Of the Number Seven and Its Scale
Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison
1533 edition (2:10): W, 2: 24 + many substantial additions and inser tion of “Scala Septenarii”
This chapter, De septenario et eius scala (“Of the Number Seven and Its Scale”), occupies a significant place in Agrippa's systematic exposition of occult philosophy. In the 1533 Cologne printed edition (De occulta philosophia libri tres, sigla K in Perrone Compagni's critical apparatus), the text represents Agrippa's mature formulation of the ideas it addresses, the product of over two decades of reading, travel, and revision since the composition of the Würzburg draft.
Based on W 2:24 of the Würzburg draft, this chapter was significantly augmented. Perrone Compagni identifies one or more substantial additions, indicating that Agrippa supplemented the original argument with new material, possibly drawn from sources encountered after the 1510 composition.
The extent of revision in this chapter illustrates the dynamic character of Agrippa's rewriting process. Rather than simply updating facts, he appears to have substantially reconfigured the argument. Comparison with the partial edition A — which represents an intermediate stage — may reveal whether the additions were introduced gradually or in a single later revision.
Scholarly Perspectives
The number-scale chapters — one of the most distinctive structural features of DOP — present Pythagorean-Neoplatonic number theory in the form of comparative tables linking each number to its correspondences at every level of reality. Lehrich (2003) traces the tradition to Iamblichus's Theology of Arithmetic, noting that for Agrippa as for Iamblichus, numbers are not abstract quantities but ontological principles that structure existence from its highest to its lowest levels. Daniels (1964) emphasises the empiricist dimension: the scales are ultimately maps of observed correspondences.