The Magical Calendar

The Magical Calendar is a large engraved chart, published around 1617 or 1618 with a title page dated 1614, that sets out the correspondences of Renaissance occult philosophy in a single visual system. It is attributed to Johann Baptista Großschedel and was engraved by Johann Theodor de Bry, of the Frankfurt engraving dynasty that also illustrated works of Robert Fludd and Michael Maier. Carlos Gilly identified a manuscript source for it, British Library Harley 3420, dated 1614, which supplies details absent from the print. The chart arranges correspondences by number. Columns for the one, two, three and so on up to twelve list divine names, angelic orders, planets, elements, metals, stones, animals, parts of the body and much else, together with magical seals and characters, in a way that parallels and condenses the scales in the second book of Agrippa's De occulta philosophia. It is in effect a reference table for the practitioner of astral and angelic magic, presenting the interconnection of all levels of the cosmos in one sweep of the eye. Because of its density and beauty it attracted renewed interest in the twentieth century. Adam McLean's 1979 edition, reissued in revised form in 1994, translated and explained its contents and made it widely known. Peterson's pages present high-resolution images of the engraving together with a transcription and the Harley manuscript evidence.

What it contains

• Numerical scales of correspondences from one to twelve
• Divine names and angelic orders
• Planets, signs, elements and metals
• Stones, plants, animals and parts of the body
• Planetary seals and magical characters
• Engraved emblematic title page