Of Invocation and Adjuration of Evil Spirits
Perrone Compagni — Table of Comparison
1533 edition (3:48): W, 3: 35 + two substantial additions
This chapter, De tertia specie furoris ab Apolline (“Of Invocation and Adjuration of Evil Spirits”), 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 3:35 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
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.