Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius

Detail of Tomb Relief of Johannes Trithemius by Tilman Riemenschneider
Born February 1, 1462(1462-02-01)
Trittenheim
Died December 13, 1516(1516-12-13) (aged 54)
Würzburg
Nationality German
Fields theology, cryptography, lexicography, history, occultism
Institutions Benedictine abbey of Sponheim,
St. Jakob zu den Schotten
Alma mater University of Heidelberg
Known for Steganographia,
Polygraphiae

Johannes Trithemius (1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.

Contents

Life

He studied at the University of Heidelberg. Travelling from university to his home town in 1482, he was surprised by a snowstorm and took refuge in the Benedictine abbey of Sponheim near the Bad Kreuznach. He decided to stay and was elected abbot in 1483, at the age of twenty-one. He set out to transform the abbey from a neglected and undisciplined place into a centre of learning. In his time, the abbey library increased from around fifty items to more than two thousand. However, his efforts did not meet with praise, and his reputation as a magician did not further his acceptance. Increasing differences with the convent led to his resignation in 1506, when he decided to take up the offer of the Bishop of Würzburg, Lorenz von Bibra (bishop from 1495 to 1519), to become the abbot of St. James's Abbey, Würzburg, the Schottenkloster in Würzburg. He remained there until the end of his life. Trithemius was buried at the Schottenkirche St. Jakob with a tombstone by the famous Tilman Riemenschneider. In 1825 the tombstone was moved to the Neumünster church, next to the cathedral. In 1945 it was damaged in the firebombing and subsequently restored by the workshop of Theodor Spiegel.

Among his pupils were Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) and Paracelsus (1493–1541).

Steganographia

Trithemius' most famous work is Steganographia (written c.1499; published Frankfurt, 1606, placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1609)[1] removed in 1900[2] This book is in three volumes, and appears to be about magic - specifically, about using spirits to communicate over long distances. Since the publication of the decryption key to the first two volumes in 1606, they have been known to be actually concerned with cryptography and steganography. Until recently, the third volume was widely still believed to be solely about magic, but the "magical" formulae have now been shown to be covertexts for yet more cryptography content.[3] However, mentions of the magical work within the third book by such figures as Agrippa and John Dee still lead credence to the idea of a mystic-magical foundation concerning the third volume.[4][5] Additionally, while Trithemius's steganographic methods can be established to be free of the need for angelic-astrological mediation, still left intact is an underlying theological motive for their contrivance. The preface to the Polygraphia equally establishes, the everyday practicability of cryptography was conceived by Trithemius as a "secular consequent of the ability of a soul specially empowered by God to reach, by magical means, from earth to Heaven."[6]

The work has lent its name to the modern field of steganography.

Other works

Other works include De Laude Scriptorum (In Praise of Scribes) (written 1492, printed 1494), De septum secundeis (The Seven Secondary Intelligences, 1508), a history of the world based on astrology; Annales Hirsaugiensis (1514); and Polygraphiae (1518).

Influences

The Cipher Manuscripts were encrypted using the Trithemius cipher, a simple substitution that Trithemius describes in his book Polygraphiae. The Cipher Manuscripts was used to found the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an initiatory secret society that heavily influenced Victorian and modern European occultism.

Works

Compilations

See also

Notes

  1. ^ (in Spanish) Indice de Libros Prohibidos (1877) [Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Pius IX (1877)]. Vatican. http://books.google.com/books?id=Yq8XAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA309&dq=index+librorum+prohibitorum+trithemius&lr=&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2 August 2009. 
  2. ^ (in Latin) Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1900) [Index of Prohibited Books of Pope Leo XIII (1900)]. Vatican. p. 298. http://books.google.com/books?id=pM0XAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA298&dq=index+librorum+prohibitorum+tricassinus&lr=&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2 August 2009. 
  3. ^ Reeds, Jim (1998). "Solved: The ciphers in book III of Trithemius's Steganographia". Cryptologia. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3926/is_/ai_n8820687. 
  4. ^ Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 50-55
  5. ^ Walker, D.P. Spiritual & Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), pp. 86-90
  6. ^ Brann, Noel L., ‘Trithemius, Johannes’, in Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, ed. Wouter J. Hanegraff (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), pp. 1135-1139.
  7. ^ Digital Version MGH-Bibliothek

References

  • Brand, N. L. (1981) The Abbot Trithemius, Leiden: Brill
  • Kahn, David (1967) The Codebreakers: the Story of Secret Writing, 1967, 2nd edition 1996, pp. 130–137 ISBN 0-684-83130-9
  • Kuhn, Rudolf (1968) Großer Führer durch Würzburgs Dom und Neumünster: mit Neumünster-Kreuzgang und Walthergrab, p. 108
  • Wolfe, James Raymond (1970). Secret Writing: the Craft of the Cryptographer. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 112–114. 
  • Christel Steffen (1969) "Untersuchungen zum "Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis" des Johannes Trithemius", Aus: Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens Bd 10, Lfg 4 - 5 [1969] 1247 - 1354.

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