The Arbatel’s 49 Aphorisms and Seven Septenaries

First and second septenaries: framing wisdom

Aphorisms 1–7 open with secrecy, prayer, reverence, and a duty toward one’s neighbor. Their repeated appeal to divine guidance is integral to the source’s account of magic. Pulling out a spirit name while omitting this frame makes the work look like a free-standing demon list, which it is not. Aphorism 1 adapts a scriptural image about withholding sacred things; aphorism 2 explicitly places prayer through Christ before undertaking an action. These are historical statements of the book’s religious program, not claims that the promised results can be verified.

Aphorisms 8–14 turn to names, offices, and the relationship between signs and what the text says gives them force. Aphorism 8 resists an explanation based on the shape or pronunciation of a name alone. This helps interpret the later characters for the Olympic spirits: the printed figures are part of a larger theory of appointment and permission, not seven universal glyphs guaranteed to work in isolation. The numbered aphorisms also keep each claim in its section: a modern paraphrase can blur the boundary between the initial devotional counsel and the later Olympic material.

Third septenary: the seven governors

Aphorism 15 introduces spirits called Olympic, said to inhabit the firmament and act only as God permits. Aphorism 16 names Aratron, Bethor, Phaleg, Och, Hagith, Ophiel, and Phul, then assigns numbered provinces and a cycle of government. Aphorism 17 associates each governor with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, or the Moon and describes attributed offices and characters. Those assertions form the book’s cosmology. They do not convert the seven governors into planets visible in a telescope, and they are not the same catalogue as the seventy-two names in the Ars Goetia.

The printed page with the province list is especially revealing. Bethor reads XXXII, but the total reads 196 and the surrounding sequence decreases by seven. Editors often emend Bethor to 42; the discrepancy should remain visible to a reader comparing a digital table with the early print. Aphorisms 18–21 discuss additional names, religious discipline, and communication in the work’s own terms. The text also says characters may be confirmed or given by a spirit. Therefore a later modern chart of identical “official seals” requires its own witness; it cannot be assumed to reproduce one fixed, timeless diagram.

Fourth through seventh: a larger intellectual scheme

Aphorisms 22–28 move from the Olympic section to knowledge described as secret or revealed. The fifth septenary, 29–35, classifies spirits and the aims of magic in a broader framework. The sixth, 36–42, includes counsel about keeping experiments distinct and about preparation. The last seven, 43–49, return repeatedly to divine order and the moral stance of the practitioner. The numbered units make the work easier to follow across editions, even where a reprint changes the pagination.

The headings also reveal the difference between the extant work and its introductory prospectus. Nine types of magic are announced, but seven septenaries survive in the Isagoge; the reader should not infer seven complete books or nine published volumes. A later English anthology places the Arbatel beside works attributed to Agrippa and Peter of Abano, which can make it seem more directly Solomonic or goetic than the Basel printing itself suggests. The aphorism sequence remains a useful point of comparison even when wording and pagination vary across Latin and English witnesses.

Source records

• University Library Basel, Arbatel de magia veterum (1575), AN VI 37 ↗
• University Library Basel, complete 1575 scan (DOI 10.3931/e-rara-8789) ↗
• Basel copy, printed page 24, Aphorism XVI, image 28 ↗
• Library of Congress, Robert Turner’s 1655 collected English edition ↗
• Joseph H. Peterson, parallel Latin and Turner English transcription ↗