De occulta philosophia — 1510 / 1533 Comparison

Agrippa von Nettesheim · Würzburg draft (W) vs. Cologne edition (K)
← Back to chapter index
Book II — Mathematical Magic — Chapter 18

Of the Composition of the Harmonic Scale

New in 1533

Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison

1533 edition (2:18): new

This chapter, 2:18 (“Of the Composition of the Harmonic 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.

According to Perrone Compagni's table of comparison, this chapter is entirely new in the 1533 edition: it has no antecedent in the Würzburg draft (W). Its presence marks one of the conceptual expansions that distinguish K from W — the addition of material reflecting Agrippa's subsequent reading and intellectual development.

The absence of this chapter from the Würzburg draft invites reflection on what prompted its insertion in the mature edition. Agrippa's intellectual biography between 1510 and 1530 — including his engagement with Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, Hermetism, and scholastic natural philosophy — provides the context for understanding such additions. The partial edition A (sigla A in Perrone Compagni) may offer clues about when the material was composed.

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.