Clement Salaman

WAYS OP HERMES

A SURVEY OF THE EXHIBITIONS IN FLORENCE ЛND VENICE
Now IN AMSTERDAM

In recent years the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica mounted two
major exhibitions in Italy, in Florence (1999), and in Venice (2002). By
returning to the cradle of the Renaissance and searching for the presence
of Hermes in that period, a clearer picture has emerged of the development
of Hermetic philosophy through the centuries. The exhibitions
were organized in collaboration with two renowned libraries founded in
the Renaissance: the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence and the
Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. In all, more than 75,00o visitors to the two
exhibitions were able to take part in a journey through the history of th
Hermetica by seeing the sources, often unique manuscripts deriving from
one of the three libraries, in their historical context, thereby witnessing
the birth moment of the Corpus Hermeticum in the Renaissance.

The books and manuscripts in the present exhibition Ways of Hermes in
Amsterdam are a selection from a wealth of texts which were on show
the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence and in the Biblioteca Marciana in
Venice. These two libraries hold treasures such as the (incomplete) Greek
Corpus Hermeticum manuscript used by Ficino for his Latin translation
and also - not very well known - another Greek manuscript of this text,
complete this time, which had been purchased by Cardinal Bessariorn
some years before. All manuscripts and printed works testify to the con
tinuity of a Hermetic tradition which at various moments in time, before
and after Ficino, achieved a direct recognition: from the so-called
'Renaissance of the 12th century' to the Enlightenment, from Alanus de
Insulis to Paracelsus and the 'Gold- und Rosenkreuzer. The results achie
ved by the compiler of the original exhibitions, Carlos Gilly, are an
important step forward in the research initiated by pioneers like Paul
Oskar Kristeller and Frances Yates

The present exhibition and accompanying brief guide offer a first...… (más)

MEDITATIONS ON THE SOUL

INTRODUCTION
There are few who would pick up a book of fifteenth-century phíloso
y from anything other than a sense of duty. But the letters of
Ficino (1433-1499) of Florence are an exception. They are philosophícal
inspired by Plato; but they also have an instant appeal because they
connect with what we all know, but mostly ignore: the knowledge of our
own soul. In so many of these letters Ficino urges us either directly or
indirectly to cultivate our soul, a message that in our own times has been
taken up with great eloquence and power by Thomas Moore.! In the
Moore sense these letters are "soulful." They invite us to look agaín at
those areas of our lives that we have neglected or on which we have fixed
views. Above all, they advise us not to pursue sensory objects for their
own sake. Ficino writes (letter 19), "I can only judge it the most foolish
act of all, that many people most diligently feed a beast, that is, their
body, a wild, cruel and dangerous animal; but allow themselves, that is
the soul, insofar as they have one, to starve to death".

Yet Ficino is no hair-shirt ascetic. He is no medieval mystic turning
away from the world in disgust. He is drawing our attention to what is
truly good and truly beautiful in the world and in ourselves and inviting
us to turn to that. Only in this way can everything really be enjoyed
only in this way can the soul really be fed. He writes in letter 2.34.2
"Shame on mortals, again and again shame on them, I say, for no other
reason save this: they delight in mortal goods, and in so doing they ig
nore the eternal good itself".

Ficino is not telling us that the good things of the world are not to be
enjoyed, but that they cannot truly be enjoyed without being related to a
greater good of which they are a part.

1. See especially Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul (New York: HarperCollins, 1992)
2. Some references in this introduction are to letters that do not appear in this selection
These are cited by volume and number (for example, 2.34) as they appear in The Letters
of Marsilio Ficino.… (más)