,
Palazzo Medici Riccardi,
Florence, Italy Both bourgeoisie and nobility in the 15th and 16th centuries showed great fascination with the seven
artes magicae (
prohibited arts), 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".
Late Middle Ages to early Renaissance Georgius Gemistus Pletho Georgius Gemistus Pletho (/1360 – 1452/1454) was a
Greek scholar and one of the most renowned philosophers of the
late Byzantine era. He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe. 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. Plethon may also have been the source for Ficino's
Orphic system of
natural magic. in the
Tornabuoni Chapel,
Santa Maria Novella,
Florence Marsilio Ficino 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. 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 (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: 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.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , in
Florence Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was an
Italian Renaissance nobleman and
philosopher. 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", and a key text of
Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". 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. 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." 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. 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. This contact, initiated as a result of Christian interest in Jewish mystical sources, resulted in unprecedented mutual influence between Jewish and Christian Renaissance thought. 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. 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. 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 (study of the humanities), 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). 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-cabalistic ideas and objects were expounded in the
De Verbo Mirifico, and finally in the
De Arte Cabalistica (1517). s attributed to D. Faustus Magus Maximus Kundlingensis (18th century)
The legendary Doctor Faustus 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. 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.
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.
Other early writers 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 and removed in 1900. This book is in three volumes, and appears to be about
magicspecifically, 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.
Renaissance and Reformation 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:
Heinrich Cornelius 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. 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. 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).
Paracelsus Paracelsus (c. 1493–1541) was a Swiss physician,
alchemist,
lay theologian, and philosopher of the
German Renaissance. 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. 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. 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.
Nostradamus 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, 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. He then began his project of writing his book
Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic
quatrains which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today. Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds, 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. 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.
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, 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. 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). 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 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 ('On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons'; 1563). Weyer criticised the 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. 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 , he also defended 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. Moreover, Weyer did not only write the catalogue of demons , 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 (The Lesser Key of Solomon). There were many editions of his books (written in
Latin), especially , 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 John Dee (1527–1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician,
astronomer,
astrologer,
teacher,
occultist, and
alchemist. 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. Dee was an intense Christian, but his religiosity was influenced by Hermetic and
Platonic-
Pythagorean doctrines pervasive in the
Renaissance. He believed that
numbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge. From
Hermeticism he drew a belief that man had the potential for divine power that could be exercised through mathematics. 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. 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. 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. 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. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits. These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and
fasting. 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. 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. 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. 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. Dee and Kelley began a
nomadic life in Central Europe, meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences, which Dee detailed in his diaries and almanacs. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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). based on a woodcut from
Livre du recteur, 1578
Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) was an Italian
Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and
Hermetic occultist. 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),
Neoplatonism, Renaissance
Hermeticism, and
Genesis-like legends surrounding the Egyptian god
Thoth. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language. 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. 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. Bruno suggested that some, if not all, of the objects classically known as
fixed stars are in fact suns. According to astrophysicist
Steven Soter, he was the first person to grasp that "stars are other suns with their own planets." 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". 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. 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. 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, 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. However some historians 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.
Giambattista della Porta 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). 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". 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. In 1563, della Porta published
De Furtivis Literarum Notis, a work about
cryptography. In it he described the first known digraphic
substitution cipher.
Charles J. Mendelsohn commented: 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. 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. 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. 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.
Heinrich Khunrath 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 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==