Magus : the art of magic from Faustus to Agrippa
Grafton, Anthony2025
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At the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure: the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret codes to siege engines to magic tricks. Anthony Grafton's wonderfully original book discusses the careers of men who somehow managed to be both figures of startling genius and - by some measures - credulous or worse. The historical Faust, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are all fascinating characters, closely linked to monarchs, artists and soldiers and sitting at the heart of any definition of why the Renaissance was a time of such restless innovation.
Main title:
Magus : the art of magic from Faustus to Agrippa / Anthony Grafton.
Author:
Imprint:
London : Penguin Books, 2025.London : Penguin Books, 2025.
Collation:
304 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: Cambridge: Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780140276916 (pbk)
Dewey class:
133.43
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2993060