Concept
Corpus Hermeticum
Overview
The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of 17 Greek writings whose authorship is traditionally attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The treatises were originally written c. 100 – c. 300 CE, but the collection as known today was first compiled by medieval Byzantine editors. It was translated into Latin in the 15th century by the Italian humanist scholars Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500).
Although the Latin word corpus is usually reserved for the entire body of extant writings related to some author or subject, the Corpus Hermeticum contains only a very small selection of extant Hermetic texts (texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, commonly known as Hermetica). Its individual treatises were quoted by many authors from the second and third centuries on, but the compilation as such is first attested only in the writings of the Byzantine philosopher Michael Psellos (c. 1017–1078).
Following their translation into Latin by Ficino and Lazzarelli, the Corpus Hermeticum greatly influenced the Western esoteric tradition. It was especially considered to be important during the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, in which Hermeticism would often function as a type of intermediate position between Christianity and paganism. Hermes's perceived antiquity ensured that any writing attributed to him would take an important place in Ficino's doctrine of the prisca theologia ('ancient theology'), which affirms that a single, true theology exists that is present in all religions and that was given by God to humankind in the distant, primeval past.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
And when we have perfected the classification of things, we shall give them names, and see whether, as in the case of letters, there are any classes to which they may be all referred (cf. Phaedrus); and hence we shall see their natures, and see, too, whether they have in them classes as there are in the letters; and when we have well considered all this, we shall know how to apply them to what they resemble—whether…
Plato, Cratylus
States what Corpus Hermeticum is; the author is tied to Corpus Hermeticum in the knowledge graph.
SOCRATES: At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that…
Plato, Phaedrus
States what Corpus Hermeticum is; the author is tied to Corpus Hermeticum in the knowledge graph.
Plotinos carried out his agreement. Herennius was the first one to break it, and Origen followed his example. The latter limited himself to writing a book entitled, "Of Daemons;" and, under the reign of Gallienus, he wrote another one to prove that "The Emperor alone is the Only Poet" (if the book was a flattery; which is not likely. Therefore it probably meant: "The King (of the universe, that is, the divine…
Plotinus, Plotinos
Close in meaning to Corpus Hermeticum; the term itself is not named.
Related ideas
- Florence
- Giordano Bruno
- Michael Psellos
- Ancient Greek
- Robert Fludd
- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
- Byzantine Empire
- Latin
- Hermeticism
- Hermetica
- Marsilio Ficino
- Nag Hammadi library
- Cosimo de' Medici
- Plato
- Classical antiquity
- Renaissance
- Renaissance humanism
- Italian Renaissance
- Koine Greek
- Nous
- Reformation
- Hellenistic period
- Western esotericism
- Hermes Trismegistus
Place in the tradition
Part of Perennial philosophy.