Harry Potter Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Harry Potter Wiki

"Cornelius Agrippa (1486—1535): Celebrated wizard imprisoned by Muggles for his writings."
Chocolate Frog Card.[src]

Cornelius Agrippa (14861535) was a celebrated German wizard who authored many works on wizards and magic.

Biography

Early life

Cornelius Agrippa was born in 1486, in Germany.

Adulthood

"Cornelius Agrippa lived from 1486 to 1535. He wrote books about magic and wizards. Some important people thought his books were evil, so they put him in jail for writing them."
Chocolate Frog Card.[src]
Cornelius Agrippa

Agrippa whilst imprisoned.

A celebrated author, Agrippa authored some works about wizardkind and magic. However, the persecution of witches and wizards gathered pace all over Europe in the fifteenth century, and Agrippa was imprisoned by Muggles who claimed his works were evil. Jean Bodin, the great French philosopher, described Agrippa as being the 'greatest sorcerer' of his time. He was reputed to have a mysterious black dog that accompanied him everywhere, and was thought to be his 'familiar'. In truth, the dog was just his companion, and Agrippa was not evil, but a very wise scholar and magician.

For undisclosed reasons, Cornelius Agrippa was the namesake of a substance with magical properties, used in potion-making.

Death and post-mortem

Cornelius Agrippa died in 1535, aged 49. By the 1990s, he was featured on a Chocolate Frog Card. This card was one of only two that were missing from Ron Weasley's collection when he met Harry Potter in 1991 (the other being Ptolemy).[1]

Behind the scenes

  • Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (14861535) was a German soldier, physician and author whose major works include Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex), a book first published in 1529 that asserts that women are morally and theologically superior to men, and De occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books on Occult Philosophy), a series of books covering a wide variety of occult topics first published between 1531 and 1533. He was an adept in alchemy, astrology, and magic. His interest in the occult lead to criticism, and caused him to lose several jobs, but he is not known to have been imprisoned for it.[2]

Appearances

Notes and references

  1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 6
  2. "Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa" on Wikipedia
Advertisement