Henrici Cornelii Agrippae ab Nettesheym,
De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium
On the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and Arts by Henrici Cornelii Agrippae [Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]
Publication: 1644 Leiden: Severinus Matthaeus, for Abraham Commelin and David Lopes de Haro
358 pp. 4to. Text in Latin. Engraved allegorical title page, woodcut initials, full vellum, Some annotations at rear end paper in early hand.
An early 17th-century Latin edition printed in 1644. Containing one of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s most widely circulated works; De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum (On the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences) first published in 1530.
This edition also includes two additional writings by Agrippa: De Nobilitate et Praecellentia Foeminei Sexus (On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female) and De Matrimonio, sive Conjugio (On Marriage)
This work contains several of Agrippa’s most influential humanist writings, ranging from his famous critique of the pretensions of worldly knowledge to his defenses of women and his reflections on marriage.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was a German Renaissance occult writer, polymath, physician, and legal scholar, best known for his Three Books of Occult Philosophy which have had a lasting influence on the Western esoteric tradition. He remains one of the most influential figures in early modern occult thought.