Of the Characters of the Fixed Stars
Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison
1533 edition (2:39): W, 2: 7
This chapter, De imaginibus Iovis (“Of the Characters of the Fixed Stars”), 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.
This chapter corresponds closely to W 2:7 in the Würzburg draft and appears to be substantially preserved in the 1533 edition. The direct correspondence shows that Agrippa regarded this material as settled relatively early and did not feel compelled to revise it significantly.
The stability of this chapter across the manuscript and printed versions suggests it belongs to the secure core of Agrippa's natural-magical argument as it was constituted by 1510. Such chapters allow scholars to reconstruct the intellectual foundation on which the more elaborate structures of the 1533 edition were built.
Scholarly Perspectives
The character and image chapters of Book II develop the sigil-construction programme that Lehrich (2003) identifies as Agrippa's most complete attempt to make mathematical structure generate magical writing. The planetary tables (magic squares) of chapter II:35 are the model: written characters derived from the path of a spirit's name through a numbered grid embody celestial virtue in a transferable form. Miles (2008) reads this programme as appearing to endorse natural-language theory while being complicated by the theoretical qualifications of Book III.