The Arbatel de magia veterum appeared in Basel in 1575, an anonymous Latin grimoire structured as aphorisms, notable for its piety: it frames magic as wisdom-seeking rather than treasure-hunting, and names seven Olympic spirits assigned to the planets and to successive world-ages of 490 years. Robert Turner produced the standard English translation (1655); Joseph Peterson's modern edition (2009) is the reference text.
The Arbatel's reputation as 'white magic' rests on its tone: no coercion, no circles of protection against demonic treachery, the spirits arrive by divine appointment. Critics note the piety is also a legal defense, written in an era when grimoire ownership was evidence.
The Arbatel's epoch scheme, each spirit ruling 490 years, is a compressed philosophy of history: eras have planetary character, and magic is partly the art of knowing which century you are in. It is cyclical historiography disguised as a spirit catalog.
If each planet governs a few centuries, which spirit's term are you living in?