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 | |
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 |