HERMES TRISMEGESTUS.

Corpus Hermeticum [i.e. De Potestate et Sapientia Dei].

      Geradrus de Lisa, de Flandria 18 December 1471, Treviso First edition. Octavo (8 x 5 inches). [56] leaves. [A-G8]. With 4-line initial in red on A2r, with a small initial and a paragraph mark also in red.Early 19th century straight-grain blue morocco, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Quarter blue morocco clamshell case with gilt spine lettering. One of the hand-colored initial with a bit of bleeding but otherwise a beautiful copy of this vastly important title. Very rare first edition of what may be considered the premier work of ÒThe Perennial Philosophy,Ó reintroduced to Europe after an absence of over a thousand years, presenting the wisdom of the ancients to the growing consciousness of the Renaissance. The Corpus Hermeticum, a core book of any collection of philosophy, metaphysics, Renaissance thought, alchemy or magic, embodies a later form of Platonism, mixed with Gnostic, Hebraic, Mithraic, and ancient Egyptian traditions. When this edition was printed for the first time in the 15th century, it was believed to have been written by the philosopher king and priest of ancient Egypt Thoth (Hermes in Greek), god of wisdom and patron of astrology a and alchemy. The intellectuals of the Renaissance deemed the Corpus to be the Òprimordial fount of Wisdom,Ó and the specific source on which Platonic philosophy was based. The specific text is a series of short dialogues written around 300 A.D. It was cited by St. Augustine, then lost for a millennium during the darkness of the middle ages. Rediscovered in 1461, the manuscript was purchased by Cosimo de Medici, who ordered its translation by Ficino. It was the first published work by Ficino, the great Renaissance translator of Plato and Plotinus, and superseded his work on the actual texts of Plato. Furthermore, it appears to be the first lost work of antiquity to be printed. The Corpus had profound influence on Renaissance thought, and was widely disseminated, being printed more than twenty times before 1600. Standing in marked contrast to Christian Scholasticism, the work quickly found favor with the humanist mainstream. The study of the Corpus was recommended by Patrizzi to Pope Gregory XIV as containing "more philosophy than all the works of Aristotle taken together". Casaubon realised that it was of a later date, putting it around the first to second century CE. He thought that the treatment of subjects also found in early Christian literature meant an influence there from, but instead there was a similarity of thought in Christian and Pagan Platonists of that time. The unfortunate result of Casaubon's scholarship was that, shorn of the esteem due to ancient texts, the early C.E. Corpus largely fell from consideration. In the early part of the twentieth century the Corpus again came to prominence with Reitzenstein's Poimandres and G.R.S. Mead's translation and sympathetic study. Even Flinders Petrie contributed a theory on the dating of the collection, although his suggestion that the period between 500 and 200 B.C.E. as likely was not taken seriously. Scott made the important point that the texts do not represent a joint body of doctrine but only "a certain general similarity". They treat of many religious and philosophical topics, with even a cursory reading confirming Scott's observation.More visibly, and perhaps more significantly to todayÕs scholars, the Corpus Hermeticum gave birth to a new age of alternative spirituality, leading to both Platonicized interpretations of Christianity and Christian study of the Kabbalah, and further stimulating wide interest in Òspiritual magicÓ (i.e. theurgy) and alchemy. The Corpus Hermeticum is very rare in private hands, and indeed the 1471 first edition is missing from many institutional collections. Goff H-77