Source books · Renaissance magic and Christian Cabala
Steganographia
How this book fits
- Role in the tradition
- Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.
- Public attention
- Notable Wikipedia has an article about it in 3 languages.
Read it
- Book I ↗ esotericarchives.com checked September 11, 2026
From Wikipedia
Steganographia is a book on steganography, written in c. 1499 by the German Benedictine abbot and polymath Johannes Trithemius.
From the Wikipedia article Steganographia, revision 1306121417, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q42327105: “15th-century book”.
In this study
In the chronology, in Johannes Trithemius's account.
It appears to teach the summoning of spirits for communication across distances, yet much of its opening can also be decoded as cryptographic instruction. The magic may conceal the cipher, or the cipher the magic.