Foreword
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Welcome to the website Corpus Hermeticum.
Hermetism is not an institutionalized religion and it does not intend to be. This movement grew in a cosmopolitan, diversified and globalized environment, making part of a religious-philosophical eclectic system. In terms of adhesion to an institutionalized religion, Hermetism never conformed to any. In this sense, it, institutionally, is out of the frontiers of worships, hierarchies and religious dogmas. Its philosophical mystic is similar to philosophical Taoism Daojia that can be found in the Tao Teh Ching (Daodejing); and it can be likened to the religious-philosophical systems of the Bhakti-Yoga and of the Jñāna-Yoga of the Sanātana-Dharma (Hinduism) that are described in the Bhagavad-Gītā. Hermetism is a mystic devocional alternative (eusebeia). In general, the roots of the Hermetism are in the Eclectic Graeco-Egyptian World, whose writings, in their large majority, were produced during the period of Roman domination.
When the Christianity became an official religion, all the non-Christian devotions and religions were widely pursued, destroyed or banished out of the domains of the Christianity. The Hermetic writings solely could be preserved because of the Muslims and Sabians of Harran (Harran was located between the countries that, at present, correspond to Turkey and Iraq). Other texts were compiled by Christians and non-Christians who saw in Hermetism an inspiring fountain. Among others, one may mention Lactantius and Stobaeus.
The Sabians of Harran took the Hermetic Literature as sacred texts, whose prophet was Hermes Trismegistos, identified in Islam with Idris (Al Koran 19.57 and 21.85). In the medieval period, in the West, Hermetism was also followed as alternative devout practices to Christianity, but without any contact with the Greek Hermetic Texts. In the century XI, the orthodox Christian monk of Constantinople, called Michael Psellos, had access to the Hermetic Writings in Greek. The relative approximation between the regions of Harran and Constantinople facilitated this access. Psellos headed the Revival Movement of Hermetism in Constantinople. Subsequently, with the fall of Constantinople (in 1453), several orthodox monks escaped and took manuscripts with themselves.
The fall of Constantinople coincides with the Renaissance in Europe. And it is not by chance that several monks, philosophers and Byzantine teachers acted in Italy, mainly in Florence, for example, Emmanuel Chrysoloras and Ioannis Argiropoulos (Giovanni Argiropulo), who re-introduced the study of the Greek and of the classic philosophy in the West. Therefore, there was a search for the Greek manuscripts in this period. In the Renaissance, Leonardo Di Pistoia was undertaken by Cósimo de’ Médici to collect manuscripts. Di Pistoia found, in Macedonia, a Greek manuscript of that which, later, would be called Corpus Hermeticum. When he arrived in Florence, he handed over the manuscript to Cósimo de’ Médici, who, in his turn, asked Marsilius Ficinus to translate that manuscript into Latin. Ficinus ended the translation in 1463 and published the first Latin publication of Corpus Hermeticum in 1471. Corpus Hermeticum was the first Greek text translated into the Latin by Ficinus. Cósimo and Ficinus emphasized the sanctity of these writings. Later, in 1554, the French catholic philologist Adrianus Turnebus, published the editio princeps of Greek Corpus Hermeticum.
The Hermetismo influenced humanist and Renaissance thinkers, artists and writers, among them, Marsilius Ficinus, Cósimo de' Médici, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Reuchlin, Giordano Bruno, Adrien Turnèbe (Adrianus Turnebus), François of Foix-Candale (Franciscus Flussas), Franjo Petrić (Franciscus Patricius or Francesco Patrizi da Cherso), and others.
The aim of this website is to be:
a) A way to understand the Hermetic Movement and its main doctrines.
b) A vehicle of spread of the Study of the Hermetic Conscience.
c) An Electronic Polygraph, treating gradually several subjects on Corpus Hermeticum and on Hermetism.
The first purpose is to understand the importance of this survey object in the History of the Religions, History of Philosophy, Theology, Semiotics etc. And, to this, it is necessary to know about the matters and issues that are raised in the study of the Hermetic Literature, such as dates, subjects, doctrines etc. Moreover, it would be of the great importance to present the scholars that worked and work with this survey object, and to analyse their methodologies.
Some articles and texts are available at the right column within fit themes, as Ethics, Demonology, Anthrpology etc. They are also listed on the Downloads page. The majority of these texts are downloadable. The most convenient method of contact is to send some message by the Contacts page. You can also comment about this site on the Guestbooks page.
This site is under construction.
