Described by one modern scholar as a 'classic biography' of Agrippa, Prost's two-volume work (1881–1882) charts the life of one of the most renowned humanists of Renaissance Europe. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) was a prolific author, best known for two popular, significant, and contradictory books: De occulta philosophia libri tres and De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium. Auguste Prost (1817–1896) established his reputation as an antiquarian and a historian of the French city of Metz. The first volume includes a comprehensive introduction to the occult arts and sciences, addressing their geographical and philosophical origins. In broad strokes, it covers the life and works of Agrippa before turning to specific periods in his life when he travelled to Cologne, Paris, Spain, Bourgogne, and Italy. This work will greatly interest historians and historiographers of Agrippa and of Renaissance magic and the occult.
