ABSTRACT
His two major works, De occulta philosophia (ms version 1510, expanded version pub 1533) and De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium (1530; Eng tr Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artes and Sciences 1569, rpt 1575), were known throughout Europe and were drawn upon by many Elizabethan writers, including Sidney, Greville, Harvey, Nashe, Marlowe, and, almost certainly, Spenser. De occulta philosophia incorporates material from many sources, most notably the texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the Cabala (which Agrippa knew through the works of Giovanni Pico and Reuchlin), medieval magical texts such as the Picatrix, and a wide range of classical and patristic texts, especially those of a Neoplatonic bent. De vanitate is encyclopedic in a different sense. With a mixture of evangelical high seriousness, sly paradox, witty abusiveness, and shrill invective, it sets out to show that all human arts and sciences are false and of no use for salvation: only through faith in God can spiritual regeneration and true knowledge be obtained.
