De Incertitudine et Vanitate – Agrippa – 1537 | Occult Magic & Witchcraft

Incertitudine or Declamation of Arts and Sciences by Henri Cornelius Agrippa was a 1520s satire on the disappointing state of science in Europe at the time.

This treatise was known be one of the leading works in skeptical literature (Jones) and contributed greatly to philosophers such as Montaigne, Descartes, and Goethe.

Incertitudine covers a wide variety of occult topics including alchemy, astronomy, astrology, theurgy, magic rituals, summoning gods, discovering one’s psyche, mysticism and the cabala, Abraxas stones and charms, general magic and natural magic, dreams and dream interpretation, witchcraft, phantasms, miracles, and still more.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Henrici Cornelii Agrippae … de Incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium atque excellentia verbi Dei declamatio
• Author(s): Henri Corneille Agrippa
• Publisher: [Paris, Jean Bignon]
• Edition: 1537
• Format: (8vo), single volume
• Binding: Original leather, worn to cloth feel
• Size:  6.75 in x 4.5 in (17.15 cm x 11.43 cm)
• Collation: 192 unnumbered leaves; signatures: a4 A-Z8 &4;
  • lacking leaf G1
• Contents Include:
  • De Incertitudine
  • Alchemy, astrology, natural magic
  • Theurgy, witchcraft, dream interpretation
  • Cabala, phantasms, charms
• Provenance: illegible handwritten note on the back inside cover; handwritten “Dordos” appears twice
• Reference(s): USTC 147226; Lowndes 21; Jones, Anthology of Ceremonial & Transcendental Occult Magic; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‘Agrippa’;

Condition:

Good. Original leather binding worn away. The text block remains firm. Title page detached but included. One internal leaf (G1) is lacking. Pages with mild wear and toning consistent with age.

Why Collect This?

• Paris imprint of a foundational 16th-century text
• Origin of skeptical literature on occult traditions
• Suitable for collectors of esoterica and pre-Enlightenment philosophy

Item Number: #28985