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Reprint of the original Latin text Tentamina semiologica, sive quaedam generalem theoriam signorum spectantia (1789), edited, translated and with an Introduction by Robert E. Innis The 33 sections of this classic text by Hoffbauer have a twofold focus: a descriptive inventory of signs, and a comparison of the expressive and cognitive powers of different sign systems. Using his sign typology as a point of departure, Hoffbauer inquires into the elements of matter and form both necessary and adequate to arrive at a definition of the sign. His purpose in doing so is to present his own version of a general sign theory after pointing out significant errors and weaknesses in the characteristicae universalis of Leibniz, Becher, Toennis, Kalmar, etc. Against the background of criticism of the contemporary deductive sign theories of Lambert, Baumgarten, Mendelssohn, Daries, Wilkins, Kircher and others, Hoffbauer's general semiology gives shape to an outline of a deductive-hypothetical theory of signs. In this historical perspective, Hoffbauer's semiology is of outstanding importance and provides the opportunity to think through once again central and permanent problems of the general science of signs.

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION: AGRIPPA'S LEGACY -- CHAPTER ONE: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, WITH EMPHASIS ON AGRIPPA'S INTEREST IN DIVINE STUDIES AND HIS CONFLICTS WITH ANTI-HUMANISTIC THEOLOGIANS -- CHAPTER TWO: AGRIPPA AND SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY -- CHAPTER THREE: METHOD OF REASONING AND STYLE OF AGRIPPA'S THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS -- CHAPTER FOUR: THE BATTLE OF DE INCERTITUDINE: AGRIPPA IN THE WORLD OF HUMANISM -- CHAPTER FIVE: AGRIPPA'S DEFINITION OF THE HUMANIST DECLAMATION AND ITS ERASMIAN ANTECEDENT -- CHAPTER SIX: DE NOBILITATE ET PRAECELLENTIA FOEMINEI SEXUS -- CHAPTER SEVEN: DE ORIGINALI PECCATO DISPUTABILIS OPINIONIS DECLAMATIO -- CHAPTER EIGHT: DE SACRAMENTO MATRIMONII DECLAMATIO -- CONCLUSION -- APPENDIX 1: LIST OF PASSAGES FROM DE INCERTITUDINE CONDEMNED BY THE SORBONNE ON MARCH 2, 1531 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- GENERAL INDEX.