In 1466 the philosopher and magician Marcilio Ficino acquired a
manuscript in Florence reviving the memory of certain remarkable
doctrines once taught and practiced on the soil of the land of Egypt.
Under the name of Hermes Trismegistus - - - "Thrice Great Hermes" - -
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it contained a series of Greek language texts and set in ancient Egypt
(where Greek had served as the diplomatic language under both the
Ptolemaic Pharoas and also the Roman era). These Hermetic books, most
of them in the form of dialogues, described the process of divine
interaction with the material world and a program for human
enlightenment that strikingly paralleled some of the formulations of
Plato and his followers, of Hebrew mystics, and to a certain extent of
Christianity. The dialogues spoke of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian
wisdom, and Egyptian ways of attracting the powers of God and the
spirits to bring long life, good health, and spiritual enlightenment.
Ficino and his contemporaries read the ancient books with amazement,
debating whether Hermes Trismegistus came before or after Moses; some
scholars suggested that Hermes might be the master from whom Moses had
first learned the secret wisdom of Egypt. The more they read, the
more Ficino and his friends became convinced that the texts of Hermes
Trismegistus must rank among the most influential works of all time.
Their society - - - the Platonic Academy - - - held court in Florence
as the true Hermetic Order spreading by means of ceremonial magic that
truth, harmony, and divine wisdom upon a decadant civilisation only
then undergoing, - - - indeed, some would say, causing - - - that
great rebirth in life, culture, and art which the world would soon
come to call the renaissance.