Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

Twelve years later Franciscus Patricius (Cardinal Francesco Patrizzi) printed an edition of the text of the Sermons of the Corpus, of "The Asclepius," and also of most of the Extracts and of some of the Fragments ; he, however, has arranged them all in a quite arbitrary fashion, and has as arbitrarily altered the text, which generally followed that of Turnebus and Candalle, in innumerable places. To this he appended a Latin translation, in which he emended the versions of Ficino and de Foix, as he tells us, in no less than 1040 places. These were included in his Nova de Universis Philosophia, printed at Ferrara, in folio, 1591, and again at Venice by R Meiettus, in 1593, as an appendix to his Nov. de Un. PML, now increased to fifty books.

This Latin translation of Patrizzi was printed apart, together with the Chaldcean Oracles, at Hamburg in 12mo, also, in 1593, under the title Magia Philosophica. The latter edition bears the subscription on the titlepage, "jam mmc primum ex Biblioteca Ranzoviana b tenebris eruta" which Harles explains as a reprint by plain Henr. Eanzou, who is, however, described in the volume itself as " prodiix." It seems to have been again reprinted at Hamburg in 1594 in 8vo.

Meantime the Carmelite, Hannibal Eossellus,2 had

1 These on perusal prove of little value.

2 R. 322 calls him a Minorite.

been laboriously engaged for many years on an edition of the " Poemandres " with most elaborate commentaries. This was printed at Cracow by Lazarus, in six volumes in folio, from 1585 to 1590. Eossel treats of philosophy, theology, the Pope, the scriptures, and all disciplines in his immanibus commentariis, inepte as some say, while others bestow on him great praise. His title is Pymander Mercurii Trismegisti. This was reprinted with the text and translation of de Foix in folio at Cologne in 1630, under the title Divinus Pimander Hermetis Mercurii Trismegisti.

Hitherto nothing had been done in England, but in 1611 an edition of Ficinus' translation was printed in London. This was followed by what purports to be a translation of the " Poemandres " from Arabic,1 " by that learned Divine, Doctor Everard," as the title-page sets forth. It was printed in London in 1650 in 8vo, with a preface by "J. F.," and bears the title The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, in xvii. Books. Translated formerly out of the Ar abide into Greek [!] and thence into Latin, and Dutch, and now out of the Original into English. There was a second edition of Everard's version printed at London in 1657, in 12mo. There are also reprints of the 1650 edition by Fryar of Bath, with an introduction by Hargrave Jennings, in 1884 ; 2 by P. B. Randolph, Toledo, Ohio, 1889 ; and by the Theosophical Publishing Society, in the Collectanea Hermetica, edited by "W. Wynn Westcott, in 1893.

To what Dutch translation Everard refers I cannot discover, for the only one known to me is that printed

1 It is clear, however, that Everard translated from Ficinus'
Latin version, and that the " Arabick " is a myth.

2 Of which only 200 copies were issued to subscribers, as though, forsooth, they were to come into great " occult " secrets thereby.

at Amsterdam in 1652 in 12mo. It is a translation of Patrizzi's text, and bears the title, Sestien Boecken van den Hermes Trismegistus. . . . uyt het G-riecx ghebracht . . . met eene . . . Voorede uyt het Latijn von F. PatriciiLs in de welcke Tiij bewijst dat desen . . . Philosoph heeft geUeoyt voor Moyses, etc. Harles says nothing of this edition, but speaks of one printed at Amsterdam in 1643 in4to, by Nicholas van Eauenstein, but I can find no other trace of it.

The first German translation was by a certain Alethophilus, and was printed at Hamburg in 1706 (8vo) under the title Hermetis Trismegisti Erkdntnuss der Natur, etc., containing seventeen pieces ; this was reprinted at Stuttgart in 1855, in a curious collection by J. Schieble, entitled Kleiner Wunder-Schauplatz}- The title reads Hermetis Trismegisti Einleitung in's hochste Wissen von JErkentniss der Natur und der darin sich offeribarenden grossen Grottes, with an appendix concerning the person of Hermes, etc.