Timeline of Esoterica

Compiled by Joseph H. Peterson. Updated Feb 8, 2022.

13th century BCE?	Zarathushtra founds Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Magi; Moses founds Judaism; mythical date of Hermes Trismegistus.
10th century BCE	Solomon, son of David, King of Israel flourished
300-200 BCE (?)	Earliest parts of 1 Enoch composed
c 20 BCE - c 50 CE	Philo of Alexandria flourished
4? BCE-33 CE	Jesus founds Christianity
1st century CE	Apollonius of Tyana flourished
1st to 3rd CE (?)	Testament of Solomon composed
100-300 CE	composition of Corpus Hermetica
204-270 CE	Plotinus, Neoplatonic philosopher and mystic (born in Egypt)
233-305 CE	Porphyry, Neoplatonic philosopher and mystic (born in Phoenicia)
250-325 CE	Iamblicus, Neoplatonic philosopher (was born in Chalcis, Coele-Syria)
411-485	Proclus, Neoplatonic philosopher (born at Constantinople, Byzantium)
500 CE (circa)	Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite flourished, probably a native of Syria
6th CE	Sefer Yetzirah edited
10th CE	Sword of Moses composed
1004-1007 (?)	al-Majriti, purported author of Picatrix, dies
1054	Rome splits from orthodox church, forms Catholic church
1017?-1078	Michael Psellos, Byzantine philosopher and historian
1089-1164	Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr (Avenares)
1126-1196 CE	Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
1175?-1235	Michael Scot (Scottish)
1220?-1292	Roger Bacon (English)
1221	Alfonso X el Sabio born
1227	Pope Honorius III dies
1232	Ramon Llull born (Majorca)
1240	Abraham Abulafia, Sicilian Kabbalist, founder of ecstatic Kabbala, born in Saragosa
1248	Joseph Gikatilla, Spanish Sephardic Kabbalist, born
1250?	Liber Juratus (Sworn Book of Honorius) compiled by Honorius of Thebes, son of Euclid
1200-1250 ?	Latin version of the Clavicula Salomonis ("Key of Solomon") likely composed then. (cf Weill-Parot in Fanger et al 2012 p. 223)
1257-63	"The book of Solomon which is called Ars Notoria and Liber Semamphoras mentioned mentioned in a correspondence attributed to Roger Bacon (cf. Véronèse 2019 p. 188.)
1259	Peter de Abano [Pietro d'Abano], Italian physician and philosopher born. Professor of medicine in Padua.
1260	Anonymous author of the Speculum astronomiae mentions a series of magic books of Solomon
1266	John Duns Scotus, Scottish scholastic philosopher and thrologian, born
1267-70	Roger Bacon mentions the existence of libri Salomonis ("books of Solomon") used to obtain the aid of demons
1274	Ramon Llull's vision on Mount Randa
1280?	Sefer Ha-Zohar written by Moses de León but attributed to Simon ben Yohai
1284	Alfonso X el Sabio died
1292?	Abraham Abulafia dies
1301-15	John of Morigny florished
1303-10	Earliest reference to Clavicula, in Peter of Abano's Lucidator dubitabilium astronomiae
1308	John Duns Scotus dies
1314	Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, burned at the stake in Paris
1316?	Ramon Llull dies;
1316	Peter de Abano dies
1323	Joseph Gikatilla dies
1346	Berengarius Ganellus writes the Summa sacre magice
1433	Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher born. Under the patronage of the de'Medicis, he translated many Greek classics including the Corpus Hermetica
1446	Date of earliest surviving manuscript of Clavicula Salomonis ("Key of Solomon") — BnF Ital. 1524 (in Italian). Edition in Vedrai Mirabilia
1453	Fall of Constantinople to the Turks caused dispersal and spread of Greek manuscripts and scholarship
1455	Johannes Reuchlin, German humanist and lawyer, born. Reuchlin wrote on Kabbalah and propagated Hebrew studies
1462	Johannes Trithemius born at Trittenheim on the Moselle. Trithemius was a famous scholar and Benedictine abbot.
1463	Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher and scholar, born
1466	Francesco Giorgi (or Giorgio, aka Zorzi), Venetian philosopher, born. Author of De Harmonia Mundi (Venits, 1525)
1471	Ficino's translation of Corpus Hermeticum published
1474	Ferdinand and Isabella ascend to the throne
1483	Martin Luther born Eisleben, Saxony, Germany.
1486	Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa born in Cologne Germany;Malleus Maleficarum published, major instrument of witch hunters;Giovanni Pico della Mirandola takes his theses to Rome
1489	Ficino's Libri de Vita published
1492	Ferdinand and Isabella expel Jews from Spain, center of Cabalistic studies, caused dispersal and spread of Jewish and Cabalistic manuscripts and scholarship; discovery of the New World
1493	Paracelsus (Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim) born Einsiedeln Switzerland. Swiss physician and philosopher. He was tutored (by his account) by Trithemius.
1494	Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico published;Giovanni Pico della Mirandola dies
1499	Marsilio Ficino dies
(late 15th ce)	Date of oldest Latin Clavicula Salomonis (Key of Solomon) exemplar, Coxe 25 (BPH 114)
1510	Agrippa's De Occulta philosophia finishedGuillaume Postel, French mathematician, Kabbalist, and mystic born
1515	Johan Weyer born
1516	Johannes Trithemius dies
1517	Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica published;Martin Luther posts theses
1520	Jacques Gohory born (Jan. 20)
1522	Johannes Reuchlin dies
1525	Giorgi's De harmonia mundi published
1527	John Dee born in LondonMaximillian II born
1533	Agrippa's De Occulta philosopha published;Isaak Luria, Jewish Kabbalist, born in Jerusalem;Queen Elizabeth I born at Greenwich palace in London (September 7)
1535	Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa dies;Giambattista della Porta born in Naples. Author of Magia naturalis (Natural Magic) (1585, 1589)
1538?	Reginald Scot born. Author of Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584)
1540	Francesco Giorgi dies;Faust dies
1541	Paracelsus dies
1542	Inquisition established in Rome
1546	Martin Luther dies
1547	Venetian Inquisition started, originally to address protestant reform.
1548	Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher born in Nola Italy.
1552	Simon Forman bornEmperor Rudolph II bornGuillaume Postel publishes Latin translation of Sefer Yetzirah
1554	Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded
1555	Edward Kelley born
1558	Elizabeth I becomes queen of England;Giambattista della Porta's Magia Naturalis published;Zohar printedEdward Kelley's sister Elizabeth born.
1559	pseudo-Agrippa's Liber quartus published.
1560?	Heinrich Khunrath born in Leipzig
1564	Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica published
1565	Thomas Kelley (brother of Edward) born
1566?	Michael Maier, physician, alchemist, and philosopher, born in Rensburg, Holstein (Germany). Physician to Emperor Rudolph II.
1572	Isaak Luria dies
1574	Robert Fludd, English physician, philosopher, and mystic, born
1575	Jakob Boehme, German religious mystic, born;Arbatel Of Magic first appears
1576	Maximillian II diesJacques Gohory dies (Mar. 15)
1580's	Venetian Inquisition turns more attention to prosecuting practitioners of magic.
1581	Dee and Kelley start their "mystical experiments"Guillaume Postel dies
1584	Bruno's Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast published
1588	Johan Weyer dies
1595	Edward Kelley dies (Nov)
1599	Reginald Scot dies
1600	Giordano Bruno burned at the stake in Rome
1602	Athanasius Kircher born in Geisa a. d. Ulster, Germany (May 2)William Lilly, astrologer and translator of Trithemius, born in Diseworth, county Leicester, England
1603	Queen Elizabeth I dies;accession of James I
1605	Heinrich Khunrath dies
1606	Trithemius' Steganographia first published
1608	John Dee dies
1611	Simon Forman dies
1612	Emperor Rudolph II dies
1614-15	Rosicrucian manifestos published in Germany
1615	Giambattista della Porta dies
1617	Elias Ashmole born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England (May 23)
1617-19	Fludd's Utriusque cosmi historia published
1618	Maier's Atlanta Fugiens published
1618	Johann Baptista Grossschedel publishes Calendarium magicum (The Magical Calendar)
1620	Robert Turner 'of Holshot', translator of magical texts, born
1622	Thomas Vaughan, English Rosicrucian, bornMichael Maier dies
1624	Jakob Boehme dies
1636	Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, German mystic and Kabbalist, born.Leonardo Longo and Fransco Viola tried for witchcraft by Venetian Inquisition.
1637	Robert Fludd dies
1652	Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus publishedThomas Vaughan publishes English translation (not his own) of the Rosicrucian Fama and Confessio
1665?	Robert Turner of 'Holshott', English translator of grimoires, dies
1666	Thomas Vaughan dies
1677	Christian Knorr von Rosenroth published first volume of Kabbala Denudata
1680	Athanasius Kircher dies
1681	William Lilly, astrologer and translator of Trithemius, dies
1684	Christian Knorr von Rosenroth published second volume of Kabbala Denudata
1688	Emanuel Swedenborg, scientist and mystic, born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1689	Christian Knorr von Rosenroth dies
1692	Elias Ashmole diesSalem witchcraft panic
1707	Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Hebrew poet and Kabbalistic mystic, born Padua
1734	Franz Anton Mesmer born in Iznang, Swabia (Germany) (May 23)
1747	Moses Hayyim Luzzatto dies
1749-56	Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia published
1751	Ebenezer Sibly born
1772	Emanuel Swedenborg dies
1799 or 1800	Ebenezer Sibly dies
1801	Francis Barrett publishes The Magus
1808	Frederick Hockley born (Oct. 13)
1810	Eliphas Levi, (Constant, Alphonse Louis), French occultist, born in Paris, France. He is said to be largely responsible for the revival of magic in the 19th century.
1815	Franz Anton Mesmer dies
1831	Helena Petrovna Blavatski (Helena Petrovna von Hahn), cofounder of the Theosophical Society, born of German parents in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine).
1832	Henry Steel Olcott, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, born
1865	Papus (i.e. G.A.V. Encausse), French occultist and author born
1846	Anna Kingsford (Annie Bonus) born
1847	Annie Besant (née Wood), author and noted Theosophist born
1848	William W. Wescott born
1854	Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers born in London
1856	Levi's masterpiece Le Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie published
1857	Arthur Edward Waite born in Brooklyn, New York
1861	Rudolf Steiner born
1865	William Butler Yeats born in Ireland
1875	Eliphas Levi, (Constant, Alphonse Louis) dies (May 31)
1875	Aleister Crowley (Crowley, Edward Alexander) born (October 12)
1885	Frederick Hockley dies
1889	Mathers' edition of Kabbalah Unveiled published
1888	Anna Kingsford (Annie Bonus) diesPapus' Traité Elémentaire de Science Occulte published;Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn established in London
1889	Mathers' edition of Key of Solomon published
1890	Dion Fortune (i.e. Violet Mary Firth) born;W.B. Yeats joins the Golden Dawn
1891	Helena Petrovna Blavatski (Helena Petrovna von Hahn), cofounder of the Theosophical Society, dies
1897	Levi's Le Clef des Grandes Mystères published
1898	Julius Evola bornAleister Crowley joins the Golden Dawn;Mathers publishes The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage [Abramelin]
1899	C.G. Leland publishes Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches
1900	Crowley expelled from the Golden Dawn
1901	Manly Palmer Hall born
1907	Henry Steel Olcott, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, diesIsrael Regardie born
1909	Franz Bardon born
1916	Papus (i.e. G.A.V. Encausse), French occultist and author dies
1918	Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers dies
1925	William W. Wescott diesRudolf Steiner dies
1933	Annie Besant (née Wood), author and noted Theosophist dies
1937	Israel Regardie publishes the Golden Dawn, which includes the bulk of the Golden Dawns' rituals and teachings.
1939	William Butler Yeats dies
1942	Arthur Edward Waite dies
1946	Dion Fortune (i.e. Violet Mary Firth) dies
1947	Aleister Crowley (Crowley, Edward Alexander) dies
1958	Franz Bardon dies
1974	Julius Evola dies
1985	Israel Regardie dies
1990	Manly Palmer Hall dies