Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
German polymath, physician, legal scholar and soldier (1486–1535)
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (; German: [aˈgʀɪpa]; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German Renaissance polymath, physician, legal scholar, alchemist, soldier, knight, theologian, and occult writer.
Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy published in 1533 drew heavily upon Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism. His book was widely influential among esotericists of the early modern period, and was condemned as heretical by the inquisitor of Cologne.
Early life and education
Agrippa was born in Nettesheim, near Cologne, on 14 September 1486, to a family of middle nobility. In letters later in life he wrote that members of his family had been in the service of the House of Habsburg, although such claims may have been motivated by a desire to gain the support of potential patrons. On the record of his matriculation at the University of Cologne in 1499, he is listed simply as a citizen of Cologne, and his father's name is recorded as Henricus de Nettesheym. Agrippa studied at the university from 1499 to 1502, (age 13–16) when he received the degree of magister artium. The University of Cologne was one of the centers of Thomism, and the faculty of arts was split between the dominant Thomists and the Albertists. It is likely that Agrippa's interest in the occult came from this Albertist influence. Agrippa himself named Albert’s Speculum as one of his first occult study texts.
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