A COURTIER’S WORKING BOOK: THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE
The Autograph Apology This copy is distinguished by a remarkable contemporary document on the rear flyleaf: a full-page autograph draft letter (minuta) written by the owner. Addressed to a judicial or patronal superior, it constitutes a formal apology for a contumacia: a failure to appear or fulfill an obligation. The writer explains that he was detained by a caccia (hunting expedition) and adopts the elaborately deferential rhetoric typical of early modern epistolary culture, renouncing all defense and begging pardon “at his feet.”
Provenance & Significance The title page bears the name “Clementis Caprali” (or “Casali”), written twice in mid-sixteenth-century hands. The evidence points toward an educated Italian courtier or ecclesiastical retainer, fluent in Latin and deeply engaged with humanist learning.
This manuscript evidence transforms the volume from a philosophical text into a vivid historical artifact. On the printed pages, Iamblichus expounds the mysteries of divine ascent; on the flyleaf, the owner negotiates the practical realities of patronage, obligation, and political survival. For collectors of the social history of magic, this is a materially inhabited object: a witness to the daily life of a Renaissance theurgist who balanced metaphysical speculation with courtly duty.
THE TEXT: THE CORNERSTONE OF WESTERN THEURGY
The Platonic Defense of Divine Ritual The text this courtier was studying, De Mysteriis, is the foundational work establishing the philosophical legitimacy of ritual magic (theurgy) in the West. Written as a response to Porphyry’s skeptical Letter to Anebo, Iamblichus defends the necessity of ritual practice for the soul’s ascent.
Where Plotinus had elevated pure contemplation (theōria) as the sole path to the One, Iamblichus insisted that the embodied soul requires material symbols, spoken formulae, and hieratic rites to engage the gods. The power of theurgy arises not from human understanding but from divine agency; ritual action operates through cosmic sympathies embedded in reality itself. This doctrine, that ritual possesses objective metaphysical efficacy, became foundational for all subsequent Western magical traditions, from the Renaissance to the modern era.
Structure and Doctrine The treatise is divided into ten books (logoi), covering the hierarchy of divine beings (gods, daemons, heroes), the theory of divine names, and the mechanics of possession and sacrifice.
Books I–II articulate the power of “barbarous names”: opaque sound-forms that must not be translated lest they lose their cosmic efficacy.
Books VIII–IX address the nature of daemons and the problem of evil, clarifying that theurgy does not "compel" gods but prepares the soul as a receptacle for their voluntary descent.
Book X culminates in the ethical demand that theurgy serve the liberation of the soul, producing the theios anēr (divine human).
EDITION HISTORY
The Scutellius Translation While Marsilio Ficino produced the first Latin translation (1497), his version was often criticized by later humanists as paraphrastic. The present edition features the distinct translation of Nicolaus Scutellius (1490–1542). Scutellius sought to provide a more rigorous, literal rendering of the Greek text for the sophisticated mid-16th-century reader.
The 1556 Roman Imprint Printed by Antonio Blado, official printer to the Apostolic Camera, this edition appeared at the height of the Catholic Reformation. Its dedication to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, a central figure at the Council of Trent, reflects a brief, vital moment when pagan Neoplatonism could still be openly printed and studied in Rome as legitimate ancient wisdom.
IAMBLICHUS of Chalcis (c. 245–c. 325 CE) De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum [On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians] Translated by Nicolaus Scutellius (Niccolò Scutelli) Rome: Antonio Blado, 1556. 4to (211 × 152 mm). Roman type. Woodcut ornamental initials. Dedicatory epistles by Scipione Bongallo, Bishop of Civita Castellana, and by the translator Nicolaus Scutellius, addressed to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo.
Collation & Completeness: [10], 148 pp. Collation: A–T⁴. Note: This volume preserves the De Mysteriis portion of the 1556 Roman edition. The companion work normally issued with it, De Vita Pythagorae, is absent. As the provenance suggests, this separation was likely a contemporary choice to create a portable working manual of theurgic practice.
Binding Contemporary Italian limp vellum. Manuscript shelf mark on spine. Original sewing intact; evidence of former ties, now perished. A typical mid-16th-century Italian trade binding.
Pages are crisp and with generous margins throughout. Minor foxing confined largely to preliminary leaves and with contemporary ink marginalia (underlining) throughout the text. The vellum binding remains smooth and supple, showing the expected patina of a well-preserved and also well-used sixteenth-century trade binding. With a contemporary manuscript title written on the tail edge of the text block. The manuscript inscriptions are bold and legible.
A COURTIER’S WORKING BOOK: THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE
The Autograph Apology This copy is distinguished by a remarkable contemporary document on the rear flyleaf: a full-page autograph draft letter (minuta) written by the owner. Addressed to a judicial or patronal superior, it constitutes a formal apology for a contumacia: a failure to appear or fulfill an obligation. The writer explains that he was detained by a caccia (hunting expedition) and adopts the elaborately deferential rhetoric typical of early modern epistolary culture, renouncing all defense and begging pardon “at his feet.”
Provenance & Significance The title page bears the name “Clementis Caprali” (or “Casali”), written twice in mid-sixteenth-century hands. The evidence points toward an educated Italian courtier or ecclesiastical retainer, fluent in Latin and deeply engaged with humanist learning.
This manuscript evidence transforms the volume from a philosophical text into a vivid historical artifact. On the printed pages, Iamblichus expounds the mysteries of divine ascent; on the flyleaf, the owner negotiates the practical realities of patronage, obligation, and political survival. For collectors of the social history of magic, this is a materially inhabited object: a witness to the daily life of a Renaissance theurgist who balanced metaphysical speculation with courtly duty.
THE TEXT: THE CORNERSTONE OF WESTERN THEURGY
The Platonic Defense of Divine Ritual The text this courtier was studying, De Mysteriis, is the foundational work establishing the philosophical legitimacy of ritual magic (theurgy) in the West. Written as a response to Porphyry’s skeptical Letter to Anebo, Iamblichus defends the necessity of ritual practice for the soul’s ascent.
Where Plotinus had elevated pure contemplation (theōria) as the sole path to the One, Iamblichus insisted that the embodied soul requires material symbols, spoken formulae, and hieratic rites to engage the gods. The power of theurgy arises not from human understanding but from divine agency; ritual action operates through cosmic sympathies embedded in reality itself. This doctrine, that ritual possesses objective metaphysical efficacy, became foundational for all subsequent Western magical traditions, from the Renaissance to the modern era.
Structure and Doctrine The treatise is divided into ten books (logoi), covering the hierarchy of divine beings (gods, daemons, heroes), the theory of divine names, and the mechanics of possession and sacrifice.
Books I–II articulate the power of “barbarous names”: opaque sound-forms that must not be translated lest they lose their cosmic efficacy.
Books VIII–IX address the nature of daemons and the problem of evil, clarifying that theurgy does not "compel" gods but prepares the soul as a receptacle for their voluntary descent.
Book X culminates in the ethical demand that theurgy serve the liberation of the soul, producing the theios anēr (divine human).
EDITION HISTORY
The Scutellius Translation While Marsilio Ficino produced the first Latin translation (1497), his version was often criticized by later humanists as paraphrastic. The present edition features the distinct translation of Nicolaus Scutellius (1490–1542). Scutellius sought to provide a more rigorous, literal rendering of the Greek text for the sophisticated mid-16th-century reader.
The 1556 Roman Imprint Printed by Antonio Blado, official printer to the Apostolic Camera, this edition appeared at the height of the Catholic Reformation. Its dedication to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo, a central figure at the Council of Trent, reflects a brief, vital moment when pagan Neoplatonism could still be openly printed and studied in Rome as legitimate ancient wisdom.
IAMBLICHUS of Chalcis (c. 245–c. 325 CE) De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum [On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians] Translated by Nicolaus Scutellius (Niccolò Scutelli) Rome: Antonio Blado, 1556. 4to (211 × 152 mm). Roman type. Woodcut ornamental initials. Dedicatory epistles by Scipione Bongallo, Bishop of Civita Castellana, and by the translator Nicolaus Scutellius, addressed to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo.
Collation & Completeness: [10], 148 pp. Collation: A–T⁴. Note: This volume preserves the De Mysteriis portion of the 1556 Roman edition. The companion work normally issued with it, De Vita Pythagorae, is absent. As the provenance suggests, this separation was likely a contemporary choice to create a portable working manual of theurgic practice.
Binding Contemporary Italian limp vellum. Manuscript shelf mark on spine. Original sewing intact; evidence of former ties, now perished. A typical mid-16th-century Italian trade binding.
Pages are crisp and with generous margins throughout. Minor foxing confined largely to preliminary leaves and with contemporary ink marginalia (underlining) throughout the text. The vellum binding remains smooth and supple, showing the expected patina of a well-preserved and also well-used sixteenth-century trade binding. With a contemporary manuscript title written on the tail edge of the text block. The manuscript inscriptions are bold and legible.
Image 1 of 5
Image 2 of 5
Image 3 of 5
Image 4 of 5
Image 5 of 5