Arbatel
Arbatel de Magia Veterum is the name of a magic book that is said to have been written around the years 1550 to 1560. The author of this book is unknown. Originally this book should have consisted of nine parts, of which only the first part is available and known. In 1565 it was first printed under the title " Arbatel de magia seu pneumatica veterum " and published in the so-called fourth volume of the writings of Agrippa von Nettesheim . A collection of writings that did not come from Agrippa himself, but that were either printed by the publisher at the time with Agrippa's name for economic reasons or that were actually from Agrippa's library estate (in which case the book must have been written before 1535).
An edition from 1575 in Basel was entitled “ Arbatel de magia veterum. Summum sapientiae studium ”. In 1655 the work was translated into English by Robert Turner.
The bookseller and publisher Andreas Luppius published another print of the book in 1686. Luppius' edition contains a number of innovations. This first known part of the Arbatel consists of 49 aphorisms and is or should be an introduction to magic . Furthermore, it is about conjuring up and believing in the so-called seven planetary spirits. Each of these spirits is assigned a name and special properties, which can still be understood from the medieval superstition of the time .
literature
- Institute for Frontier Areas of Science: Lexicon of Paranormology , ISBN 978-3-85382-081-0
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's von Nettesheim magical works, including the mysterious writings of Petrus von Abano, Pictorius von Villingen, Gerhard von Cremona, Abbot Tritheim von Spanheim, the book Arbatel, the so-called Heil.-Geist-Kunst and various others. 4th edition, fully translated into German for the first time, 5 volumes, Amonesta, Vienna without year.