52 Hermes Trismegistus. Il Pimandro, tradotto da Tommaso Benci in lingua Fiorentina.
Florence, [Lorenzo Torrentino] 1549
(Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Andersonian Library, James Young collection)

Another edition, with corrections, of no 51.

53 Hermes Trismegistus. De la puissance et sapience de Dieu. Item de la volonté divine. Avecq'un Dialogue de Loys Lazarel poëte Chrestien intitulé le Bassin d'Hermes, le tout traduit de latin en françoys par M. Gabriel du Preau.
Paris, Estienne Groulleau 1549

First French translation after an edition of Lefèvre d'Etaples, consisting of CH I-XIV (based on the Latin of Ficino), Asclepius and Lazarelli's Crater Hermetis by the theologian Gabriel du Préau (1511-1588). Du Préau was a fervent opponent of the Reformation. He wrote amongst others De vitis, sectis et dogmatibus omnium haereticorum (1569).

After a dedication to Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, in fact an extended version of Ficino's Argumentum, the translator addresses the reader. He proves to be very much aware of the text-historical problems surrounding the Corpus Hermeticum. He says he was not able to find Greek 'models', that is to say manuscripts, to compare them with the Latin printed editions. 'Car les latins sont si fort corrumpuz et si vicieusement imprimez qu'il y a presques autant de fautes que de bon motz' [As the Latin editions are so corrupted and so badly printed that there are about as many errors as there are correct words]. He draws the reader's attention to the fact that the text has not survived intact. The beginning of the second discourse, for instance, is lacking. Du Préau used three different editions, printed in Venice, Paris and Basel, 'lesquelz en maints lieux se contrarient' [which in many instances contradict each other]. Likely candidates are: a Venice edition of Ficino's translation (1481, 1491 or 1493) [nos 19, 20 and 21], a Paris or Venice edition of Lefèvre d'Etaples, containing the Corpus Hermeticum as well the Asclepius and Crater Hermetis (1505, 1517?, or 1522) [nos 24, 26 and 27] and the edition of the Corpus Hermeticum together with the Asclepius, also edited by Lefèvre d'Etaples, Basel 1532 [no 28]. The latter's comments on the hermetic discourses complete Du Préau's translation.


54 Hermes Trismegistus. Deux livres [...] l'un de la puissance et sapience de Dieu. L'autre de la volonté de Dieu. Avecq'un Dialogue de Loys Lazarel, poëte Chrestien intitulé le Bassin d'Hermes. Le tout traduit de Grec en francoys par Gabriel du Preau.
Paris, Estienne Groulleau 1557
(Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale)

Another edition of no 53. 'Le tout traduit de Grec'[entirely translated from the Greek] can only apply to the translation of CH I-XIV. The first edition of the Greek text which Du Préau at that time had looked for in vain had appeared in 1554 [no 43].


55 Hermes Trismegistus. Le Pimandre nouvellement traduict de l'exemplaire grec restitue en langue francoyse par F. de Foyx.
Bordeaux, Simon de Millanges 1574
(Cambridge, St John's College Library)

French translation after the corrected Turnebus edition of Foix de Candale [no 44]. This provided the basis for the unpublished Dutch translation in the Plantin manuscript [no 10].


56 Hermes Trismegistus. Le Pimandre. Traduit par François Foix de Candalle.
Bordeaux, Simon de Millanges 1579

Revised French translation of Foix de Candale, with extensive explanations for each paragraph provided by the translator. In his Preface Foix writes that he had already completed his commentary in 1572, but encountered various problems during the period of crisis following Bartholomew's night (24 August 1572).

This delay allowed him to revise the translation in the light of the Hermetic fragments from Stobaeus' Eclogae, the first Greek edition of which had appeared with a Latin translation in 1575 [no 16]. Here he found fragments which enabled him to supplement and emend his Greek text and French translation respectively:

Entres autres avons remis tant au Grec, Latin, que Francois le commencement du second chapitre, auquel deffailloit la section, qui est maintenant comptée premiere, et par laquelle le sens, qui a deffailly aux textes publiez, est restitué.

Amongst others we have replaced the beginning of the second chapter in the Greek, Latin and French, which lacked the section which is now counted first, and by means of which the sense is restored which was absent from the texts which had been published earlier.

Fragment 1.18.2 from the Eclogae of Stobaeus also forms the beginning of the second discourse in the critical edition of A.D. Nock and A.J. Festugière (CH II, 1-4).

Foix's elaborate commentary stands in direct relation to the religious crisis of his age. It is an apology for humanism and 'natural theology', the foundations of which were laid by Hermes Trismegistus. Foix can find all Christian c.q. Catholic teachings in the Corpus Hermeticum. In an unpublished manuscript he even defends the doctrine of the transsubstantiation with an appeal to Hermes Trismegistus.

Ref. Dagens; Harrie.


57 Hermes Trismegistus. Le Pimandre de Mercure Trismegiste, de la philosophie chrestienne, cognoissance du verbe divin, et de l'excellence des oeuvres de Dieu. Traduit de l'exemplaire Grec, avec collation de tres amples commentaires par Francois Monsieur de Foix, de la famille de Candalle [...].
Paris, Abel l'Anglier 1587

Another edition of the French translation of Foix de Candale from 1579 [no 56], hitherto unknown in the hermetic bibliography. Foix' coat of arms on the title-page was replaced by a vignette of Abel l'Anglier. A copy of this edition was part of the library of Stanislas de Guaita (1860-1898), a French esotericist who in 1888 founded the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix together with Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918). The library was auctioned in 1899. Copies of this edition could not be traced.

Ref. De Guaita, no 1612; Graesse III, 250

58 Sebastian Franck. Die gulden arcke
[Emden, Willem Gaillard?] 1560

Dutch translation of Die guldin Arch (1538) [no 65] of Sebastian Franck (1499-1542), which includes a paraphrase of the first discourse from the Corpus Hermeticum. Franck translates from the Latin of Ficino and so provides the first summary of the Poimandres in German. With the translation of Franck's work this important hermetic treatise appears in the Dutch language 47 years before the first integral translation of the Corpus Hermeticum [no 59].

Franck reports about Hermes Trismegistus that 'this old enlightened Philosopher, King and Priest, a miracle amongst Egyptians, flourished in the days of Abraham' and calls him the 'Egyptian Moses'. He knows the passages about Hermes in the Church Fathers Augustine and Lactantius and the Latin Asclepius, which according to him is translated by Apuleius 'the Platonic Philosopher'. About the Corpus Hermeticum he writes, 'I marvelled when I read Pymander, and have not found its equal either in Plato, or in any other Philosopher. He contains all that a Christian needs to know'.

Franck's work, which combines Reformation, humanist and spiritualist tendencies, was of great influence on the composition of Michiel Vinke's Zilvere Arke (1723) [no 62], which was read in Pietist circles in East Frisia.

Ref. Lindeboom


59 Wonder-vondt van de eeuwighe bewegingh, die den Alckmaersche Philosooph Cornelis Drebbel, door een eeuwigh bewegende gheest, in een Cloot besloten, te weghe ghebrocht heeft [...] Ooc mede by gevoeght een Boeck Pymander, beschreven van Mercurius driemael de grootste, die oock een Philosooph en Priester, en Coningh soude in Egypten gheweest hebben, in de tijdt van Moses.
Alkmaar, Jacob de Meester for Gerrit Pieters [Schagen] 1607
(Leiden, University Library, Bibliotheca Thysiana)

The first part of this work concerns the famous 'perpetuum mobile' of Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), an Alkmaar-born engraver, technician and alchemist. In 1607 he was connected with the court of James I (1566-1625) of England, where he demonstrated his 'perpetual movement' with resounding success in December of the same year. In the Dedication to his patron, Drebbel describes the religious dimension of his research:

[...] as God like a Father of Nature, uses a natural wisdom in all his work, so my heart is filled with multiple joy and resolved to investigate the cause of the Primum mobile, considering this to be the first principle of God's work, and therefore an entrance to the true knowledge of Nature.

The idea of the cosmos as an expression of God's creativity is not alien to hermetic philosophy: the Maker can be known from what he has made; knowledge of nature leads to knowledge of God.

The larger part of the present work consists of a Dutch translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, made on the basis of the Italian translation by Tommaso Benci (1548, reprinted 1549) [nos 51 and 52]. The translation is by Gerrit Pieters Schagen (1573-1616), a bookbinder from Alkmaar, who taught himself some ten languages, occupied himself amongst others with astronomy and alchemy, and allegedly also sympathized with the Rosicrucians.

The translation is preceded by the loci in Calcidius (=Altividius) and Raziel [cf no 5]. The prefaces by Lenzoni, Benci and Ficino included in the Italian edition are omitted in the Dutch version. Some three discourses have been turned into songs: CH III, 'Dat heylighe Sermoen van Mercurio' [The holy sermon of Mercurius], to the melody of 'Het daghet uyt den Oosten' [Morning has broken in the East]; CH VII, 'Dat het meeste quaet van de Menschen is, Godt niet te kennen' [That man's greatest evil is ignorance of God], to the melody of 'Dat ickse nu moet laten' [That I have to leave her now]; and the hymn at the end of CH XIII:

Hier volght den Hymnus, ofte Lofsangh van Hermes, ofte Mercurius Trimegistus [sic], Op de wijse van die gratias: O Heer wy dancken dijner goedt. Uut den Italiaenschen verduytscht.

[Here follows the Hymn, or Praise of Hermes, or Mercurius Trismegistus, to the melody of the song of grace: O Lord we thank thee for thy bounty. Translated into Dutch from the Italian.]

Schagen follows Benci, who regards this as an autonomous discourse and who calls the hymn 'Dat XIIII. Sermoen' [The XIIII Sermon], thus arriving at a total of fifteen discourses.
For another hermetic text in the form of a song, see Michiel Vinke's Zilvere Arke [nos 11 and 62].

This is the only known copy of this edition.

Ref. Snelders

60 Hermes Trismegistus. Sesthien boecken [...] Met groote naarstigheyt, uyt het Grieckx ghebracht in ons Neder-duytsch [...] Met eene schoone Voor-rede, uyt het Latijn van Franciscus Patricius.
Amsterdam, Nicolaes van Ravesteyn voor Ysbrant Rieuwertsz [la Burgh] 1643

Dutch translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, made after the Greek-Latin edition in Patrizi's Nova de universis philosophia (1591, 1593) [nos 47 and 48].

The translator, Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland (1586/7-1648) was for the Dutch Republic the great motivating force behind the dissemination of the work of the German mystic Jacob Böhme (1575-1614), whose texts he collected in autographs and manuscript copies, and whom he also translated himself. As a result, Van Beyerland's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum carries an unmistakable Boehmist stamp. It is riddled with Germanisms and in his marginal notes the translator repeatedly points to parallels in Böhme's work, especially in his Mysterium magnum (1623, printed 1640), the great commentary on Genesis and Vierzig Fragen von der Seele (first edition in 1620; Dutch translation in 1642).

Van Beyerland translated after Patrizi's edition, aided by 'eenighe wel-ervarene in de Griecksche taal' [a number of persons well versed in the Greek language], and compared the text which he was working from with the Latin of Ficino. He corresponded with the great Böhme adept Abraham von Franckenberg (1593-1652), who, using Patrizi's edition, frequently referred in his work to Hermes Trismegistus. (Cf Via veterum sapientum (from 1675, conclusion dated 1637); and Conclusiones de fundamento sapientiae, 1646). It is not unthinkable that Franckenberg put van Beyerland on Patrizi's track.

Van Beyerland adopted Patrizi's erudite preface and in his turn also reviewed the order of the hermetic discourses. He translated in fact Ficino's fourteen discourses, plus two discourses composed of Stobaeus fragments. The order van Beyerland adopted is as follows: CH I, XI, VII and III, followed by Patrizi's Liber I: De pietate et philosophia, in translation: Van God-saligheydt; en Liefde tot de Wijsheydt [Of blessedness; and Love of Wisdom] (Stobaeus 1.41.1). Next CH II, IV, V, VIII, VI, IX, X, XII, XIII and XIV, with at the end the translation of Patrizi's Liber XIV, De anima, which is composed of some seven fragments derived from Stobaeus' anthology (1.41.4; 1.41.7; 1.49.3-6; 2.8.31).

In his epilogue van Beyerland complains about the imperfection of the Latin editions and considers Patrizi's edition to be the best, as did Pierre Poiret in his Bibliotheca mysticorum selecta of 1708. Van Beyerland writes:

The reason for this labour also lies in the fact, that we were unable to find a Latin translation which expresses the author's meaning in a satisfactory and clear way. The best of these is that of Franciscus Patricius, although it does not resemble the Greek in many places (without regarding what the author meant to say). Also, one finds many printing or copying errors; even in the Greek. Also it would seem more than likely in many places that the Greek has been translated from another language (I think from the Egyptian); as the author's meaning flows more easily in one place than in another.

Van Beyerland also explains in his epilogue the reason for publishing his translation. He wished to combat atheism, in the spirit of Philippe de Mornay (1549-1623) (more or less the protestant counterpart of Patrizi), whose work, De la verité de la religion chrestienne (1581), he quotes with approval.

Ref. Bruckner 1968; Bruckner no 1971, no 427; Van Lieburg


61 Hermes Trismegistus. Sesthien boecken.
Amsterdam, Pieter la Burgh 1652

Another edition of van Beyerland's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum [no 60]


62 Michiel Vinke. De Zilvere Arke, Bestaande In Geestelyke Gezangen, Stichtelyke Rymen en Historie-Liederen; Met Aantekeningen Op Dezelve Gepast. Uit Verscheide Autheuren tot stichtinge byeen gebragt. In Drie deelen.
Haarlem, Izaäk Enschedé 1723
(Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Library)

See no 11. Further research will have to prove whether this edition is based on one of the two manuscripts by Vinke discussed under 11.

The composition of the voluminous library of the printer and publisher Izaäk Enschedé (1681-1761) reveals a great interest in mysticism and hermeticism. In 1721 he published a Dutch translation of the Tabula smaragdina [no 71] and in 1728 he played a vital role in preventing the dispersal of the Böhme manuscripts from the van Beyerland collection [cf no 60].

Ref. Catalogue 1867

63 Hermes Trismegistus. The divine Pymander. In XVII. Books. Translated formerly out of the Arabick into Greek, and thence into Latine, and Dutch, and now out of the Original into English; By that Learned Divine Doctor Everard.
London, Thomas Brewster and Gregory Moule 1650

Little more is known about the theologian John Everard (1575?-1650?) than that he was a devoted Neoplatonist and a follower of the German mystic Johannes Tauler (ca 1300-1366). According to the preface, Everard did not live to see the publication of this edition.

Everard translated after the Greek-Latin edition of Patrizi [no 47] and maintained his revised order of the separate discourses. He begins with the Stobaeus fragment which carries in Patrizi the title De pietate et philosophia (book I). Next he follows Patrizi with the translation of eleven Corpus Hermeticum discourses, namely I, III, X, V, VI, XIII, VII, II, XI, XII and IV. He omits Patrizi's book XIII, the Korè kosmou fragment from Stobaeus' Eclogae, possibly because of its length. The same goes for Patrizi's book XIV, a collection of eight excerpts from Stobaeus. Everard again follows his predecessor with the translation of CH IX and a series of Stobaeus fragments, which he now includes as discourse XIV, Of operation and sense (Patrizi book XVI De energia et sensu) and XV Of truth to his son Tat (Patrizi XVII Ad Tatium de veritate). He concludes with the translation of CH VIII and XIV. In fact his text consists of the fourteen discourses already known to Ficino [no 17], enlarged with the three series of Stobaeus fragments [no 16], thus arriving at a total number of seventeen books without CH XVI-XVIII.

In the preface to the reader a certain J.F. establishes the connection between Hermes as the author of the Corpus Hermeticum and Hermes as the author of the alchemical Tabula smaragdina. J.F. can be identified as John French (1616-1657), a physician and alchemist. He translated the work of Sendivogius, Paracelsus, Glauber and Agrippa and wrote The Art of distillation (1651). According to French the Tabula was found in the valley of Hebron after the Flood. This proves that Hermes is much older than Moses. French infers from the fact that Hermes wrote in Syrian that the Corpus Hermeticum, too, must have been originally written in this language.

Furthermore he points to famous followers of Hermes such as Geber, Paracelsus and Nollius, who all claim he was called Ter Maximus:

for having perfect, and exact Knowledge of all things contained in the World; which things he divided into Three Kingdoms (as he calls them) viz. Mineral, Vegetable, Animal; which Three, he did excell in the right understanding of; also, because he attained to, and transmitted to Posterity (although in an Aenigmaticall, and obscure style) the Knowledge of the Quintessence of the whole Universe [...] otherwise called, The great Elixer of the Philosophers; which is the Receptacle of all Celestiall and Terrestiall Vertues [...].

The description of the above can be found in the Tabula smaragdina, with the lines, 'Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes Philosophiae totius mundi', i.e. 'Therefore am I called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the entire world in my posssession'.

Ref. DNB s.v.; Mead I, 12; Ruska


64 Hermes Trismegistus. His Divine Pymander, in seventeen books. Together with his second book called Asclepius; containing fifteen chapters with a commentary. Translated formerly out of the Arabick into Greek, and thence into Latine, and Dutch, and now out of the original into English; by that learned Divine Dr. Everard.
London, Thomas Brewster 1657

Another edition of Everard's English translation of the Corpus Hermeticum of 1650 [no 63], enlarged with an edition of the Latin Asclepius, to which are added the commentaries of Lefèvre d'Etaples. These commentaries can be found in the latter's editions of the hermetic texts in Ficino's Opera and in editions of Jamblichus' De mysteriis Aegyptiorum in as far as they have the Asclepius added.

Ref. Dannenfeldt, 147-48; Pantin, 167-83.

65 Sebastian Franck. Die Guldin Arch.
Augsburg, Heinrich Steiner 1538

Compilation with the earliest known paraphrase of the Poimandres CH I in German. See the notes to no 58.


66 Hermes Trismegistus. Erkäntnüss der Natur Und Des darin sich offenbahrenden Grossen Gottes, Begriffen in 17 unterschiedlichen Büchern, nach Grichischen und Lateinischen Exemplaren in die Hochteutsche Sprache übersetzet, [...] Von Alethophilo.
Hamburg, Samuel Heyl and Gottfried Liebezeit 1706

First German translation of the Corpus Hermeticum by Alethophilus, pseudonym of Wolf Freiherr von Metternich, an Austrian theosophist and alchemist, who died in Rudolstadt in 1731. He also published under the pseudonym Hilarius Theomilus. Pierre Poiret mentions him in his Bibliotheca mysticorum selecta (1708).

The translator claims to have consulted Greek and Latin editions. Indeed he knew Patrizi's Nova de universis philosophia (1591, 1593) [nos 47 and 48], but he is particularly indebted to the Dutch translation (after Patrizi) of van Beyerland (1643, 1652) [nos 60 and 61]. He maintains van Beyerland's revised order of the separate discourses and his division into paragraphs, both for the Hermetic discourses as well as for the references in the footnotes to the introduction of the German translation. Patrizi's editions do not feature this paragraph division. Von Metternich adds an extra discourse to van Beyerland's sixteen books, namely Patrizi's Liber XVII, Hermetis Trismegisti, ad Tatium. De veritate, Von der Wahrheit, a fragment from Stobaeus' anthology (3.11.31). In the edition of Turnebus (1554) [no 43] this passage formed the beginning of CH XV.

The introduction to the German translation is an adaptation of the translations of Patrizi and van Beyerland, although enlarged with passages from the work of Olaus Borrichius (1626-1690), a Danish physician who travelled through Europe in the 1690s, visiting Germany, the Netherlands, France, England and Italy as part of his itinerary. During his travels he collected information on the hermetic sciences and later defended the authenticity of the hermetica in his works De ortu et progressu chemiae dissertatio (1668) and Hermetis, Aegyptiorum et chemicorum sapientia (1674), two wrongfully neglected sources for information on Hermes Trismegistus in all his facets.

Ref. ADB, Metternich s.v.; DSB, Borrichius, s.v.


67 Hermes Trismegistus. Poemander oder von der göttlichen Macht und Weisheit, aus dem Griechischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen begleitet vond Dieterich Tiedemann.
Berlin and Stettin, Friedrich Nicolai 1781

German translation of CH I-XVIII, independent of that of Alethophilus of 1706 [no 66]. Tiedemann translated after the Greek of Foix de Candale (1574) [no 44], but also used a translation by Ficino. Patrizi's editions (1591, 1593) [nos 47 and 48] he actually considered to be more suitable, but he was unable to obtain copies. In his eyes the Definitiones Asclepii (CH XVI-XVIII) were not hermetic. The translator's aim was to produce a readable text. He writes in the Preface:

I have attempted to correct many errors, both in the text itself, as well as in the translation. In the text, because Flussas (=Foix de Candale), although he was a critic, often failed to keep in mind the coherence of the text, and overlooked scribal errors. In the translation, because both translators have translated too literally in many places.

In addition to parallels with Platonic, Mosaic, Christian and gnostic texts, Tiedemann also detects Eastern elements, especially in the Poimandres:

Next to these the most important matter is cabbalistic, or, if one prefers, Eastern philosophy, because both systems have in common the doctrine of the origin of all things out of light, of light as the highest divinity, of matter, as essentially pure darkness. Also common to both is that the highest God brought forth a mind out of himself for the sensible world, which the Orientals call Demiurg; and the Kabbalists call Adam Kadmon.

This interpretation is strongly reminiscent of the English hermetic philosopher Robert Fludd (1574-1637), who adapted cabbalistic and hermetic elements into a syncretic system.

68 Hermes Trismegistus. Erkäntniss Der Natur Und sich darin sich offenbahrenden Grossen Gottes, begriffen in siebenzehn unterschiedlichen Büchern, nach Griechischen und Lateinischen Exemplaren in die Hochteutsche Sprache übersetzet [...]. Verfertiget von Alethophilo.
s.l. s.n. 1786

Another edition of no 66, hitherto unknown in the hermetic literature.

69 De alchimia. Geber. De investigatione perfectionis metallorum [...].
Nuremberg, Johannes Petreius 1541

First edition of the Latin translation of the Tabula smaragdina with a commentary by Hortulanus, added to Geber's De alchemia together with a few other texts. The Tabula is also very frequently included in other editions of Geber's works. See no 13.