Contents -- Foreword by Jan Assmann -- Introduction -- I Prehistory and Early History of a Phantasm -- II The Middle Ages: Christian Theology and "Antediluvian" Magic -- III Renaissance: Primeval Wisdom for a New World -- IV Seventeenth Century: High Point and Decline -- V Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Between Occultism and Enlightenment -- VI Twentieth Century: Systems and Esoterica -- Chronology -- Glossary -- Select Bibliography -- Index.