De occulta philosophia — 1510 / 1533 Comparison

Agrippa von Nettesheim · Würzburg draft (W) vs. Cologne edition (K)
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Book III — Ceremonial Magic — Chapter 27

Of Frenzy and Madness, and How They Participate in Divination

New in 1533

Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison

1533 edition (3:27): new

This chapter, 3:27 (“Of Frenzy and Madness, and How They Participate in Divination”), 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 chapter on frenzy and madness as modes of divination draws on the Platonic tradition of divine mania (Phaedrus, Symposium) as mediated through Ficino's commentary on the Phaedrus. Lehrich (2003) analyses this cluster of soul-chapters (approximately III:27–III:32) as describing the conditions under which the human soul can transcend its ordinary cognitive limitations and receive divine knowledge directly — not through rational discourse but through the suspension of reason. Newman (1993) connects Agrippa's treatment of ecstatic states to his broader Hermetic and Neoplatonic anthropology, in which the soul's highest faculty is capable of direct union with the divine.