HERMETIC WRITINGS. - These writings, which are probably either summaries of readings or of conversations held in restricted philosophical circles, take their name from the Greek Hermes Trismegistus (thrice greatest), considered the source of all thought and knowledge. They are writings belonging to late Hellenism and, according to Scott, can almost all be placed in the 3rd century A.D.

The Hermetic books are divided into four groups. The first group consists of the Corpus hermeticum or Poimandres (from the title of its first fragment, which means "the shepherd of men"), containing 17 treatises. The manuscripts derive from a mutilated copy, which owes its preservation to Michael Psellus, who commented on the book in Constantinople in the 11th century. After the capture of Constantinople, in 1453 a manuscript was placed in safekeeping by Cosimo de' Medici; and the collection was translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino in 1463 (the translation was published in 1471). The Greek text was published by Adrien Turnèbe in 1554; 20 years later the edition of François Foix followed. The edition of Patricius (1591) substantially provided the text for that of Parthey (1854). The most recent edition is that of W. Scott (Hermetica, Oxford 1924-26).

The second group contains the Latin Asclepius (already numbered among the works of Apuleius), a translation from a Greek original composed around 200 A.D., known to Lactantius and to others, with references to the divine destiny of man, to matter, and to the devil. The third group is formed by the Hermetic extracts from the Anthology of Stobaeus (42 short chapters, about a quarter of which are taken from the Greek Asclepius and from the Corpus hermeticum). The fourth group reports the extensive Hermetic citations found among the works of the Greek alchemists and lists the testimonies that Lactantius and Cyril of Alexandria give concerning the Hermetic books.

Mention should also be made of the Liber Hermetis, a Latin translation of a Greek original from the Alexandrian period, dating back to the 3rd century A.D., but repeatedly interpolated afterward. It was discovered by W. Gundel in the manuscript Harleianus 3731, which goes back to 1431. The Liber Hermetis refers particularly to astrology.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: L. Ménard, Etude sur l'origine des livres hermétiques, Paris 1866, introduction to his French version of the Hermetic writings; R. Reitzenstein, Poimandres, Leipzig 1904; J. Kroll, Die Lehren des H. T., Leipzig-Münster 1914, 2nd ed., 1928; G. Meier, Die Hermes-Mystik and das H. T., Leipzig 1918; W. Scott, Hermetica, 3 vols., Oxford 1924-26, ed. with English version and introduction; F. Bräuninger, Untersuchungen über die Schriften der H. T., Griesenbach 1926; W. Gundel, Neue astrologische Texte der H. T., in Abhand. Bayer. Akad. der Wiss., new series, 12 (Munich 1926); F. Cumont, L'Egypte des astrologues, Brussels 1937, pp. 151-62; A. J. Festugière, La révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste, I, Paris 1944; II, ibid. 1949.

Giuliano Gennaro

@incollection{ec5_ermetici_libri, author = {Gennaro, Giuliano}, title = {Ermetici, libri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {508--509}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ermetici-libri} }

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Hermetic Writings

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