CHAPTER SIX
The Inheritance of Alexandrian Hermetism: Historical and Bibliographical Landmarks
The majority of the Greek texts known as the Hermetica were written in Alexandria or the Nile Delta at the beginning of the Christian Era. Some of them (second to third centuries), like those collected later under the title of Corpus Hermeticum, are attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. This corpus was practically lost during the whole Medieval period, with the exception of the book Asclepius, preserved in Latin translation and subsequently reunited with the other texts. Nevertheless, the tradition started by these Hermetica persisted up to the Renaissance, when it was assured of a lasting success by the rediscovery, in 1460, of the Corpus Hermeticum. Until 1614 the latter was believed, along with its mythical author Hermes Trismegistus, to be at least as ancient as Moses.
The following data make no pretention other than as landmarks. They concern the reception of Alexandrian Hermetism both as such, and as considered in its long-term effects, particularly in the esoteric field.
1. The Middle Ages
1A. Some references to Hermes Trismegistus and to the Asclepias in the early Church Fathers:
Clement of Alexandria (third century), Stromata VI, 4, 35-8.
Lactantius (fourth century), Divinae Institutiones I, 6; IV, 6; II. VIII, 18.
Augustine (fifth century), De civitate dei 410-426: VIII, 13-26, XVIII, 29.
For complete listing of the “Testimonia,” see A. S. Ferguson and W. Scott, cited below (5B), vol. 4.
1B. Among the Medieval authors mentioning Hermes Trismegistus or citing the Asclepius:
Michael Psellus, Byzantine Platonist of the eleventh century, uses the Hermetic and Orphic texts to explain the Scriptures.
Theodoric of Chartres; Albertus Magnus; Bernard Silvestris; Alain of Lille; William of Auvergne; Thomas Bradwardine; Roger Bacon; Bernard of Treviso; Hugh of Saint Victor. From the ninth century onwards, many Arabic writings draw their inspiration from Greek sources, which then return to the West through Latin translations.
1C. Some Medieval texts influenced by the spirit of Alexandrian Hermetism:
Between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance there appeared a great number of texts in Latin, in the wake of Alexandrian Hermeti-cism and often attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. The Picatrix (tenth century), translated from the Arabic, and many other texts were followed in the twelfth century by other metaphysical and cosmological writings like the De sex rerum principiis and the Liber viginti quatuor philosophorum. Writings like the Centiloquium, the Kyranides, the Liber Lunae and the Tabula Smaragdina were widely disseminated and penetrated Latin culture. The collection Hermes Latinus (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, Brepols N.V. in Belgium), currently in preparation under the direction of Paolo Lucentini, will present most of these Latin texts.
2. Rediscovery at the Renaissance
2A. The point of departure:
In 1460, Leonardo da Pistoia, a monk, brought to Florence a Greek manuscript of the Corpus Hermeticum, almost complete (fifteen treatises), which he had discovered in Macedonia. These were thus “new” texts, because the only item of this collection known was the Asclepius in Latin. At the end of 1462, Cosimo de’ Medici had it translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino, thinking this a more urgent job than that of the works of Plato. Until the end of the sixteenth century there were no fewer than sixteen editions, not counting partial ones. Ficino's translation went through twenty-five editions between 1471 and 1641. The commentaries accompanying these editions are often of considerable interest.
Pico della Mirandola contributed to the success of the Corpus Hermeticum by forging an esoteric alliance between Kabbalism and Hermetism. Out of this was born a Hermetic art, e.g., in Botticelli's Primavera (1478); Siena Cathedral pavement (1488); Borgia Apartments in the Vatican, decorated by Pinturicchio, etc.
2B. Remarks on English Puritanism, and the situation in Germany:
Essentially gnostic and irenic, the religious Hermetism of post-Medieval times flourished in places where tolerance prevailed—at the same time as favoring the latter. During the sixteenth century it was not welcomed in England either by Puritanism or by Hispano-Catholic policy.
As is well known, the Lutheranism of the Germanic countries delayed the reception of Humanism. This is why the Corpus Hermeticum, which arose out of Humanist culture, penetrated less into Germany than elsewhere. But in the Germanic countries, other esoteric currents (theosophy of Weigel and Boehme, Paracelsism, Rosicrucianism) compensated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for this absence. Germanic theosophy scarcely ever alludes to Hermes Trismegistus.
2C. Some editions and commentaries on the Corpus Hermeticum:
In 1463, Ficino's translation of Corpus Hermeticum I-XIV was finished. It was printed in 1471 at Treviso: Mercurii Trismegisti Pimander, seu liber de potestate et sapientia Dei.*
William Caxton, The dictes or sayensis of the philosophers, 14 77 (numerous subsequent editions, notably by William Baldwin and Thomas Palfreyman in the sixteenth century).
John Doget, Examinatorium in Phaedonem Platonis, end of the fifteenth century.
Lefèvre d'Etaples, Pimander (Corpus Hermeticum I-XVI) (Paris, 1494; and 1505 with the Crater Hermetis of Ludovico Lazzarelli and Asclepius). Lazarelli, who translated treatise XVI (which Ficino had not known), was probably also the author of Epistola Enoch, a work in the same tradition. The commentaries on the Pimander were by Lefèvre, not Ficino.
Giovanni Nesi, Oraculum de novo saeculo (Florence, 1497).
Aureum planeque opusculum Mercurii Trismegisti, depotestate ac sapientia dei, presented by Johann Scheffler (Augsburg, 1503).
Il Pimandro di Mercurio Trismegisto (Florence, 1548; new edition, 1549), translated into Italian by Tommaso Benci (translation dating from 1463).
Mercure Trismégiste Hermès Très ancien Théologien et excellent Philosophe: de la puissance et sapience de Dieu […]. A vee un dialogue de Loys Lazarel intitulé le Bassin d'Hermès (Paris, 1549). This is the edition in French by Gabriel du Préau of the Pimander, together with the Crater Hermetis of Lazarelli. New edition in 1557.
Partial edition by Trincavelli of the Fragments of Stobaeus (Venice, 1553/1556), completed in 1575 by Canter.
First edition of the Greek text of the Corpus Hermetict1m by Turnebus (Paris, 1554), with Vergerius's preface, the Latin translation of Ficino and the commentaries of Lefevre.
New Greco-Latin edition of the Pimander (Bordeaux, 1574), by Bishop Foix de Candale, followed Bordeaux, 1579 by its French edition, with extensive French commentary (Le Pimandre de Mercure Trismegiste, de la philosophie chrestienne, cognoissance du Verbe divin); reissued Paris, 1587.
Basel edition of Ficino's Opera (1576), with numerous passages concerning Hermetism.
Enormous edition, with commentary, by the Italian Franciscan Hannibal Rossel, Pymander Mercurii Trismegisti, 6 vols. (Krakow, 1585/1590; reissued Cologne, 1 vol., 1630).
Circa 1580, Dutch translation of the XVI Books (complete and unpublished, Ms. in Antwerp), probably inspired by that of Foix de Candale.
Nova de universis philosophia by Francesco Patrizi (Ferrara, 1591; reissued Venice, 1593), which contains the Corpus Hermeticum after the text of Turnebus and Foix de Candale, together with a new Latin translation and a vigorous defence of Hermetism.
Sir Philip Sidney: publication in 1587 of his English translation of the book by Du Plessis-Mornay (see next section).
2D. Some authors whose work is more or less marked by this Hermetism:
Symphorien Champier, Liber de quadruplici vita. Theologia Asclepii Hermetis Trismegisti discipuli cum commentariis eiusdem (Lyon, 1507).
Thomas More, Life of Picus (1510) and Utopia (1516).
Johann Trithemius, De septem secundeis (Nuremberg, 1522).
Francesco Giorgi of Venice, De harmonia mundi (Venice, 1525; French translation by Guy Lef evre de la Boderie, Paris, 1579) and Problemata (Paris, 1536).
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta philosophia (Cologne, 1533), and several treatises (1515, 1516).
Agostino Steuco, De perenniphilosophia (Lyon, 1540 and 1590). This Italian Augustinian expounds in his book the idea of a “perennial philosophy,” and of a tradition of which Hermes Trismegistus is one of the representatives.
Giulio Camillo Delminio, L'Idea del theatro (Florence and Venice, 1550), and several other writings between 1530 and 1544.
John Dee, Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1558, reissued 1568), and Monas Hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1565).
Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie, La Galliade (Paris, 1578).
Pontus de Tyard, Les discours philosophiques (Paris, 1578).
Philippe Du Plessis-Momay, Dela vérité de la religion chrestienne (Antwerp, 1582).
Alexander Dicson, De umbra rationis (London, 1584).
Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queen (London, 1590/1596).
Giordano Bruno, Valentin Weigel, Michael Servetius, Jacques Gohory, Du Bartas, Richard Hooker.
3. Casaubon's “Revelation” and the Seventeenth Century
3A. Isaac Casaubon:
This Genevan Protestant proved in 1614 (De rebus sacris ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI published in London) that the texts of the Corpus Hermeticum are no earlier than the first centuries of the Christian Era. Some Hermetists deliberately ignored this discovery, others remained unaware of iti but little by little, Alexandrian Hermetism found fewer admirers and commentators, since it was now known to be far less ancient than had been believed. For the situation in Germany, see above, section 2B.
It still became the object of some presentations, adaptations, and translations, including:
Extracts from the Corpus Hermeticum in German: “Verba Hermetis in Pimandro,” in Occulta Philosophia, val. II (Frankfurt, 1613).
First edition of a Dutch translation, in the work Wonder-Vondt van de eeuwighe bewegingh die den Alckmaersche Philosoph Cornelis Drebbel…(Alkmaar, 1607), the XVI Books. (This translation owes nothing to the Ms. one of 1580, mentioned above.)
Reissue of the Pimander by Rossel (1585; see Section 2.C) (Cologne, 1630).
Dutch translation of the XVI Books of the Corpus Hermeticum (Amsterdam, 1643, reissued 1652) by Abraham Willemsz. Van Beyerland (the translator of Jacob Boehme): Sesthien Boecken met groote naarstigheyt van den Voor-trefflicken ouden Philosoph, Hermes Trismegistus, translated from the Latin text of Francesco Patrizi.
Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, his Divine Pymander, in XVII books, English translation presented by John Everard (London, 1650). Reissued in 1657, with the Asclepius and commentaries by Lefevre d'Etaples.
3B. Some authors whose work is more or less marked by this Hermetism:
Mutius Pansa, De Oscula seu consensu ethnicae et christianae philosophiae (Marburg, 1605).
Jean-Pierre Camus, Diversités (Paris, 1609, 1615).
Sir Walter Raleigh, History of the World (London, 1609).
Philippe Cluver, Germaniae antique libri tres (Lyon, 1616), vol. I.
Henricus Nollius, Theoria philosophiae hermeticae (Copenhagen, 1617).
Joseph Stellatus (pseudonym for Christoph Hirsch), Pegasus Firmamenti. Sive introductio brevis in Veterum Sapientiam (n.p., 1618).
Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi historia (Oppenheim, 1617-1621).
Johannes Kepler, Harmonices mundi libri V (Linz, 1619).
Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1621).
Livius Galante, Christianae Theologiae cum platonica comparatio (Bologna, 1627).
John Milton, Il Penseroso (London, 1645).
Hermann Conring, De H ermetica Aegyptiorum vetere et paracelsicorumnovamedicina (Helmstedt, 1648 and 1669): speaks much of Hermetism, but generally as an opponent, and against Borrichius, cited below.
Jean d'Espagnet, La Philosophie naturelle retablie en sa pureté, avec le Traité de l'Ouvrage secret d'Hermès (Paris, 1651).
Athanasius Kircher, Prodromus captus (Rome, 1636); Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome, 1652-1654).
Johann Heinrich Ursinus, De Zoroastre Bactriano, Hermete Trismegisto…(Nuremberg, 1661).
Olaus Borrichius, Hermetis Aegyptiorum et chemicorum sapientia (Copenhagen, 1674). De ortu et progressio chemiae (Copenhagen, 1668).
Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe (London, 1678). Also several writings of Henry More.
W. Chr. Kriegsmann, Conjectaneorum de Germanicae gentis origine, de conditore, Hermete Trismegisto (Tübingen, 1684).
Johann Ludovicus Hannemann, Ovum hermetico-paracelsico-trismegistum (Frankfurt, 1694).
4. In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
4A. General remarks:
After the end of the seventeenth century, “Trismegistian” Hermetism was of less interest as such than as an opportunity to evoke a very general current with which it was more or less confused. This current mixed up Egyptomania, Orphism, Pythagore-anism, Kabbalah, and Paracelsism. “Hermeticism” is used increasingly as a synonym for “alchemy,” even for “Rosicrucianism.” (See the footnote on page 39, concerning the use of the terms “Hermetism” and “Hermeticism.”) Representative of this tendency to put together various esoteric traditions under the heading “Hermetic” is the book by Daniel Colberg, Das Platonisch-Hermetische Christentum (Frankfurt, 1690-91; new edition, 1710), whose title and contents betray a mish-mash of theosophy, alchemy, Kabbalah, and Hermetism.
Some works in eighteenth-century Germany still evidence interest in the Corpus Hermeticum. In the nineteenth century it was above all the Anglo-Saxon countries that took up the thread, but not before the second half of the century In France, we should mention the work of Louis Ménard: Hermès Trismégiste. Traduction complète, précédee d'uneétude sur Torigine des libres hermétiques (Paris, 1866, several times reissued).
Hermetism still has an underground influence in the nineteenth century, more or less diffuse, whose importance is only beginning to be recognized. On its influence on Anglo-Saxon literature, see especially the important study of E. L. Tuveson, cited below, section 6A. Naturally all its repercussions cannot be mentioned in the limited compass of this survey, which is restricted to some of the most obvious manifestations of “explicit” Hermetism.
4B. German works:
The first German translation of the Pimander appeared in Hamburg, 1706, with a thorough hermetizing commentary by “Alethophilus” (probably W. von Metternich), under the title Erkänntnüsz der Natur and des sich darin offenbahrenden Crossen Gottes (reissued 1786, and Stuttgart, 1855).
Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum are present in a number of literary and/or philosophical works in Germany (like J. G. Herder's Aelteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts, 1774/ 1775 and his Adrastea, 1802), and in some Masonic rituals like the interesting “Magi of Memphis,” which is perhaps a French ritual.
Two important works contributed to making Alexandrian thought better known, presenting it in a more general historical context:
(a) Bibliotheca Graeca, by Johann Albert Fabricius (14 vols., Hamburg, 1705/1728); see particularly Lib. I, cap. vii-xii, vol. I, 1708. The whole series was reissued with additions and corrections in Hamburg (see vol. I, 1790).
(b) Historia critica Philosophiae, by J. Brucker, whose first and fourth volumes (Leipzig, 1 7 43) are entirely given to Hermetism and theosophy in the broad sense.
Johann Mosheim published at Jena, 1733, a Latin translation of works by Ralph Cudworth (Systema intellectuale hujus universi), with hermetizing commentaries.
Dieterich Tiedemann, Hermes Trismegisti Poemander (Berlin, 1781).
Gustav Parthey, Hermes Trismegisti Poemander (Berlin, 1854); also his Jamblichi “De Mysteriis” (Berlin, 1857).
B. J. Hilgers, De Hermetis Trismegisti Poimandro Commentatio (Bonn, 1855).
R. Pietschmann, Hermes Trismegistos, nach rgyptischen, griechischen und orientalischen Ueberlieferungen dargestellt (Leipzig, 1875).
New edition of Aletophilos's German translation of 1706, with a long introduction on Hermes Trismegistus and on the Emerald Tablet, by J. Scheible: Hermetis Trismegisti Einleitung ins hochste Wissen (Stutgart, 1855), in the esoteric series “Kleiner Wunderschauplatz der geheimen Wissenschaften, Mysterien, Theosophie…,” vol. I.
4C. Reawakening in England and the United States
“An Egyptian Testimony to the actual Observation of the Spiritual World. The Poemander of Hermes Trismegistus,” in The Superatural Magazine (Dublin), no. 3 (August 1809), pp.75-83. Everard's translation of the Pimander and the Key.
Publication of the Pimander in The Dial (a New England journal of spiritual leanings), vol. IV (1844).
The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus (Whittlesey: J. Green, n.d., but dated? 1850 by the British Library). Contains the 88 Sentences and Pimander, with “To the Reader” by J. F.
Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus; his Divine Pymander, ed. Paschal Beverly Randolph, with prefatory material by Flora S. Russel (Boston, Mass.: “Rosicrucian Publishing Co.,” 187l, reissued 1889).
From 1880 onwards, until at least the beginning of World War I, articles and works about Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum proliferated, principally in the journals more or less connected with the Theosophical Society, and secondarily in “Rosicrucian” publications:
The Theological and Philosophical Works of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian Neo-Platonist. Translation, preface, and annotations by John David Chambers (Edinburgh, 1882; reissued Ann Arbor, 1967, and New York, 1975).
Reissue of Everard's 1650 edition (London: Redway, 1884), with an Introduction by Hargrave Jennings.
Another reissue of Everard's translation in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. XX (1885-1886).
The Hermetic Works; the Virgin of the World of Hermes Mercuri us Trismegistus. Now first rendered into English with essay, introduction and notes by Anna Kingsford and E Maitland. (London: Redway, 1885; reissued Minneapolis, 1977).
The excerpts from Stobaeus (xii-xvii) entitled “The Teachings of Hermes to Ammon,” Corpus Hermeticum XVI and XVII, and the entirety of the Asclepius and of the Kore Kosmou were published in English in The Occult Magazine (Glasgow), during 1885 and 1886. The identity of the translator is not known, but the version of the Kore Kosmou differs from that of Kingsford and Maitland.
Reissue of Everard's 1650 edition, with an introduction by the editor (W. Wynn Westcott): The Pymander of Hermes, vol. II of the series “Collectanea Hermetica” (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1894).
5. Tradition and Erudition in the Twentieth Century
5A. Persistence of esoteric and hermeneutical exegesis:
Thrice Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis, with commentaries and notes by G. R. S. Mead, 3 vols. (London and Benares: Theosophical Society, 1906; reissued 1964). German version, Leipzig, 1909.
A. S. Raleigh, Philosophia Hermetica: A Course of Ten Lessons, Being an Introduction to the “Philosophy of Alchemy” (San Francisco: Hermetic Publishing Company, 1916).
____. The Shepherd of Men: An Official Commentary on the Sermon of Hermes Trismegistos (San Francisco: Hermetic Publishing Company, 1916).
“Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus: A Treatise Preliminary to the Study of Hermetic Philosophy,” by Fr. K. X °, Copyrighted by Societas Rosicruciana in America), Vol. V, May and June 1920 (Nr. 10-11).
The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus: An Endeavour to Systematize and Elucidate the Corpus Hermeticum. Commentary on the Corpus Hermeticum by the Editors of the Shrine of Wisdom (London, 1923 and various reissues).
Manly Palmer Hall, An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Philosophy (Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1928; reissued 1975, 1979), which contains developments on Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum.
The Gospel of Hermes, new English translation with commentaries by Duncan Greenless (Madras, Theosophical Society, 1949).
Gerard Van Moorsel, The Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistus, a phenomenologic study in the process of spiritualization in the Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius (Utrecht, 1955).
J. Rijckenborgh, De Egyptische oer-gnosis en haar roop in bet eeuwige n'u […] Aan de hand van de Tabula Smaragdina en bet Corpus Hermeticum (Haarlem, 1960-1965).
Lietaert M. Peerbolte, Poimandres, Grieks-hermetisch geschrift in bet Nederlands vertaald met een transpersonalistische beschouwing (Deventer: Ankh-Hermes bv, 1974).
Robert A. Segal, The Poimandres as Myth (Scholarly Theory and Gnostic Meaning) (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1986).
5B. The Corpus Hermeticum and academic study
Real academic study of the Corpus Hermeticum begins with Richard Reitzenstein, the first to undertake the study of these texts with full scientific rigor (Poimandres, Leipzig, 1904). But naturally one should not underestimate some of his predecessors, such as Casaubon, Tiedemann, Menard, Pietschmann, nor eveh Mead (see above for all of these). Esotericism at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century helped to stimulate erudite research into Hermetism. After Reizenstein, text-criticism and erudition are represented above all by Walter Scott and A. J. Festugière:
Hermetica: The ancient Greek and Latin writings which contain religious or philosophic teachings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, edited with English translation and notes by Walter Scott, 4 vols. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1924-1936; reissued Boston: Shambhala, 1983-1985). Vol. I (1924): Introduction, texts and translation; Vol. II (1925): Notes on the Corpus Hermeticum; Vol. III (1926): Notes on the Latin Asclepius and the Hermetic extracts of Stobaeus; Vol. I (1936): Testimonia, with introduction, addenda, and indices by A. S. Ferguson. This monumental work is far from being obsolete. Vol. IV, in particular, remains an unsurpassed study of the Testimonia (references to the Hermetica in non-Hermetic sources). A compendium of this edition was published in one volume with a foreword by A. G. Gilbert (Bath: Solos Press, 1992).
Poïmandres. Traités II-XVII (du Corpus Hermeticum). Asclepius. Fragments extraits de Stobée, texts established and translated by A. D. Nock and André-Jean Festugière, 4 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1954-1960).
A.-J. Festugiere, La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste, 4 vols. (Paris, 1949-1954; reissued by Les Belles Lettres, 1981).
A.-J. Festugière, Hermétisme etmystique païenne (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1967).
The above works of Father Festugière constitute the indispensable basis for scholars. Other studies have appeared, also bearing on the Hermetica properly so-called. There is no question here of listing all these scholarly works. For that, one can usefully consult the bibliography presented by A. G. Blanco, cited below, 6B. Let us cite, though, three important publications: Jean-Pierre Mahé, Hermès en haute-Egypte: Tome I, Les textes hermétiques de Nag Hammadi etleurs par allèles Crees et Latins; Tome II, Le Fragment du Discours parfait et les Définitions Hermétiques arméniennes (Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 1978/82). Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge University Press, 1986). Brian Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation with Notes and Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 1992).
The next section lists most of the significant studies of the reception of Alexandrian Hermetism.
6. Studies of the Reception of Alexandrian Hermetism
6A. Books
Françoise Bonardel, L'Hermétisme (Paris: P. U. F., 1985; Series “Que sais-je?”). A good introduction to Western esotericism in general, and to the Corpus Hermeticum in particular.
Douglas Brooks-Davies, The Mercurian Monarch: Magical Politics from Spencer to Pope (Manchester University Press, 1983).
Christ, Plato, Hermes Trismegistus. The Dawn of Printing. Catalogue of the Incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, 2 vols. Catalogued by Margaret Lane Ford, presented by M. L. Ford and Frans A. Janssen (Amsterdam: In de Pelikan, 1990); series “Texts and Studies published by the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica,” no. 1.
Brian P. Copenhaver, Symphorien Champier and the Reception of the Occultist Tradition in Renaissance France (The Hague: Mouton, 1978).
Eugenio Garin, Medioevo e Rinascimento, Bari, 1954.
____, La cultura filosofica del Rinascimento italiano, Florenee, 1961.
____, Ermetismo del Rinascimento, Rome: Editori Riuniti, Biblioteca minima, 1988.
Jeanne Ellen Harrie, Franrois Foix de Candale and the Hermetic Tradition in XVIth century France, Ph.D. diss., University of California, Riverside, 1975.
Hermes Trismegistus Pater Philosophorum (Tekstgeschiedenis van bet Corpus Hermeticum), Exhibition in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam, 1990. Presented by Joseph R. Ritman, Frans B. Janssen, and F. Van Lamoen.
Hermeticism in the Renaissance. Intellectual History and the Occult in early modern Europe, ed. Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus (Washington: Folger Books; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1988); Symposium held in March, 1982, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. See Section 6B, below, for most articles from this collective work.
Henry and Renée Kahane, The Kiater and the Grail. Hermetic sources of the Parzival (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965; Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, vol. LVI).
P. O. Kristeller, Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome, 1966).
Mercure à la Renaissance. Collective work presented by M. M. de La Garanderie. Proceedings of the Conference of Lille, 1984. (Paris: H. Hampion, 1988). For titles of some of the contributions relevant to our subject, see infra, 6B.
Claudio Moreschini, Dall'Asclepius al Crater Hermetis. Studi sull'ermetismo latino-tardo-antico e renascimentale (Pisa, 1985).
Luminita Irene Niculescu, “From Hermeticism to Hermeneutics: Alchemical Metaphors in Renaissance Literature,” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1981.
Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste, ed. Antoine Faivre (Paris: Albin Michel, 1988; collection “Cahiers de l'Hermetisme”) See Section 6B, below, for some articles from this collective work.
Gennaro Savarese, La cultura a Roma tra unaenesimo e ermetismo (1480-1540) (Rome: De Rubeis, 1993).
Robert Schuler, English Magical Poems (New York: Garland, 1979).
Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renissance: A Study in Intellectual Patterns (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. Reprint, 1979). See chapter Hermes Trismegistus, pp.201-251.
Mirko Sladek, Fragmente der hermetischen Philosophie in der Naturphilosophie der Neuzeit (Berne: Peter Lang, Publications universitaires européennes, 1984); French translation: L'Etoile d'Hermès (Paris: Albin Michel, 1992). On the Corpus Hermeticum and the forms it took with Giordano Bruno, Henry More, Thomas Vaughan, Goethe.
Testi umanistici su l'Ermetismo (Rome: Fratelli Boca, Archivio de Filosofia, 1955). Collective work, with very important articles on Lazarelli, Giorgi, Agrippa. See section 6B, below, under Brini, Vasoli, Zambelli.
Ernest Lee Tuveson, The Avatars of Thrice Great Hermes: An Approach to Romanticism (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1982). On the philosophy of the Corpus Hermeticum and the forms it took in the Romantic era, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries.
D. P. Walker, The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (London: Duckworth, 19 72).
____, Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (London: Warburg Institute, 1958; reissued 1969, 1975); French translation, La magie spirituelle et angelique, de Ficin à Campanella (Paris: Albin Michel, 1988).
Robert Westman and J. E. McGuire, Hermeticism and the Scientific Revolution (Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1977).
Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964). Although now disputed on several points, this book remains a masterpiece and an indispensable resource. French translation, Giordano Bruno et la tradition hermetique (Paris: Dervy, 1988).
6B. Articles (a selection, not an exhaustive list):
Michael Allen, “Marsile Ficin, Hermes et le Corpus Hermeticum,” in Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste (see 6A, above), pp.ll0-119.
Antonio Gonzalez Blanco, “Hermetism: A Bibliographical Approach,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neuren Forschung), vol. II (4. Teilband: Religion), ed. W. Haase (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1984), pp.2240-2281.
Mirella Brini, “Ludovico Lazarelli: Epistola Enoch, Dal Crater Hermetis, Vade Mecum,” in Testi umanistici (see 6A, above), pp.21-27.
Brian Copenhaver, “Hermes Trismegistus, Prod us, and the Problem of a Philosophy of Magic in the Renaissance,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp. 79-110.
Jean Dagens, “Le Commentaire du Pimandre de Foix de Candale,” in Mélanges d'histoire littéraire offerts à Daniel Mornet (Paris: Nizet, 1951), pp.21-26.
____, “Hermétisme et Cabale en France de Lefèvre d'Etaples à Bossuet,” in Revue de litterature comparée, no. 1 (1961), pp.S-16.
K. H. Dannenfeldt, Marie-Thèrése d’Alvemy, and Théodore Silverstein, “Hermetica Philosophica” and “Oracula Chaldaica,” in Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries. Annotated lists and guides, ed. Paul Oskar Kristeller, Vols. 1-2 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1960). This catalogue is an indispensable research tool.
B. J. T. Dobbs, “Newton's Commentary on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus: Its Scientific and Theological Significance,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp. 182-191.
Harrie Jeanne Ellen, “Duplessis-Momay, Foix de Candale and the Hermetic Religion of the World,” in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 31 (1978), pp.499-514.
Antoine Faivre, “Hermetism,” in Mircea Eliade, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1987), vol. VI, pp.293-302. General panorama of the reception of Alexandrian Hermetism in Europe.
David R. Fideler, “The Path Toward the Grail: The Hermetic Sources and Structure of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival,” in Alexandria: The Journal of the Western Cosmological Traditions 1 (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1991), pp. 187-227.
Gianfranco Formichetti, “Ermete Trismegisto nelle opere di Tommaso Campanella,” in La città dei segreti: Magia, astrologia e cultura esoterica a Roma (XV-XVIII sec), ed. Fabio Torelli. Milan: Franco Angeli Libri, 1985); Symposium “Roma Ermetica,” Rome, October, 1983.
Eugenio Garin, “Nota sull'ermetismo,” in La Cultura Philosophica del Rinascimento Italiano (Florence: Sansoni, 1961), pp. 143-165.
J. S. Gill, “How Hermes Trismegistus was introduced to Renaissance England: the influences of Caxton and Ficino's Argumentum on Baldwin and Palfreyman,” in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, val. 47 (1984), pp.222-225.
Anthony Thomas Grafton, “Protestant versus Prophet: Isaac Casaubon on Hermes Trismegistus,” in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, val. 46 (1983), pp.78-93.
Moshe Idel, “Hermeticism and Judaism,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp.S9-76.
Frans A. Janssen, “Dutch Translations of the Corpus Hermeticum,” in Theatmm orbis libromm (Liber amicorum Nico Israel) (Utrecht, 1989}, pp. 230-241.
Karin Johannison, “Magic, Science, and Institutionalization in the 17th and 18th centuries,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp. 151-162.
Henry and Renee Kahane, “Hermetism in the Alfonsine Tradition,” in Melanges offerts a Rita Lejeune (Gembloux: Editions J. Duculot, 1969), vol. I, pp.443-457.
Paul Oskar Kristeller, “Lodovico Lazarelli e Giovanni da Corregio: due ermetici del Quattrocento. Manoscritto IT.D.I.4. della Biblioteca Communal e degli Ardenti della Citta di Viterbo,” in Studi e Richerche nel 1500 della fondazione Viterbe (Agnesotti, 1961), pp.3-25.
____, “Marsilio Ficino e Lodovico Lazarelli. Contributo alia diffusione delle idee ermetiche nel Rinascimento,” in Annali della R. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Lettere, Storia e Filosofia) (Bologna: N. Zanichelli, 1938), series II, vol. VII, pp.237-262.
Pierre Lory, “Hermes/Idris, prophète et sage de la tradition islamique,” in Présence d'Hermes Trismègiste (see 6A, above) pp. l00-109.
Jean-Françoise Maillard, “Hermès théologien et philosophe,” in Mercure à la Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp. 11-14.
____, “Mercure alchimiste dans la tradition mytho-hermétique,” in ibid., pp. 117-130.
Isabelle Pantin, “Les commentaires de Lefevre d'Etaples au Corpus Hermeticum,” in Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste (see 6A, above) pp. 167-183).
Martin Flessner, “Hermes Trismegistus and Arab Science,” in Studia Islamica, vol. II (1954L pp.45-59.
F. Purnell, “Hermes and the Sybil: A Note on Ficino's Pimander,” in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 30 (1977L pp.305-310.
____, “Francesco Patrizi and the Critics of Hermes Trismegistus,” in Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 6 (1976), pp. 155-178.
Julius Ruska, “Studien zu Muhammad Ibn Umail,” in Isis. Quarterly Organ of the History of Science Society, vol. XXIV/I (Dec. 1935), pp.310-342.
Charles B. Schmitt, “Perennial Philosophy: From Agostino Steuco to Leibniz,” in Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 27 (Jan.-March 1966), pp.SOS-532.
____, “Prisca Theologia e Philosophia perennis: due temi del Rinascimento italiano e la loro fortuna,” in Atti del V Convegno internazionale del Centro di Studi Umanistici: 1 pensiero italiano del Rinascimento e il tempo nostro (Florence: Olschki, 1970L pp.211-236.
Wayne Shumaker, “Literary Hermeticism: Some Test Cases,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp.293-301.
Théodore Silverstein, “Liber Hermetis Mercurii Triplicis de VI Rerum Principiis,” in Archives d'histoire doctrinale et litteraire du Moyen Age (Paris: Vrin, 1956), yr. 1955, pp.217-302.
____, “The Fabulous Cosmogony of Bernardus Silvester,” in Modern Philology XLVI (1948), pp.92-116.
Mirko Sladek, “Mercurius Triplex, Mercuri us Termaximus et les ‘trois Hermès’,” in Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste (see 6A, above), pp.88-99.
Loris Sturlese, “Saints et Magiciens: Albert le Grand en face d'Hermès Trismégiste,” in Archives de philosophie, vol. 43 (1980), pp.615-634.
Robert Jan Van Pelt, “The Utopian Exit of the Hermetic Temple: or a Curious Transition in the Tradition of the Cosmic Sanctuary,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp.400-423.
Cesare Vasoli, “Ermetismo e cabala nel tardo Rinascimento e nel primo ‘600,” in La città dei segreti (see above, under Formichetti), pp. 103-108.
____, “Francesco Giorgio Veneto,” in Testi umanistici (see 6A, above), pp. 79-104.
____, “Temi e fonti della tradizione ermetica in uno scritto di Symphorien Champier,” in Umanesimo e esoterismo, a collective work edited by Enrico Castelli (Padova: Cedam, 1960), pp.235-289.
____, “Mercure dans la tradition ficinienne,” in Mercure à la Renaissance (see 6A above), pp.27-43.
____, “L'Hermétisme à Venise, de Giorgio à Patrizi,” in Présence d'Hermès Trismégiste (see 6A, above), pp. 120-152.
____, “L'Hermétisme dans l'Oraculum de Giovanni Nesi,” in Presence d'Hermès Trismégiste (see 6A, above), pp.153-156.
Frances A. Yates, “The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science,” in Art, Science and History in the Renaissance (Baltimore: C. S. Singleton, 1968), pp. 155-274.
Paola Zambelli, “Cornelius Agrippa di Nettesheim,” in Testi umanistici (see 6A, above), pp.105-162.
____, “Scholastic and Humanist Views of Hermeticism and Witchcraft,” in Hermeticism in the Renaissance (see 6A, above), pp. l25-153.
* The first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum is entitled Pimander, or Poimandres, which is why this title replaces “Corpus Hermeticum” in many editions.