Henricus Cornelius Agrippa

views updated

Henricus Cornelius Agrippa

1486-1535

German lawyer and physician, also known as Agrippa of Nettesheim, who in the sixteenth century was a leading early proponent of the serious inspection of occult philosophies as a means of understanding nature beyond conventional science. Along with talents as diplomat and historiographer, he successfully defended a woman accused of witchcraft. His The Occult Philosophy (c. 1510) became a major influence in central European intellectual circles and along with The Uncertainty and Vanity of Science (1527) focused on the logic of the occult alternative.

More From encyclopedia.com