Of the Bonds of Spirits and How They Are Made
Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison
1533 edition (3:18): new (title not recorded in the Tables of Contents at tached to A; henceforth numbering of following chapters in A differs from K by one)
This chapter, id est ‘heroes, viri fortes et beati’, per quos Deus Adonai ’’ίΊΝ prophetiam largitur.} (De ordinibus malorum daemonum eorundemque casu et naturis variis (“Of the Bonds of Spirits and How They Are Made”), 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 new in the 1533 edition and has no direct counterpart in the Würzburg manuscript (W = MS M.ch.q.50). The description notes: \u201c(title not recorded in the Tables of Contents at tached to A; henceforth numbering of following chapters in A differs from K by one).\u201d Its addition reflects the conceptual enrichment Agrippa undertook between approximately 1510 and the early 1530s, incorporating sources and arguments unavailable or unexplored in the juvenile draft.
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
Lehrich's monograph is, in its entirety, an argument about how Agrippa theorises contact with the angelic and demonic hierarchy. The angel/demon chapters of Book III provide the theological and cosmological taxonomy within which the magician's operations are classified as licit or illicit: angelic operations are legitimate because angels mediate the divine will; demonic operations are dangerous because demons can deceive. Van der Poel (1997) situates this demonology within Agrippa's broadly orthodox Catholic theology, in which the proper relationship between humans and supernatural beings is governed by faith, prayer, and moral purity.