RENAISSANCE LEARNED MAGICAL TRADITION       

I. "Renaissance":14-15th C. Italy
           cultural & educational movement;
           recovery of ancient Greek and Latin texts
           new curriculum: grammar, rhetoric,
                                 history, poetry, moral philosophy             
        Dates:
          1450's invention of the printing press
          1453   fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks

          1460   translation of Plato by Marsilio Ficino
                    (from Greek to Latin); commissioned by
                    Cosimo de Medici of Florence (d. 1464)

II. Learned Magical Traditions

    Key of Solomon:  handwritten medieval magical texts

     The Hermetic writings: hermetic = closed, sealed, hidden
               Greek texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice great”)
               thought to be ancient Egyptian priest, contemporary of Moses

         prisca theologia (early theology) separate revelation               

         Books:  Asclepius--on magical Egyptian religion
                        Pimander--on creation of world

         1614: Issac Casaubon correctly dates Hermetic writings
                    to 2-3rd C. AD Greece (i.e. not Egyptian)

    Marsilio Ficino: translates Plato & hermetic corpus

       1489--Libri Di Vita (Books of Life)
               hermetic theory of natural, astrological magic
               talismans: as objects reflecting astral influence

    Cornelius Agrippa von Netteshein

     1510/30 De Occulta Philosophia (On Hidden Philosophy)
                        textbook of Renaissance magic

     Levels of magical power:
             Natural magic--power of words and names
            Celestial magic--numerology and astrology
            Ceremonial magic--appeals to spirits         

Further reading:
             Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition