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Agrippa and Trithemius

H. C. Agrippam; de occulta Philosophia; scala Vnitatis; Epistolam Trithemij; Iohannem à VVestenburg Comitem

Agrippa and Trithemius are named together in a marginal cross-reference beside the universal operations of the Great Stone.

From the book

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordAgrippa and Trithemius are named together in a marginal cross-reference beside the universal operations of the Great Stone.
  • In KhunrathPage 99 distinguishes the Great universal Stone from the little, specified silver- and gold-making Stones.
  • In this editionThe primary form of the addressee's name is VVestenburg.
  • A reading distinctionThis article records cross-references rather than newly consulted sources.

Meaning

Agrippa and Trithemius are named together in a marginal cross-reference beside the universal operations of the Great Stone. Agrippa's book and chapter are specified; Trithemius is identified through a letter and its named addressee. The local reference does not reproduce either cited text.

Use in the book

Page 99 distinguishes the Great universal Stone from the little, specified silver- and gold-making Stones. It describes the Great Elixir's powers as extending to vegetables, animals, stones, gems, and minerals, renewing and exalting them as far as Nature with Art's help permits. The margin directs the reader to Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, book 2, chapter 4, in the scale of Unity, and to Trithemius's letter to Count Johannes von Westenburg. These references frame unity with a range of effects rather than furnish a separate process.

The phrase 'scale of Unity' is especially apt beside a catholic agent whose operations are manifold without losing their common source. That relation is an interpretation of the citation's placement; the Magnesia does not quote the scale or specify every correspondence in it. The reference is therefore best treated as a route outward from the treatise, not as permission to import all the details of another work into this paragraph.

Agrippa appears again on page 147 among named witnesses to the claim about Azazel; that different theological use belongs with the article on judgement. The two placements show the breadth of Khunrath's named authorities without making their separate claims interchangeable. Trithemius and the Count receive no further contextual history here.

Places to read

  1. 1599 p. 99The universal operations of the Great Stone supply the subject beside which the references are placed.
  2. 1599 p. 99 · marginAgrippa’s scale of Unity and Trithemius’s letter to the Count are explicitly recommended.
  3. 1599 p. 147 · marginAgrippa also appears in the separate group of witnesses concerning Azazel, a different argumentative use.

Translation in this edition

The primary form of the addressee's name is VVestenburg. The modern apparatus identifies him as Westerburg; the normalized alias is labelled by that distinction rather than silently substituting for the print. The source gives precise Agrippa chapter and book but no corresponding letter date or edition for Trithemius.

Source note

This article records cross-references rather than newly consulted sources. The claim that the cited works are standard Renaissance magical authorities belongs to the modern explanatory apparatus, not to an independent bibliographical investigation here.