Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, early 19th century

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535) was a German occultist, magician, and alchemist. His work, La Philosophie Occulte (1727) is considered one of the most important texts in Western occultism. In Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), young Victor Frankenstein reads the entire works of Cornelius Agrippa, hoping to access a "secret store of knowledge" about the natural world.

Courtesy National Library of Medicine