CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Rocha Parker, Iskander |
|---|---|
| Title | Conflicting Conceptions of Hermetic Thought in Fifteenth Century Italy: The Writings of Marsilio Ficino and Lodovico Lazzarelli |
| Summary | Abstract During fifteenth-century Italy, the desire to discover the roots of ancient wisdom and theology led some intellectuals to read, translate, and transmit the ideas from texts of Antiquity reconciling them with the Judeo-Christian ideology. Hermes Trismegistus, who formerly was considered a pagan idolater, reappeared again as the wise, pious, and rightful author of a collection of texts ascribed to him named the Hermetica or Corpus Hermeticum. Marsilio Ficino’s translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, named Pymander, is an example of adaptation for the Florentine society under the patronage of Cosimo de’ Medici, to whom Ficino dedicated his translation as the Praefatio explains. The impact of the Pymander influenced other intellectuals like Lodovico Lazzarelli, who trying to find a place in the court of King Ferdinand of Aragon or in Pontano’s Studio, wrote the Hermetic dialogue Crater Hermetis synthesizing Ancient, Neoplatonic, Platonic, Jewish, Christian, and Hermetic concepts. Therefore, through a transtextual analysis of the aforementioned texts from Ficino and Lazzarelli, some Hermetic concepts will be discussed, such as the contemplation, prisca theologia, the dignity of man, or the creative capacity of humans, among others; framing the Hermetic thought of this period. |
| Supervisor | Szönyi, György Endre |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/rocha_iskander.pdf |
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