First Book

Of the causes / from which such wonderful things and effects arise in nature.

Chapter I.

What Magic is, according to its name.

1. That Magic (which in German can be quite appropriately called by the name Wonder-Art original: "Wunder-Kunst") comes from Persia, both in name and origin, is testified by the famous Platonic teachers Porphyrius and Apuleius. (a) In the speech for Magic original: "In oratione pro Magia"; referring to Apuleius's Apologia, a famous defense against charges of sorcery.

2. According to Suidas A 10th-century Greek encyclopedist., it takes its name from certain peoples called the Magusaei.

3. Cicero (b) In the book on Divination original: "Libro de Divinatione" says: A Magus or wonder-artist is, in the Persian language, nothing other than one who interprets divine things and deals with them; and this is a kind of wise people among that nation.

4. Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, says that Apollonius of Tyana A famous Greek Neopythagorean philosopher and teacher who lived in the 1st century AD; he was often compared to Jesus or depicted as a miracle-worker. was, according to common report, a magus or wonder-artist; but as the Pythagoreans report, he was a Philosophus or lover of wisdom.

5. Pliny writes: it is an undisputed and settled matter among writers that this art originated in Persia from one named Zoroaster, son of Oromasius. However, those who are more diligent claim that there was another Zoroaster before this one, called the Proconnesian. The first who wrote of this was Osthanes, who was present with the Persian King Xerxes when he invaded Greece with war; he scattered some seeds of this wonderful art here and there, as if by chance. But he so infected the world in all places where he went that the people in Greece acquired such a desire for it as if they were out of their senses.

6. Thus, for everyone, Magic means as much as wisdom and the perfect knowledge of natural things: and

This section lists the key historical figures and terms mentioned: Magic, Wonder-Art, Persia, Porphyrius, Apuleius, Suidas, Cicero, Jerome, Apollonius of Tyana, Pythagoras, Pliny, Zoroaster, Osthanes, Xerxes.