Corneille Agrippa

Corneille Agrippa Synopsis

Described by one modern scholar as a 'classic biography' of Agrippa, Prost's two-volume work (1881–1882) charts the life of one of the most renowned humanists of Renaissance Europe. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) was a prolific author, best known for two popular, significant, and contradictory books: De occulta philosophia libri tres and De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium. Auguste Prost (1817–1896) established his reputation as an antiquarian and a historian of the French city of Metz.

Volume 2, covering the period 1520–1535, is organized around Agrippa's travels and teaching across Europe. This volume also includes an appendix, which returns to a range of subjects touched on in the work as a whole, including Agrippa's name, family life, and academic achievements and works. These volumes would greatly interest historians and historiographers of Agrippa and of Renaissance magic and the occult.