Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores philosophical theories which in the Renaissance provided an interpretation of nature, of its laws and exceptions and, lastly, of man's capacity to dominate the cosmos by way of natural magic or by magical ceremonies. It does not concentrate on the Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophers (Ficino, Pico, Della Porta), or on the relationship between magic and the scientific revolution, but rather upon the interference of the ideas and practices of learned magicians with popular rites and also with witchcraft, a most important question for social and religious history. New definitions of magic put forward by certain unorthodox and "wandering scholastics" (Trithemius, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Bruno) will interest readers of Renaissance and Reformation texts and history.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction: Must We Really Re-Appopriate Magic? PART I. I.1. Continuity in the Definition of Natural Magic from Pico to Della Porta. Astrology and Magic in Italy and North of the Alps I.2. Scholastic and Humanist Views of Hermeticism. Witchcraft, "Natural Magic", Trithemius' Magic and the First Signs of a Critical Turn of Mind in Agrippa I.3. Magic, Pseudepigraphy, Prophecies and Forgeries in Trithemius' Manuscripts. From Cusanus to Bovelles? Appendix I. Trithemius' Bibliography for Necromancers PART II. AGRIPPA AS AN AUTHOR OF PROHIBITED BOOKS II.1. Agrippa of Nettesheim as a Critical Magus II.2. Magic and Radical Reformation in Agrippa of Nettesheim Appendix II. Recent Studies on Agrippa PART III. BRUNO AS A READER OF PROHIBITED BOOKS III.1. The Initiates and the Idiot. Conjectures on Some Brunian Sources III.2. Hermetism and Magic in Giordano Bruno. Some Interpretations from Tocco to Corsano, from Yates to Ciliberto Appendix III. A Nolan before Bruno, Momus and Socratism in the Renaissance Indices Index of Names Subject Index Index of Places
