt 1555 1621 who was the influential writer of Lutheran books of pietiesm and devotion composed a commentary on Amphitheatrum Some of the ideas in his works are Kabbalistic in nature and foreshadow Rosicrucianism Other Renaissance writers edit Other writers on occult or magical topics during this period include Thomas Charnock 1524 1581 was an English alchemist and occultist who devoted his life to the quest for the Philosopher s Stone Nicolas Flamel 1330 1418 was a French scribe and manuscript seller After his death Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist believed to have discovered the philosopher s stone and to have thereby achieved immortality These legendary accounts first appeared in the late 16th century Several late 16th to early 17th century works are attributed to Flamel Basil Valentine pseudonym for one or more 16th century authors known especially for The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine 1599 See also editAstral theology Baroque magic Body of light The Book of Abramelin Ceremonial magic Character symbol Continuity thesis History of magic Jewish views on astrology Magical formula Magical Treatise of Solomon Medieval European magic Renaissance technology Science in the Renaissance Sorcery goetia Western esotericismReferences editNotes edit Engel 1885 is aware of fifteen prints nos 335 349 pp 154 157 dated between 1501 and 1540 Engel s no 334 Dr Johann Faustus Miracul Kunst und Wunder Buch reprinted in Kloster vol 2 852 897 is dated MCDXXXXXXIX i e 1469 Pagel 1982 p 6 citing Bittel 1942 p 1163 Strebel 1944 p 38 The most frequently cited assumption that Paracelsus was born in late 1493 is due to Sudhoff 1936 p 11 Paracelsus self identifies as Swiss ich bin von Einsidlen dess Lands ein Schweizer in grosse Wundartznei vol 1 p 56 and names Carinthia as his second fatherland das ander mein Vatterland 28 The original edition of Nostradamus s Les Propheties from 1555 contained only 353 quatrains More were later added amounting to 942 in an omnibus edition published after his death organized into ten Centuries each one containing one hundred quatrains except for Century VII which for unknown reasons only contains forty two the other fifty eight may have been lost due to a problem during publication 40 According to Fell Smith 1909 it was painted when Dee was 67 It belonged to a grandson Rowland Dee and later to Elias Ashmole who left it to Oxford University The primary work on the relationship between Bruno and Hermeticism is Yates 1964 for an alternative assessment placing more emphasis on the Kabbalah and less on Hermeticism see De Leon Jones 1997 for a return to emphasis on Bruno s role in the development of Science and criticism of Yates emphasis on magical and Hermetic themes see Gatti 2002 Birx 1997 Bruno was burned to death at the stake for his pantheistic stance and cosmic perspective Crowe 1986 p 10 Bruno s sources seem to have been more numerous than his followers at least until the eighteenth and nineteenth century revival of interest in Bruno as a supposed martyr for science It is true that he was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600 but the church authorities guilty of this action were almost certainly more distressed at his denial of Christ s divinity and alleged diabolism than at his cosmological doctrines Frank 2009 p 24 Though Bruno may have been a brilliant thinker whose work stands as a bridge between ancient and modern thought his persecution cannot be seen solely in light of the war between science and religion White 2002 p 7 This was perhaps the most dangerous notion of all If other worlds existed with intelligent beings living there did they too have their visitations The idea was quite unthinkable Shackelford 2009 p 66 Yet the fact remains that cosmological matters notably the plurality of worlds were an identifiable concern all along and appear in the summary document Bruno was repeatedly questioned on these matters and he apparently refused to recant them at the end 14 So Bruno probably was burned alive for resolutely maintaining a series of heresies among which his teaching of the plurality of worlds was prominent but by no means singular Gatti 2002 pp 18 19 For Bruno was claiming for the philosopher a principle of free thought and inquiry which implied an entirely new concept of authority that of the individual intellect in its serious and continuing pursuit of an autonomous inquiry It is impossible to understand the issue involved and to evaluate justly the stand made by Bruno with his life without appreciating the question of free thought and liberty of expression His insistence on placing this issue at the center of both his work and of his defense is why Bruno remains so much a figure of the modern world If there is as many have argued an intrinsic link between science and liberty of inquiry then Bruno was among those who guaranteed the future of the newly emerging sciences as well as claiming in wider terms a general principle of free thought and expression Montano 2007 p 71 In Rome Bruno was imprisoned for seven years and subjected to a difficult trial that analyzed minutely all his philosophical ideas Bruno who in Venice had been willing to recant some theses became increasingly resolute and declared on 21 December 1599 that he did not wish to repent of having too little to repent and in fact did not know what to repent Declared an unrepentant heretic and excommunicated he was burned alive in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome on Ash Wednesday 17 February 1600 On the stake along with Bruno burned the hopes of many including philosophers and scientists of good faith like Galileo who thought they could reconcile religious faith and scientific research while belonging to an ecclesiastical organization declaring itself to be the custodian of absolute truth and maintaining a cultural militancy requiring continual commitment and suspicion Citations edit Ashley Leonard R N 1980 Review of Sir Philip Sidney and the Poetics of Protestantism A Study of Contexts Bibliotheque d Humanisme et Renaissance 42 2 529 ISSN 0006 1999 JSTOR 20676176 via JSTOR Dawes 2013 Humphreys amp Wagner 2013 p 125 Hanegraaff 2012 pp 29 31 Clogg 2005 Hanegraaff 2012 p 38 Merry 2002 Voss 2006 pp ix x Walker 2000 p 3 Ficino 2002 from the Apologia p 399 The internal quote is from Acts 17 28 Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Conte in Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge volume 15 copyright 1991 Grolier Inc ISBN 0 7172 5300 7 Pico della Mirandola 1486 Heiser 2011 p page needed a b Hanegraaff 2012 p 54 Bibliographie Giovanni Pico della Mirandola lyber eclat net Retrieved 2016 03 21 a b Chajes amp Harari 2019 Hanegraaff 2012 p 59 Kristeller 1964 p 62 Smith 1911 v 23 p 203 Baron 1978 p 42 Indice de Libros Prohibidos 1877 Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Pius IX 1877 in Spanish Vatican 1880 Retrieved 2 August 2009 Index Librorum Prohibitorum 1900 Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Leo XIII 1900 in Latin Vatican 1900 p 298 Retrieved 2 August 2009 index librorum prohibitorum tricassinus Reeds 1998 Ernst 1996 Lewis 1954 p 8 Mebane John S 1992 Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age The Occult Tradition and Marlowe Jonson and Shakespeare University of Nebraska Press p 53 ISBN 978 0 8032 8179 0 Mebane 1989 p page needed Marx 1842 p 3 Debus 1993 p 3 Paracelsus Britannica retrieved 24 November 2011 Pagel 1958 p page needed Silver 1999 p 38 Paracelsus 1996 p 222 Kahn 2016 p page needed Lemesurier 2010 pp 23 25 Chevignard 1999 p page needed Lemesurier 2010 pp 59 64 Brind Amour 1993 pp 326 399 Gruber 2003 p page needed Brind Amour 1993 pp 14 435 Lemesurier 2003 p 125 Lemesurier 2003 pp 99 100 Leroy 1993 p 83 Lemesurier 2010 p page needed Benazra 1990 p page needed Lemesurier 2003 pp 150 152 Martin 1993 Schoeneman 2002 Roberts 2006 Williams 1985 p 124 Trattner 1964 pp 17 34 a b Poole 1996 Johnston 1995 Forshaw 2005 pp 247 269 Harkness 1999 p 16 a b c Calder 1952 Chisholm 1911 a b Dee Kelly amp Casaubon 1659 a b Dee 2003 Mortlake The Environs of London County of Surrey 1 364 88 1792 Archived from the original on 2 March 2007 Retrieved 27 October 2006 a b c Mackay 1852 p 155 History of the Alchemy Guild International Alchemy Guild Archived from the original on 2009 02 28 Retrieved 26 October 2006 a b c Schleiner 2004 Gatti 2002 p 1 Giordano Bruno Encyclopaedia Britannica 31 October 2023 Farinella amp Preston 2002 Saiber 2005 p page needed De Angelis amp Santo 2015 a b c Bruno n d Soter 2014 Bruno 1998 p xxxvi Yates 1964 p 450 Martinez 2018 p page needed Voelkel 2013 a b Salomon 2007 p 1 Kahn 1967 p 139 Mendelsohn 1940 p 113 Magner 2002 p 119 Works cited edit Primary sources edit Agrippa Henry Cornelius 2021 1531 33 Three Books of Occult Philosophy Translated by Eric Purdue Inner Traditions ISBN 978 1644114162 Bruno Giordano 1998 Blackwell Richard J de Lucca Robert eds Cause Principle and Unity and Essays on Magic Cambridge Bruno Giordano n d Third Dialogue On the infinite universe and worlds Archived from the original on 27 April 2012 Dee John Kelly Edward Casaubon Meric 1659 A True amp Faithful Relation of what Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr John Dee and Some Spirits T Garthwait ISBN 978 5 88514 094 2 Dee John 2003 Peterson Joseph H ed John Dee s Five Books of Mystery Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic Boston Weiser Books ISBN 978 1 57863 178 0 From the collected works known as Mysteriorum libri quinque Ficino Marsilio 2002 Three Books on Life Translated by Carol V Kaske and John R Clark Tempe AZ The Renaissance Society of America Paracelsus 1996 Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus JHU Press Pico della Mirandola 1486 Oration on the Dignity of Man Archived from the original on 4 January 2011 Secondary sources edit Baron Frank 1978 Doctor Faustus From History to Legend Wilhelm Fink Verlag Benazra Robert 1990 Repertoire chronologique nostradamique 1545 1989 in French Ed la Grande conjonction ISBN 978 2 85707 418 2 Birx H James 11 November 1997 Giordano Bruno The Harbinger Mobile AL Archived from the original on 2020 11 05 Bittel K 1942 Ist Paracelsus 1493 oder 1494 geboren Med Welt in German 16 Brind Amour Pierre 1993 Nostradamus astrophile les astres et l astrologie dans la vie et l œuvre de Nostradamus in French Presses de l Universite d Ottawa ISBN 978 2 252 02896 4 Calder I R F 1952 John Dee studied as an English neoplatonist PhD University of London EThOS uk bl ethos 321187 Archived from the original on 19 December 2019 Retrieved 23 October 2004 Chajes J H Yossi Harari Yuval 2019 01 02 Practical Kabbalah Guest Editors Introduction Aries 19 1 1 5 doi 10 1163 15700593 01901001 ISSN 1567 9896 S2CID 211949570 Chevignard Bernard 1999 Presages de Nostradamus in French Seuil ISBN 978 2 02 035960 3 Crowe Michael J 1986 The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750 1900 Cambridge University Press Dawes Gregory 2013 The Rationality of Renaissance Magic Parergon 30 2 33 58 doi 10 1353 pgn 2013 0132 S2CID 143738035 De Angelis Alessandro Santo Catarina Espirito 2015 The contribution of Giordano Bruno to the principle of relativity PDF Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 18 3 241 248 arXiv 1504 01604 Bibcode 2015JAHH 18 241D doi 10 3724 SP J 1440 2807 2015 03 02 S2CID 118420438 De Leon Jones Karen Silvia 1997 Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah Prophets Magicians and Rabbis Yale University Press ISBN 978 0300239416 Debus Allen G 1993 Paracelsus and the medical revolution of the Renaissance A 500th Anniversary Celebration from the National Library of Medicine PDF www nlm nih gov Archived from the original PDF on 2012 01 27 Engel Karl 1885 Faust Schriften vom 16 Jahrhundert bis Mitte 1884 in German Ernst Thomas 1996 Schwarzweisse Magie Der Schlussel zum dritten Buch der Stenographia des Trithemius Daphnis Zeitschrift fur Mittlere Deutsche Literatur in German 25 1 1 205 Farinella Alessandro G Preston Carole Summer 2002 Giordano Bruno Neoplatonism and the Wheel of Memory in the De Umbris Idearum Renaissance Quarterly 55 2 596 624 doi 10 2307 1262319 JSTOR 1262319 S2CID 31142856 Fell Smith Charlotte 1909 The Life of Dr John Dee 1527 1608 London Constable amp Co ISBN 9781291940411 Forshaw Peter J 2005 The Early Alchemical Reception of John Dee s Monas Hieroglyphica Ambix 52 3 Maney 247 269 doi 10 1179 000269805X77772 S2CID 170221216 Archived from the original on 22 December 2020 Retrieved 21 April 2014 Frank Adam 2009 The Constant Fire Beyond the Science vs Religion Debate University of California Press Gatti Hilary 2002 Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science Broken Lives and Organizational Power Ithaca NY Cornell University Press ISBN 0 801 48785 4 Gruber Elmar R 2003 Nostradamus Sein Leben sein Werk und die wahre Bedeutung seiner Prophezeiungen in German Scherz Verlag GmbH ISBN 978 3 502 15280 4 Hanegraaff Wouter 2012 Esotericism and the Academy Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521196215 Harkness Deborah E 1999 John Dee s Conversations with Angels Cabala Alchemy and the End of Nature Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 107 26859 3 Archived from the original on 22 December 2020 Heiduk Matthias Herbers Klaus Lehner Hans Christian eds 2020 Prognostication in the Medieval World A Handbook De Gruyter ISBN 978 3110499773 Heiser James D 2011 Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century Malone TX Repristination Press ISBN 978 1 4610 9382 4 Herzig Tamar Winter 2011 The Demons and the Friars Illicit Magic and Mendicant Rivalry in Renaissance Bologna Renaissance Quarterly 64 4 1025 1058 doi 10 1086 664084 S2CID 162081348 Humphreys Sarah C Wagner Rudolf G 2013 Modernity s Classics Springer Science amp Business Media ISBN 978 3 642 33071 1 Johnston Stephen 1995 The identity of the mathematical practitioner in 16th century England Museum of the History of Science Oxford archived from the original on 27 November 2006 retrieved 27 October 2006 Kahn David 1967 The Codebreakers The Story of Secret Writing Macmillan ISBN 978 0025604605 Kahn Didier 2016 Unifying Heaven and Earth Essays in the History of Early Modern Cosmology Universitat de Barcelona Kieckhefer Richard 2002 Forbidden Rites A Necromancer s Manual of the Fifteenth Century 2nd ed University Park Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University Press ISBN 978 0271017518 Kristeller Paul Oskar 1964 Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance Stanford California Stanford University Press Lemesurier Peter 2003 The Unknown Nostradamus The Essential Biography for His 500th Birthday John Hunt Publishing ISBN 978 1 903816 48 6 Lemesurier Peter 2010 Nostradamus Bibliomancer The Man the Myth the Truth Career PressInc ISBN 978 1 60163 132 9 Leroy Edgar 1993 1972 Nostradamus Ses origines sa vie son oeuvre in French Jeanne Laffitte ISBN 978 2 86276 231 9 Lewis C S 1954 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama Luck Georg 2006 Arcana Mundi Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds A Collection of Ancient Texts 2nd ed The Johns Hopkins University Press Mackay Charles 1852 The Alchymists Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Office of National illustrated library Archived from the original on 22 December 2020 Retrieved 7 September 2020 Magner Lois N 2002 A History of the Life Sciences Revised and Expanded CRC Press ISBN 978 0203911006 Martin John November 1993 Four Hundred Years Later An Appreciation of Johann Weyer Books at Iowa 59 1 The University of Iowa 3 13 doi 10 17077 0006 7474 1234 Martinez Alberto A 2018 Burned Alive Giordano Bruno Galileo and the Inquisition University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 1780238968 Marx Karl F H 1842 Zur Wurdigung des Theophrastus von Hohenheim Dieterich Mebane John S 1989 Renaissance Magic amp the Return of the Golden Age Lincoln University of Nebraska Press Mendelsohn Charles 1940 Proceedings American Philosophical Society Vol 82 American Philosophical Society ISBN 978 1 4223 7224 1 Merry Bruce 2002 George Gemistos Plethon c 1355 60 1452 In Amoia Alba Knapp Bettina L eds Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945 A Bio Bibliographical Sourcebook Greenwood Publishing Group Montano Aniello 2007 Gargano Antonio ed Le deposizioni davanti al tribunale dell Inquisizione in Italian Napoli La Citta del Sole Pagel Walter 1958 Paracelsus An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance Basel Karger Pagel Walter 1982 Paracelsus An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance 2nd ed Switzerland Karger Publishers ISBN 3 8055 3518 X Poole Robert 29 February 1996 John Dee and the English Calendar Science Religion and Empire hermetic ch Archived from the original on 14 August 2020 Retrieved 7 September 2020 Reeds Jim 1998 Solved The ciphers in book III of Trithemius s Steganographia Cryptologia 22 4 191 317 doi 10 1080 0161 119891886948 Saiber Arielle 2005 Giordano Bruno and the Geometry of Language Ashgate Salomon D 2007 Data Compression The Complete Reference Springer London ISBN 978 1846286032 Schoeneman Thomas J 2002 Will the Real Johann Weyer Please Stand Up Archived from the original on 2007 08 13 Retrieved 2007 10 29 Shackelford Joel 2009 Myth 7 That Giordano Bruno was the first martyr of modern science In Numbers Ronald L ed Galileo goes to jail and other myths about science and religion Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Silver Carole B 1999 Strange and Secret Peoples Fairies and Victorian Consciousness Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 512199 6 Soter Steven 13 March 2014 The Cosmos of Giordano Bruno Discover Archived from the original on 2020 06 25 Strebel J 1944 Theophrastus von Hohenheim Samtliche Werke in zeitgemasser kurzer Auswahl in German Vol 1 Sudhoff Karl 1936 Paracelsus ein deutsches Lebensbild aus den Tagen der Renaissance in German Germany Bibliographisches Institut Thorndike Lynn 1923 A history of magic and experimental science New York Macmillan ISBN 978 0231088008 Trattner Walter I January 1964 God and Expansion in Elizabethan England John Dee 1527 1583 Journal of the History of Ideas 25 1 17 34 doi 10 2307 2708083 JSTOR 2708083 Voelkel James 2013 Laws of Attraction Chemical Heritage Magazine 31 3 Chemical Heritage Foundation Retrieved 24 March 2018 Voss Angela ed 2006 Marsilio Ficino Berkeley Calif North Atlantic Books ISBN 1556435606 OCLC 65407018 Walker Daniel Pickering 2000 Spiritual and Demonic Magic From Ficino to Campanella Penn State Press ISBN 0 271 02045 8 White Michael 2002 The Pope and the Heretic The True Story of Giordano Bruno the Man who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition New York Perennial Williams Gwyn A 1985 When was Wales A History of the Welsh Black Raven Press ISBN 978 0 85159 003 5 Yates Frances 1964 Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition Routledge and Kegan Paul Tertiary sources edit Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Dee John Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 7 11th ed Cambridge University Press Clogg Richard 6 Jan 2005 Woodhouse Christopher Montague Monty fifth Baron Terrington 1917 2001 army officer historian and politician Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 75443 ISBN 978 0 19 861412 8 Retrieved 10 Dec 2021 Subscription or UK public library membership required Roberts R Julian 25 May 2006 Dee John 1527 1609 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 7418 Subscription or UK public library membership required Schleiner Louise 2004 Kelly Sir Edward 1555 1597 8 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 15289 Subscription or UK public library membership required Smith William Robertson 1911 Reuchlin Johann In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 23 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 203 Further reading editBaxter Christopher 1977 Johann Weyer s De Praestigiis Daemonum Unsystematic Psychopathology The Damned Art Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft London pp 53 75 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Borrelli Arianna 2011 Giovan Battista Della Porta s Neapolitan Magic amp His Humanistic Meteorology Variantology 5 Neapolitain Affairs Cologne Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig ISBN 978 3 86560 887 1 Clubb Louise George 1965 Giambattista Della Porta Dramatist Princeton Princeton University Press Cohn Norman 2001 Europe s Inner Demons The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom University Of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0 226 11307 4 Forshaw Peter 2006a Alchemy in the Amphitheatre Some consideration of the alchemical content of the engravings in Heinrich Khunrath s Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom 1609 In Wamberg Jacob ed Art and Alchemy Museum Tusculanum Press Retrieved 2021 12 12 via academia edu Forshaw Peter J 2006b Curious Knowledge and Wonder Working Wisdom in the Occult Works of Heinrich Khunrath In Evans R J W Marr Alexander eds Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment Ashgate Aldershot Retrieved 2021 12 12 via academia edu Forshaw Peter 2007 Subliming Spirits Physical Chemistry and Theo Alchemy in the Works of Heinrich Khunrath 1560 1605 In Linden Stanton J ed Mystical Metal of Gold Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture AMS Press Franklyn Julian ed 1990 A Survey of the Occult Electric Book Company Gunnoe Charles D 2002 The Debate between Johann Weyer and Thomas Erastus on the Punishment of Witches In Melton James Van Horn ed Cultures of Communication from Reformation to Enlightenment Constructing Publics in the Early Modern German Lands Aldershot England Ashgate Press pp 257 285 Hughes Jonathan 2006 The World of Thomas Charnock an Elizabethan Alchemist In Linden Stanton J ed Mystical Metal of Gold Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture AMS Press ISBN 0 404 62342 5 Kohl Benjamin G Midelfort Erik 1998 On Witchcraft An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer sDe Praestigiis Daemonum Ashville Montgomery John Warwick June 1963 Lutheran Astrology and Lutheran Alchemy in the Age of the Reformation Ambix The Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry 11 65 86 Mora George et al 1991 Witches Devils and Doctors in the Renaissance Johann Weyer De praestigiis daemonum Medieval amp Renaissance Texts amp Studies 73 Binghamton NY Nauert Charles G 1965 Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought Urbana University of Illinois Press Ruickbie Leo 2009 Faustus The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician The History Press ISBN 978 0 7509 5090 9 Szonyi Gyorgy E 2005 John Dee s Occultism Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs S U N Y Series in Western Esoteric Traditions State University of New York Press ISBN 978 0 7914 6223 2 Szulakowska Urszula 2000 The Alchemy of Light Brill Academic Publishers External links edit nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe Renaissance Magic BBC Radio 4 discussion with Peter Forshaw Valery Rees amp Jonathan Sawday In Our Time Jun 17 2004 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Renaissance magic amp oldid 1214656923, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.