Ficino's first publication: one of the core texts of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Author

10. HERMES TRISMEGISTUS.

Title

De potestate et sapientia dei.

Published, Date

Gerardus de Lisa, de Flandria, Treviso,18 December 1471.

Description

Octavo on quarter-sheets (20.3 x 14.5 cm). 56 leaves, 24 lines, spaces for Greek text, variant with reading 'FRAH' on A1v, line 16; occasional light marginal spotting, first leaf repaired in the margins and with abrasion slightly affecting text. Later vellum manuscript binding over stiff boards, modern morocco clamshell case by G. van Daal. Provenance: J.R. Ritman (BPH bookplate, #113, acquired from a sale at Drouot, 26-27 May 1986, lot 324).

Note

Large copy of the first edition of Ficino's first text, a foundation work of the Renaissance. One of the first four books printed at the first press in Treviso. Rare: we could trace only the Sullivan-Stonyhurst College copy three times at auction in the last half-century. This was the first portion to come into print of the Corpus Hermeticum, a large body of writings attributed to an apocryphal Hermes Trismegistus, but in fact the work of different authors written at various times in the first centuries after Christ. Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) relates in the dedicatory letter of his Plotinus 20 years later (also present in this catalogue), how Cosimo de' Medici, having heard Pletho's lectures on Plato, had commissioned Ficino to translate the Platonic corpus. So important were the works of Hermes Trismegistus that when a Greek manuscript was found in Macedonia by Lionardo of Pistoia and brought to Florence (a 14th-c. manuscript that survives at the Laurentiana), Cosimo ordered Ficino to interrupt his work translating Plato in order first to translate Hermes. Ficino's translation of 'De potestate' was completed in April 1463. It circulated in numerous manuscript copies before being printed in 1471, with a dedication to Cosimo de' Medici. The work consists of 14 dialogues describing a vision seen under the guidance of Pimander, a semi-divine being. It describes the creation of the universe and man, the union of spirit and matter following the Fall, and the method of redemption by knowledge. Ficino thought he recognized an ancient source of philosophy pre-dating both Greek Philosophy and the Bible, 'with evidence that Hermes was indeed the 'father of theology' since its account of creation had obvious parallels to Genesis, it prophesied Christianity, and it taught devotion to God in this life' (M. Ford, BPH catalogue). The editor of the work was Francesco Rolandello, a humanist and teacher of rhetoric who was later employed in Venice as a tutor to the children of Leonardo Loredano (1436-1521), doge of Venice during 20 years. In his brief preface, Rolandello emphasised the low price at which so much wisdom could be had, as also the central miracle of printing, because Rolandello had supplied the printer with a manuscript and he had transformed it into many copies for others to read. Rolandello's own 'Exeminationes grammaticales' was one of the first books printed by the Flemish Gerardus de Lisa and he might have been instrumental in the setting up of the first printing workshop in Treviso.

References

HR 8456; GW 12310; BMC VI, 83; Goff H-77; ISTC ih00077000.

Stock Number

84967