Complete Works (Opera Omnia)

...by protecting them, by freeing the innocent from the suspicion of Magic Magia - Here referring to the criminal charge of witchcraft or sorcery., by exposing those who boasted that they had no need for food Weyer famously investigated cases of "fasting girls" or "miraculous" inedia, proving them to be frauds or medical conditions rather than supernatural signs., and finally by seeking a remedy for desperate diseases not from the Underworld original: "ex Orco"; referring to seeking help from demons or illicit magic., but from the innermost sanctuaries of Medicine Medicina. Whatever learned knowledge had come forth from the workshop of the Wise; whatever had been forged on the anvil of Pallas Athena Athena/Pallas was the goddess of wisdom and craftsmanship; the "Palladian anvil" represents refined intellectual labor. by the most polished men to be placed as if in a Citadel; whatever geniuses formed of a better metal had drawn out from the secret mysteries of the Circle of Knowledge Encyclopædia - In the 17th century, this referred to the entire "circle" or system of human learning., or from the Heroic Academy; whatever, finally, every age, every region, and all the labors of Philosophers had produced—he gathered all this into this Crown of his with a most elegant and skillful hand, like the treasure of Gyges or Apollonius Gyges of Lydia and Apollonius of Tyana were figures from antiquity associated with hidden treasures and secret, almost magical, knowledge..

Indeed, one might deservedly inscribe upon it—as if on the vestibule of the Egyptian Temple of Isis—that "all-wise" πάνσοφον - pansophon title: I am all that is, and was, and shall be. original Greek: "Ἐγώ εἰμὶ πᾶν τὸ ὂν καὶ γεγονὸς καὶ ἐσσόμενον." This famous inscription, often cited by Renaissance scholars, was said to be carved on the statue of Isis in Sais, representing the totality of nature’s secrets. It must not be denied that Envy Invidia, which is usually the companion of virtue, has labored to darken rather than merely stain the brilliant radiance of this Crown with the black ink of the cuttlefish original: "atro loliginis succo." A classical metaphor (used by Horace) for malice or character assassination.; but how vain that effort was is clear from the double Defense Apologia added to this edition of ours.

But, since nothing under the Sun is constant and stable, and even the stars themselves have their spots and eclipses, this Crown—otherwise most celebrated throughout the whole world—through the misguided zeal, or more truly the fate, of men...