Speaker
Description
H. C. Agrippa von Nettesheim’s main work, De occulta philosophia, entered the history of thought in the 20th century as an encyclopedia of Renaissance magic. This is how D. P. Walker talks about it, who describes it in connection with the grouping of “spiritual” and “demonic” magic, Frances Yates, who mentions it when discussing the “new religion” of modern Hermeticism, Charles Nauert, who analyzes it by claiming the crisis of Renaissance thought, and finally Herman F. Kuhlov, who examined Agrippa’s doctrine of ascension from the perspective of Lutheran theology. A new direction in research was indicated almost simultaneously in 1991 by Michael Keefer’s study, which compared Agrippa’s two most important works (DOP and De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum atque artium) with reference to the “Hermetic rebirth”, and in 1992 by Vittoria Perrone Compagni’s introduction to the critical edition of De occulta philosophia, who, there and in her 2007 study, refuted the claim that Agrippa’s main work was merely an encyclopedia of magic. She calls Agrippa a reformer of epistemology, magic, and the morals of her time, because she believes that Agrippa created a new epistemology by incorporating magic into the Christian religion. Following in the footsteps of Perrone Compagni, Noel Putnik continued his research into the intellectual structure of De occulta philosophia, representing this view. However, these investigations did not extend to the immediate philosophical antecedents whose reception can be clearly demonstrated in the work, namely the teachings of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on man’s ascent to God and ultimate bliss. In my presentation, I will trace the origins of this history of reception.
Short Biography
Monika Frazer-Imregh (1966–) is an associate professor at the Károli University in Budapest, where she teaches ancient Greek and Roman religious history, Latin, Renaissance and early modern cultural history. She has been the editor-in-Chief of the university journal Orpheus Noster for over ten years.
https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=2173
Her research area is Neoplatonic and Italian Renaissance philosophy and she translates from Greek, Latin and Italian. She specialises in translating and researching the works of Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano. Since 2001, volumes of her translations have been continuously published (Ficino’s De amore, De vita libri tres; Pico’s Heptaplus, Commenti alla Canzona d’amore di Benivieni; Poliziano’s Epistulae, I–IV). In 2022, her monograph was published under the title Lifestyle, Astrology and Magic in the Renaissance. She has also co-translated Picatrix (2022) and Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia (2024, pending publication).
| Keywords | Renaissance philosophy, Neoplatonism, ascension, Ficino, Pico, Agrippa |
|---|---|
| imreghmonika@gmail.com | |
| Affiliation | Károli University |
