Marsilio Ficino's Portrait of Hermes Trismegistus and its Fortleben

Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of the Greek Corpus Hermeticum was carried out in 1463 at Cosimo de’ Medici’s request and first printed in Treviso in 1471 without Ficino’s consent. This translation, together with Ficino’s preface running through Trismegistus’s life and writings, was the starting point of modern Hermetism. The striking success of the Pimander – by far the most widespread of Ficino’s works – is demonstrated by more than 40 extant manuscripts, 24 printed editions up to the end of the sixteenth century, and renaissance translations in many vernacular languages. In the preface to the Pimander Ficino aimed to outline a new portrait of Hermes Trismegistus, which replaced the medieval ones. Before Ficino, a profile of Hermes Trismegistus could be found only in Arabic Hermetic literature translated into Latin during the late Middle Ages. But in Ficino’s new profile of Hermes still lurks a fundamental aspect of medieval – i.e. Arabic – Hermes. Studying this aspect of Ficino’s profile of Hermes means reconstructing an important chapter in the history of Hermetism in the early modern age.