ERMETICI, LIBRI. — These writings, which are probably either summaries of lectures 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 assigned to the 3rd century A.D.
The H. B. are divided into four groups. The first group is constituted by the Corpus hermeticum, or Ποιμάνδρης (from the title of its first fragment, meaning “shepherd of men”), containing 17 books. The manuscripts derive from a mutilated copy whose preservation was due to Michael Psellus, who commented on the book in Constantinople in the 11th century. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, a manuscript was placed in safety by Cosimo de’ Medici; the collection was translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino in 1463 (the translation was published in 1471). The Greek text was published by Adriano Turnèbe in 1554; twenty years later, the edition of Francesco Foix followed. The edition of Patricius (1591) essentially 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 (formerly listed among the works of Apuleius), a translation from a Greek original composed around A.D. 200, known to Lactantius and others, with references to the divine destiny of man, matter, and the devil. The third group consists of the Hermetic excerpts in the Anthology of Stobaeus (42 short chapters, about one quarter of which is drawn from the Greek Asclepius and from the Corpus hermeticum). The fourth group comprises the extensive Hermetic quotations found among the works of the Greek alchemists and includes the testimonies concerning the H. B. given by Lactantius and Cyril of Alexandria.
The Liber Hermetis should also be recalled: a Latin translation of a Greek original from the Alexandrian period, dating from the 3rd century A.D., but copied many times thereafter. It was discovered by W. Gundel in the ms. Harleianus 3731, which dates from 1431. The Liber Hermetis deals particularly with astrology.
Herrini, Die Hermes-Mystik and das H. T., Leipzig 1918; W. Scott, Hermetus, 3 vols., Oxford 1924–26, edition with an English translation and introduction; F. Bruminger, Untersuchungen über die Schriften der H. T., Grifchenhülsen 1926; W. Gundel, Neue astrologische Texte der H. T., in Abhand. Bayer. Abed. der Wiss., new series, 12 (Alonso 1926); P. Cumont, L'Espit de astrologues, Brunello 1937, pp. 151–62; A. J. Pettagiere, La révolution d'Hermès Trimièster, I, Paris 1944; II, ibid. 1949. Giuliano Gennaro