The Renaissance and the Pre-Classical Civilizations

The Renaissance and the Pre-Classical CivilizationsAuthor(s): Karl H. DannenfeldtReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 435-449Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2707711 .

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VOLUME XIII NUMBER 4 OCTOBER, 1952

THE RENAISSANCE AND THE PRE-CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS

BY KARL H. DANNENFELDT

Frequently it is charged or assumed that the men of the Renais- sance believed that true civilization began with the Greeks and that they therefore ignored everything that preceded the classical age. While it is true that the Renaissance did place heavy emphasis on Greece and Rome, the intellectual leaders were far from ignoring the ancient oriental civilizations. The humanists in fact belittled the originality of the contributions of the Greeks and Romans when they continued, embellished and expanded the traditional concept that the origin of civilization and wisdom must be placed in the ancient pre- Greek Orient, later to be transferred to the West. They found this tradition in the literature of the Church and in the works of the Greek historians and philosophers which became readily available in the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries. Herodotus, for example, had written of the priority of the Egyptians in matters of religion and science and of Greece's debt to Egypt for the names of her gods.' Plato had maintained similar views,2 while Plutarch pointed out the dependence of the Greek philosophers upon the wisdom of the early Egyptians.3

Christian prejudices and a misunderstanding of the Greek spirit led some of the early Christian writers to advance the superiority of the pre-Greek civilizations over that of the Greek. Thus the Assyrian Tatian in the second century in his Greek apology for Christianity, Address to the Greeks, grants the Greeks a superiority only in deceiv- ing and lying; all their arts and institutions had been borrowed from the earlier Babylonians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians.4 Later in the Christian West, Augustine, although he ridicules the menda- cious vanity of the Egyptians who ascribe to their science an an-

tiquity of one hundred thousand years, does confess that even before

1 History ii.50 and 82. 2 Timaeus xxii; xxiiiE. 3 De Iside et Osiride x. 4 Address to the Greeks, Chap. I: " For which of your institutions has not been

derived from the Barbarians? . . . To the Babylonians you owe astronomy; to the

Persians, magic; to the Egyptians, geometry, to the Phoenicians, instruction by alphabetic writing . . . from the annals of the Egyptians you learned to write his-

tory "; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, II (Buffalo, 1885), 65. Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, VI.iv on the Greeks being "pil- ferers of all manner of writing," especially those of Egypt and India.

435



436 KARL H. DANNENFELDT

Moses there had been extant, not among the Greeks, but in the barba- rous nations, such as Egypt, "some doctrine which might be called their wisdom." 5 He goes on to say, however, that even this wisdom could not antedate that of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, for the Egyptians had received their letters from Isis and she was born much later than Abraham. In regard to philosophy, "which professes to teach men something which shall make them happy," Augustine holds that studies of that type flourished in Egypt "about the time of Mercury whom they called Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece," but yet after the Hebrew prophets.6

Centuries later, this preeminence of ancient oriental wisdom was amplified and the element of a transference of wisdom from the Orient to the Occident was also stressed. This translatio cultus et philosophiae accompanied the corresponding concept of a translatio imperii from the early oriental nations through Greece to Rome. Hugo of St. Victor (1096-1141) expressed this view in the second book of his De vanitate mundi,7 and felt that the end of the world would occur once wisdom and learning had reached the limits of the earth. Otto of Freising (ca. 1114-1158) was more explicit when he wrote that

the careful student of history will find that the learning was transferred from Egypt to the Greeks, then to the Romans, and finally to the Gauls and Spaniards. And so it is to be observed that all human power or learning had its origin in the East, but is coming to an end in the West, that thereby the transitoriness and decay of all things human may be displayed.8

In the thirteenth century Alexander Neckham pointed out in his De naturis rerum libri duo that the "quadrivium" which Abraham taught to the Egyptians was later transmitted to the Greeks.9

That this tradition of an oriental origin of wisdom and learning, and the subsequent translatio to the West, was revived and amplified in the period of the Renaissance, was primarily because of the revival of Platonism and Neo-Platonism. There had been a continuous Latin

5 Augustine, De civitate Dei xviii.37. He cites as proof the case of Moses as mentioned in Acts vii.22.

6 Ibid., xviii.39. 7 J.. Migne, Patrologia latina, Vol. CLXXVI, col. 720B. 8 Otto, Bishop of Freising, The Two Cities, translated by Charles C. Mierow

(New York, 1928), 94-95. Cf. also the prologue to the fifth book, where the original home of wisdom is said to be Babylon; Ibid., 322f. For the view in medieval France that Paris was the intellectual successor of Rome and Athens, see ]tienne Gilson, Les Idees et les Lettres (Paris, 1932), 181ff.

9 De naturis rerum libri duo II, clxxiv; "De locis in quibus artes floruerunt liberales."



RENAISSANCE AND PRE-CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS 437

Platonic tradition,10 but a great stimulus to the revival of Platonism was the arrival at the Councils of Ferrara and Florence (1438-1442) of the eighty-three-year-old Byzantine Platonist, Georgios Gemisthos, called Plethon. The earnestness and enthusiasm of Plethon and his pupil, Cardinal Bessarion, for Plato and the Neo-Platonists and the philosophical quarrel which ensued with the supporters of Aristo- telianism, turned the attention of many Italian scholars, weary of scholastic Aristotelianism, to Platonism and the writings of the Neo- Platonists.1

Among the Italians who had learned to admire Platonism was Cosimo de' Medici of Florence, who held many philosophical discus- sions with Plethon. Seeking to make Florence the center of Platonic studies, Cosimo found a leader for his new academy (1462) of Plato- nists in the person of the young Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499).12 Ficino's first task was the translation into Latin of the most important Platonic and Neo-Platonic writings.

In 1463, one year after the founding of the academy, he completed the translation of the fourteen dialogues, called the Pimander, which were ascribed to an ancient Egyptian sage, the revealer of the Egyp- tian gnosis, Hermes Trismegistus (Mercurius). This " Thrice Great- est Hermes " was regarded as an Egyptian god (Thoth) and an historical person by the ancient writers who attributed to him the founding of writing, numerous arts and the authorship of many sacred books. His name was also attached to the body of extant writings, the Corpus Hermeticum, of which the Pimander is a part. Actually these works appeared during and after the third century of our era, and were syncretic in nature, combining and blending Greek and oriental religious thought.13 Numerous classical authors and various

10 Of Plato's Dialogues, the Meno, the Phaedo and parts of the Timaeus and the Parmenides were studied, quoted and commented upon throughout the Middle Ages. In addition a mass of secondary sources such as Cicero, Apuleius, Macrobius and the Christian Fathers aided in maintaining a Latin Platonic tradition; Raymond Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages (Lon- don, 1939).

11The principal writings of the controversy are to be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vols. CLX and CLXI. For an account of the quarrel see Lud- wig Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und Staatsmann, I (Pader- born, 1923), 346-98; Henri Vast, Le Cardinal Bessarion (Paris, 1878), 298-363.

12 For a detailed study of the Platonic Academy see Arnaldo della Torre, Storia dell'Academia Platonica di Firenze (Florence, 1902).

13 See especially Richard Reitzenstein, Poimandres, Studien zur griechisch- dgyptischen und friihchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1904); G. R. S. Mead, Thrice Great Hermes, Vol. I (London, 1906); Walter Scott, Hermetica, Vol. I (Oxford,




Church Fathers referred to the writings of the ancient Hermes, the Neo-Platonic philosopher Jamblichus being the most important for a knowledge of the theosophy ascribed to the Egyptian sage.

Ficino next turned to the dialogues of Plato, completing their translation into Latin by 1468. Six years later appeared the eighteen books of Ficino's most important work, Theologia Platonica, de im- mortalitate animorum. After 1484, on the urgings of his friend and pupil Pico della Mirandola, Ficino began the translation of Plotinus. Porphyry's De abstinentia, Jamblichus' De mysteriis aegyptorum, chaldaeorum et assyriorum and other Neo-Platonic works were next translated and published in 1497.

Although a philosopher in his own right, Ficino derived most of his concepts from Plato and the Neo-Platonists, yet Augustine was his guide when he attempted to effect a reconciliation between Plato- nism and Christianity and Aristotle was his model in terminology and method.14 His debt to Plethon and Bessarion cannot be ascertained accurately, but one doctrine Ficino did receive from Plethon. This was the belief in a long and continuous philosophical tradition that began with the ancient Persian, Zoroaster, and could be traced through such wise men as Eumolpos, the giver of the Eleusinian Mysteries, King Minos of Crete, Lycurgos the Spartan lawgiver, the Brahmans of India, the Magi of the Medes and Hermes Trismegistus of Egypt. From these the procession of learning could be traced through Or- pheus, Pythagoras and Plato to the Neo-Platonists, Plotinus, Por- phyry, Jamblichus and Proclus.ls The doctrines of his own philosophy Ficino considered the culmination of a religious and philosophical tradition which the ancient wise men, Zoroaster and Hermes Trisme- gistus, had begun. The mass of information which he had learned from Plato and the Neo-Platonists he tried to coordinate into a coherent system that would harmonize with Christianity and be very close to the Biblical tradition. For to Ficino it was by "divine provi- dence that it was brought about that a certain philosophy once arose among the Persians under Zoroaster and among the Egyptians under

1924); and the detailed article by W. Kroll in Paulys Real-Encyclopidie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, new edition, XV, cols. 792-823.

14 For a detailed study of Ficino as a philosopher see Paul 0. Kristeller, The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, trans. Virginia Conant (New York, 1943).

15 Ibid., 15; cf. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. CLX, col. 639, C. Alexandre, Plethon; Traite des Lois (Paris, 1858), lxxvii f, 31, 262, 274, 423 and Fritz Schultze, Georgios Gemistos Plethon (Jena, 1874), 135-41. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, I, xv, had early pointed out the debt of Pythagoras and Plato to their Egyptian teachers.




Mercurius" to be nursed by Orpheus, developed later by Pythagoras and perfected by the divine Plato.l6

In the "natural" universal religion of the philosophy of Ficino, Hermes Trismegistus is considered as the first philosopher who raised himself to the contemplation of the divine and who must therefore be considered the founder of theology."7 As Hermes (Mercurius), who had given Egypt its laws and writing, was believed to be the near descendant of ancestors who had lived at the time Moses was born, the tradition which embodied Hermetic writings was considered close to that of the Old Testament. In the later writings of Ficino, however, Mercurius is placed second while Zoroaster is given the place of honor at the head of the list of six theologians who formed the unique and coherent succession in ancient theology.l8

The name of Zoroaster was not unknown to the Quattrocento. The major classical writers and many of the minor ones had written about or at least mentioned by name the great Persian religious leader. In the works and chronicles of the early church historians, like Eusebius, Orosius and Augustine, he is cited as a king of the Bactrians, the founder of magical arts and a contemporary of King Ninus of Assyria.l9 The influence of the Persian religion and its eschatology is also evident in the writings of the Gnostics and Neo- Platonists, which contained many passages termed " Chaldean Logia " or oracles.20 These Logia were accepted by Plethon, as they had been by Michael Psellus before him, as the works of Zoroaster himself.2 Like the Hermetic writings which he ascribes to Hermes Trismegistus, the Oracula Chaldaica of "Zoroaster" play an important role in Ficino's doctrines as expressed in his Theologia Platonica.22

16 Ficino, Opera (Basel, 1561), II, 1537-38. Cf. also Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance, Vol. X of Studien der Bibliothek Warburg, ed. Fritz Saxl (Leipzig, 1927), 3.

17 Ficino, Opera, II, 1836. 18 Ibid., I, 156 and 386; in Books VI and XVII of his Theologia Platonica. 19 The classical passages are listed in Appendix V of A. V. Williams Jackson,

Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran (New York, 1899), 226-73. 20 Cf. especially Guilelmus Kroll, " De Oraculis Chaldaicis," in Breslauer Philo-

logische Abhandlungen, Vol. VII, Part I (Breslau, 1894), 6-10, 66-72. 21 Ibid., 1; Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vols. CLX, cols. 973-74 and CXXII,

cols. 1115-60; Joseph Bidez and Franz Cumont, Les Mages Hellenises (Paris, 1938), I, 158-63, II, 251-60.

22 Cf. e.g., Books I, viii; XIII, ii and iv; XIV, i; XVII, iii; and XVIII, iv where Zoroastrian sayings are given in Greek. Cf. also Bohdan Kieskowski, Studi sul Platonismo del Rinascimento in Italia (Florence, 1936), 77, 113-14, 119-27, 155-61.




In the sixteenth century Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus continued to be regarded as important religious leaders and thinkers who had made the Orient the birthplace of wisdom. Ficino's translation of the Hermetic writings aroused great interest throughout Europe, twenty editions being printed in a little more than a hundred years. Italian and French translations and the Greek text (1554) were also printed.23 The oracles and logia ascribed to Zoroaster were published several times in the sixteenth century.24 Wherever Ficino's works, commentaries and translations were read and studied, his doctrines of a universal religion with its basis in the teachings of Zoroaster, the Persian, and Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian, gained widespread acceptance. Long after his death in 1499 his influence continued to make itself felt in Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Hungary.25

The influence of Ficino is seen very strongly, of course, in the writings of his young pupil, Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), who in his Heptaplus placed Moses at the head of the list of religious philosophers instead of Zoroaster. His acceptance of the doctrine of the continuation of a divinely inspired tradition of wisdom originating with the Hebrews and the Egyptians can be seen in the nine hundred Conclusiones which he published in Rome in 1486. In these propositions he was prepared to defend, ninety-nine are drawn from the Neo- Platonic writers, six from the Chaldaic Oracles, ten from the writings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus and forty-seven from the Hebrew Cabalists.26 Like Giannozzo Manetti, Nicolas of Cusa and Ficino before him, Pico's noble conception of the dignitas hominis was also enriched by the contact with the Hermetic writings.2

The Italian exegete Augustine Steuchi (1496-1549) also showed an interest in the ancient Orient as the source of wisdom in his philosophy. Steuchi was well versed in history, philosophy and theology, and in his book, De perenni philosophia libri X, he considers the most ancient nation as being the Chaldeans, the Armenians, the Babylon-

23 Mead, op. cit., I, 9-13; Reitzenstein, op. cit., 320-22. 24 Kroll, op. cit., 2; Kieskowski, op. cit., 119-22. 25 Kristeller, op. cit., 19. 26loannis Pici Mirandulae . . . Omnia quae extant opera (Venice, 1557), fols.

150-61. The Chaldaic element is also evident in the last four hundred ninety-eight propositions, the Conclusiones secundum opinionem propriam.

27 Avery Dulles, Princeps Concordiae, Pico della Mirandola and the Scholastic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1941), 105-13. Cf. also Cassirer, op. cit., 88-91, who refers the reader to the comments of Konrad Burdach in Der Ackermann aus Bohmen, Vol. III, part i, of Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation (Berlin, 1917), 293- 94, 320-26.




ians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Phoenicians.28 Wisdom, he holds, "went from the Chaldeans to the Hebrews, from the He- brews to the Egyptians, from these to the Greeks, from the Greeks to the Romans." 29 Of the most ancient learning he writes:

All this was known in the most ancient theology of the Chaldeans, then of the Egyptians, and finally of the Greeks. The leaders of the Chaldean theology were those who are called in their native language Magi; that is, wise men or philosophers and priests. Foremost and the leader of Egyptian theology, beyond dispute, was Mercurius Trismegistus.30

Late in the sixteenth century, Francesco Patrizi (1529-1597), pro- fessor of philosophy at Ferrara and Rome, attempted to show the close relationship between Christian theology and the philosophy of the ancient "authorities," Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus and the like. Latin translations of the "works" of Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus appeared as part of his philosophical work entitled Nova de universis philosophia, which was printed in Ferrara in 1591 and reprinted in 1593 in Venice.31 An edition containing these two translations and entitled Magia philosophia also appeared in

Hamburg in 1593. Patrizi's violent anti-Aristotelianism caused him to go so far as to ask Cardinal Cajetano to ban most of Aristotle's works and to substitute in their stead Platonism which, with the works of Hermes and Zoroaster, was closer to Christianity.32

From Italy the doctrines of the Platonic Academy spread north- ward beyond the Alps. In Paris, where Pico had visited in 1485-86, they found early acceptance at the University because of the efforts of Guillaume Fichet, the Rector of the Sorbonne, and Robert Gaguin,

28Augustini Steuchi Eugubini de perenni philophia libri X (Lyons, 1540), 2. The entire first book of this work has much on Hermes Trismegistus and Zoroaster.

29 Ibid., 4. 30 Ibid., 7; Book I, Chap. vii, contains a discussion of the Oracula Chaldaeorum. 31 The 1591 edition of the Nova de universis philosophia also contained a reprint

of an earlier translation of an Arabic work which contained many Neo-Platonic doctrines. Patrizi reprinted this as a work of Aristotle under the title Mystica Aegyptorum et Chaldaeorum . . . philosophia. Cf. Benjamin Brickman, An Intro- duction to Francesco Patrizi's Nova de universis philosophia (Dissertation, Colum- bia University, New York, 1941), 14, and Pierre Duhem, Le Systeme du Monde, IV

(Paris, 1916), 364-76. 32 In the dedicatory letter to Cardinal Cajetano before the three hundred twenty

Zoroastrian Oracles and in the letter to Pope Gregory XIV to whom he dedicated his new philosophy; cf. also Brickman, op. cit., 15-16, and Moriz Carriere, Die

philosophische Weltanschauung der Reformationszeit (2d ed.: Leipzig, 1887), 52-53.




his energetic successor.33 The great French humanist and theologian, Lefevre d'Etaples

(Faber Stapulensis, ca. 1455-1536), turned to Platonism during his long visit in Italy (1485-1494). In July, 1494, he published in Paris the fourteen discourses and dialogues of Hermes Trismegistus as translated by Ficino, the first edition of these works to be printed north of the Alps. In 1505 he again printed Ficino's version of the Pimander of Hermes Trismegistus, and in the same volume included Apuleius' treatise on Asclepius and a dialogue by the Neapolitan Lo- dovico Lazzarelli on the secret doctrines of Hermes Trismegistus.34 His love for the philosophy of the Florentines with its acceptance of an ancient religious and philosophical tradition he imparted to the group of friends which he gathered about him. This group included Guillaume Gontier, Giles de Delft, Fausto Andrelini, Paolo Emili, Georges Hermonyme, Jean de Rely, Jean and Germain de Ganay and Robert Gaguin.35

Charles de Bouelles (Carolus Bovillus) also followed Ficino in the acceptance of the tradition of a religious philosophy that went back to the ancient Orient and especially to Hermes in Egypt.36 This tradition received greater emphasis in the works of Symphorien Champier (1472-1539) of Lyons, an important figure in the history of medicine. In the history of Neo-Platonism in France he ranks foremost among those who spread the doctrines of the Neo-Platonic philosophy as it was interpreted by the Italian philosophers. In his De quadruplici

33Walter M6nch, Die italienische Platonrenaissance und ihre Bedeutung fur Frankreichs Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte (1450-1550), Vol. XL of Romanische Studien, ed. Emil Ebering (Berlin, 1936), 184. Cf. also the letter of Gaguin to Ficino, dated September 1, 1496, telling him of the wide acceptance of Ficino's works; Robert Gaguin, Epistole et Orationes, ed. Louis Thuasne (Paris, 1903), II, 20.

34 Augustin Renaudet, Prereforme et Humanisme a Paris, pendant les premieres guerres d'Italie (1494-1517) (Paris, 1916), 155-56, 476. On Lazzarelli see Paul O. Kristeller, "Marsilio Ficino e Lodovico Lazzarelli. Contribute alla diffusione dell' idee ermetiche nel Rinascimento," in Annali della R. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Ser. II, VII (1938), 237-62. In the Hermetic tradition Asclepius was considered to be an ancient Egyptian, the son of Ptah and the true founder of the science of healing. As an historical person he is considered to be Imhotep ('Ipov6O), the vizier of Pharaoh Zoser of the Third Dynasty. In addition to being a physician, Imhotep was believed to be the first architect, a man of great learning and the protector of secret knowledge; cf. Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real-Encyclopddie der classischen Altertumsuissenschaft, new edition, II, cols. 1680, 1697 and IX, cols. 1213-17. 35 Renaudet, op. cit., 156-57.

36 M6nch, op. cit., 208-11. On the philosophy of Bovillus see Cassirer, op. cit., 93-103.




vita, printed in Lyons in 1507, he shows his great indebtedness to Fi- cino. To Champier, the Babylonians and the Egyptians were the wisest of people, and he repeatedly stresses the priority of the ancient Egyptians in intellectual matters.37 Hermes Trismegistus and his writings also received the attention of Champier. He wrote a commentary to the Latin translation of the Hermetic writings of Asclep- ius.38 In the beginning of the fourth part of this work Champier fol- lows almost word for word the Argumentum in librum Mercurii Trismegisti with which Ficino had begun his translation of the writings of Trismegistus.39 He denies the originality of the Greeks in matters of philosophy, for Hermes, Moses and Asclepius lived centuries before the great Greek philosophers. Even Plato was a student of the philosophy of Mercurius.40 Egypt, he declares, was the source of the Greek knowledge of mathematics, Chaldea the source of their astrology, and all their wisdom was also gained from others. They had stolen most of their knowledge from the Egyptians and Hebrews, whom the Greeks called barbarians and whose theology was much older.4'

This tradition of Platonic philosophy with its strong admixture of Neo-Platonism and its tradition of an oriental source of wisdom, continued in France and can be found in the writings of such as Michael Servetus, the pupil of Champier, Pierre de la Ramee, Estienne Dolet, Andre Tiraquaeu, Rabelais, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, and many others.42 The Neo-Platonic view of an ancient philosophy can also be found in the works of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), the martyr of Nola. His dissatisfaction with Aristotle caused him to turn to the earlier Greek philosophers and to Neo-Platonism.43 His knowledge of the latter was almost certainly derived from Ficino's translations, and his writings show that Bruno regarded the ancient Orient as the origi-

37 Liber de quadruplici vita, III, Chap. ix. 38 The commentary is entitled Theologia Asclepii Hermetis Trismegisti cum com-

mentariis eiusdem domini Symphoriani, and was printed in 1507 in the same work as the Liber de quadruplici vita.

39 Theologia Asclepii, IV, A; cf. Ficino, Opera, II, fol. 1836. 40 Ibid., Book IV, F, K and T. 41 Ibid., IV, Y. 42 M6nch, op. cit., 301-12, and Abel Lefranc, " Le Platonisme et la Litterature

en France a l'Epoque de la Renaissance," in his Grands Ecrivains franfais de la Renaissance (Paris, 1914), 63-137. For the Platonism of Marguerite of Navarre see ibid., 185, and Abel Lefranc, Dernieres Poesies de Marguerite de Navarre (Paris, 1896), 208. In the writings of Rabelais see, for example, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book III, xiii, Book V, iv and xlviii.

43 J. Lewis McIntyre, Giordano Bruno (London, 1903), 121-52.




nal source of wisdom. In his Spaccio de la bestia trionfanti (1584) he

praises the theosophy of the ancient Egyptians and writes that the Hebrew Cabala too derives its wisdom, "whatever it be in its kind," from the Egyptians.44

As was often the case with the restless professors of the time, Bruno travelled much, and during the years 1586 and 1588 he was at the University of Wittenberg where he lectured on philosophy. On March 8, 1588, he delivered there an Oratio valedictoria in which he eloquently proclaimed his acceptance of Wisdom (Minerva) rather than riches, fame or worldly pleasures. In this address he declared that Wisdom built a house of reason first among the Egyptians and the Assyrians, then among the Persians with the Magi and Zoroaster, then among the Gymnosophists in India. Thence Orpheus, Athlas, Thales and others brought wisdom to the Greeks. Wisdom dwelt among the Italians under Archimedes, Empedocles and others. The sixteenth century had seen the erection of a seventh abode of learning and reason among the Germans.45 Bruno also frequently refers to the writings of Hermes Trismegistus.46

In Germany we also find this tradition of ancient oriental authorities whose wisdom was carried down through the ages. Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), the great humanist and Hebrew scholar, was acquainted personally with Ficino and Pico and aided in the revival of Platonism in Germany. Reuchlin, however, stressed the Pytha- gorean and cabalistic elements in the ancient wisdom, although he does admit the oriental sources of Pythagorean philosophy: " All this flowed to us from Pythagoras, which he drew part from the Egyp- tians, part from the Hebrews and Chaldeans and from among the wisest magi of the Persians and bequeathed to posterity." 47 He also quotes from the works of Hermes Trismegixtus, " the illustrious legis- lator of the Egyptians and a most contemplative writer." 48 Reuch- lin's introduction to the Chronica of Johann Verge, called Nauclerus, also gives priority to the writing and wisdom of the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians from whom the Greeks obtained their art of writing.49

44 Giordano Bruno, Opere italiene, ed. Giovanni Gentile (Bari, 1927), II, 187, 192 and especially 191.

46 Jordani Bruni Nolani, Opera latine conscripta, ed. by F. Fiorentino (Naples, 1879), I, part i, 16.

46 In his De gli eroici furori, Part II; Opere italiene, II, 432. Cf. also Opera latina, I, part i, 376.

47 J. Reuchlin, De arte cabalistica libri tres (Hagenau, 1530), Book II, fol. xlix. 48 Ibid. 49Johannis Naucleri Chronica (Cologne, 1544), Praefatio. The Chronica was

first published in 1516, six years after the death of the author.




The wisdom literature which the sixteenth century attributed to oriental sources plays a great role in the works of that peculiar genius Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1487-1535). His interest in the occult made him an eager exponent of Hermes Trismegistus and the Hermetic writings. In 1515 Agrippa's discourses on Hermes " who was called Enoch among the Hebrews," gained for him the de- gree of doctor in the faculties of medicine and law at the University of Pavia.50 In his famous De occulta philosophia, which Agrippa published in 1531, one naturally finds references to the ancient oriental wisdom and to Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus.51

Other scholars and writers pointed to the Orient as the original homeland of the arts and sciences. One of these was Laurentius Fris- ius (Lorenz Fries) of Colmar, Strassburg and Metz, one of the few physicians of the time to protest against the humanistic rejection of the writings of medieval and Arabic medical authorities. In his De- fensio medicorum principis Avicennae ad Germaniae medicos (1530), he maintains that the Greek medical authorities which his age followed had in reality borrowed nearly all of their learning from the Egyptians, Arabs and Hindus.52

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), the humanist associate of Luther, writes in his Chronicle that the arts and sciences were given by God to the earliest men, and that the science of the Chaldeans was taken over by the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, who carried it to the Greeks, who in turn bequeathed it to the Romans.53 He justified the inclu- sion of Egyptian history in his chronicle of the Four Monarchies (Chaldeans and Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans) with such remarks as " Great was the power of the Assyrian monarchy, but the fame of Egypt was greater because of its wealth and arts," and "Egypt excelled in the arts and laws." 54

Several authors write of a succession of schools of learning begin- 50 Henrici Cornelii Agrippae . . . Orationes X (Cologne, 1935), second oration,

"habita Papiae in praelectione Hermetis Trismegisti, de potestate et sapientia dei," cf. Henry Morley, The Life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (London, 1856); I, 287, who refers to Ep. 21, Lib. vii, p. 1021 of the Lyons, 1536, edition of his works.

51E.g., Henrici Cornelii Agrippae ab Nettesheym . . . de occulta philosophia libri tres (Cologne, 1533), iii, ccxxii, ccxxxii and cccxxxiiii.

52Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, V (New York, 1941), 437.

3 Corpus Reformatorum, Vol. XII (Halle, 1884), cols. 775, 788. Melanchthon dwells at greater length on the wisdom of ancient Egypt in his Oratio de studiis veteris philosophiae (1557); ibid., cols. 251-52.

54 Ibid., cols. 750 and 753-54.




ning in the Orient. In 1575 Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586), the Ger- man Lutheran theologian, spoke in a sermon of Adam founding the first school after the Fall of man; after the Deluge Hebrew was pre- served as the language of God and the patriarchs by means of schools. From the patriarchs the schools went to Egypt and from there into Greece.55 Gulielmus Adolphus Scribonius, a Marburg physician, in the 1583 edition of his Rerum naturalium doctrina methodica, maintains that there were four schools of the study of nature or physics in the past. Adam founded the first school, that of the Assyrians; in which astronomy, astrology, the interpretation of dreams and augury were studied. Abraham began the second school when he instructed the Egyptians. Hermes Trismegistus was of this school, which con- cerned itself with natural magic. The Persian magi are also in this Egyptian school. In the third school are found the Greeks, the Druids, and the Brahmans or gymnosophists, who were excellent astrologers and magicians. The fourth school, that of the Romans, centered about Cicero, but Scribonius includes in this school the out- standing medical men of his own day.56

The influence of the Florentine Platonic revival reached also to England. John Colet (1467-1519), while a student at Oxford, was imbued with the spirit of humanism and the new interest in Plato and the Neo-Platonists which William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre had brought with them from Italy. He, too, went to Italy, the fountain- head of the new studies, and though there is no direct evidence that he visited Florence, he did study the works of Pico, Ficino and the Neo-Platonists.57 Thomas More (1478-1535), a friend of Colet, also turned early in his career to the study of the works of the Florentines, especially those of Pico, whose Latin biography he translated in 1510. From his readings he, too, adopted the belief in an ancient tradition of religious philosophy which began with Moses and Zoroaster and of which Socrates, Christ, Hermes Trismegistus and others were a part.58 More also showed an appreciation of the civilization of the ancient Egyptians, for it is from some ship-wrecked Romans and Egyptians that the Utopians learned much of their wisdom and useful arts.59

55 Georg Mertz, Das Schulwesen der deutschen Reformation im 16. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1902), 92.

56 Thorndike, op. cit., VI, 352-53. 57 Frederic Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas

More (3d ed.; London, 1887), 15-16. For a study of English Platonism see Ernst Cassirer, Die platonische Renaissance in England und die Schule von Cambridge, Vol. XXIV of Studien der Bibliothek Warburg (Leipzig, 1932). 58 Cassirer, 6.

59 More, Utopia, end of Book I.




Two scholars of the late Renaissance who truly appreciated the contributions of the ancient Orient to European thought and civilization were Jean Bodin (1530-1596) and Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540- 1609). Interested in the study and interpretation of Roman Law, Bodin wrote in 1565 his Methodus ad facilem historiarum cogni- tionem, hoping to establish an accurate chronology for universal history and also to instruct his readers in the correct methodology and program to be used in the study of universal history. For it is in history that " the best part of universal law lies hidden; and what is of great weight and importance for the best appraisal of legislation-the custom of the people, and the beginnings, growth, conditions, changes and decline of all states-are obtained from it." 60

In this guide to historical studies, Bodin has much to say concern- ing the ancient civilizations. Numerous references are made to the importance of the Chaldeans, the Persians and Egyptians, for he feels that consideration should be " given to the decrees of the Persians, the Greeks and Egyptians, no less than to the Romans." 61 "Since the system of governing a state, knowledge and lastly civilization itself came from the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Phoenicians and the Egyptians," Bodin feels that " the antiquity of the races " should be studied first.62 Egypt is not mentioned as one of the great ancient political powers, but the Egyptians are introduced in Bodin's refutation of the old idea that the world is getting progressively worse. Comparing the virtues and disciplines of various peoples at various times in the world's history, he remarks:

I omit how Egypt, India and Ethiopia teemed with many philosophers, geometrists and astrologers; how many well known mathematicians were in Chaldea before Greece had any literature.63

After a survey of classical and medieval literature, Bodin concludes that the Chaldeans were the most ancient of all peoples and the founders of learning, literature, the arts and all the great disciplines. "Then the word 'indigenous' must be abandoned," he writes, "and

60 See the Dedication, addressed to Jean Tessier, the President of the Court of Inquests. The English translation used is that of Beatrice Reynolds, Method for the Easy Comprehension of History, by John Bodin (New York, 1945). The Latin text used was that found in Io. Bodini Methodus historica duodecim eiusdem argu- menti scriptorum, tam veterum quam recentiorum (Basel, 1576). All page references are to this Latin edition.

61 Dedication Letter. 62 Bodin, op. cit., 16. 63 Ibid., 308.




the origin of all peoples must be sought in the Chaldeans." 64 After the Chaldeans would come the Armenians, Egyptians, Jews, Arabs, Phoenicians, Ionians, "Asiatics," Persians, Indians, Medes, Ethiop- ians and Sabeans. The Greeks originated in Asia, Egypt and Phoe- nicia and united first in Europe.65 Throughout the work Bodin dis- plays a lively interest in the ancient Orient, its peoples, institutions and culture. He condemns those historians who attack the supersti- tions, impiety, magic, infamous lusts and cruelties of the Greeks, Egyptians, Arabs and Chaldeans, and who fail to mention those qual- ities worthy of praise. " From these people," he says, " letters, useful arts, virtues, training, philosophy, religion and lastly humanitas itself flowed upon earth as from a fountain." 66 Bodin also credits the As- syrians, Persians and Egyptians with originating systems of chronology.67 He himself divides world history into three epochs of two thousand years each. In the first period, the oriental peoples of the ancient southeastern civilizations dominated, and brought about a marked development in the contemplative field of religion and philosophy, and " studied zealously the motion of the celestial stars and universal power of nature." 68

Similarly, Joseph Scaliger saw that ancient history went beyond the age of the Greeks, and that for a correct understanding of history and chronology, his special field of interest, the records of the ancient oriental civilizations must also be studied. In his edition (1579) of the Astronomica, the astrological poem of Manilius, a Roman poet of the first century of our era, Scaliger stresses the importance of a knowledge of the ancient oriental sciences for a correct understanding of later science. In the Prolegomena de astrologia veterum Grae- corum in the edition of 1600, he maintained that Greek science was dependent on the earlier science of the ancient Chaldeans and Egyp- tians.69 Scaliger is most frequently remembered for his chronological studies, a field of historical research which he completely revolution- ized and for the first time placed on a firm footing through his thor- ough examination of the chronological systems of all nations. In the

64Ibid., 348. 65 Ibid., 351-52. 66Ibid., 105. 67Ibid., 334, 338-39. 68Ibid., 117. No mention is made of either Hermes Trismegistus or Zoroaster,

but in Chapter VIII, Simplicius, Plotinus Marinus, Syrianus, Jamblichus and Proclus, all Neo-Platonists, are cited.

69 M. Manili Astronomicon a losepho Scaligero (Leyden, 1600).




eight books of his De emendatione temporum, which first appeared in 1583, he summarized all that the sixteenth century knew of the epochs, the chronological systems and the calendars of the ancients. Here he admires, for example, the year of three hundred sixty days used by the ancient Egyptians as being "most ancient and most simple." 70

Closely allied with this interest in the ancient Orient as the source of wisdom and philosophy is the Renaissance interest in Egyptian hieroglyphics-a subject much too lengthy to be dealt with here.7' From classical authors, from the writings of Clement of Alexandria, and especially from the Hieroglyphica of Horapollon (fourth century of our era), the humanists gained an inaccurate knowledge of the ancient Egyptian writing, a knowledge centered about the secret and enigmatic elements in the ideographic symbols. But in their search for ancient wisdom, the humanists eagerly seized upon any information that might contain the key to the wisdom of most ancient and mysterious Egypt-wisdom which classical authors praised, and which was so closely associated with the mysteries of ancient philosophy and the occult. Here was a new language for the humanist to master, and those who were inclined toward the occult and esoteric were especially intrigued, for here, they felt, was not only a key to ancient wisdom, but by clever arrangement of images and by the addition of a few signs of their own, whole sentences, mottoes and coats of arms could be formulated that would be known only to the initiate.

Thus, it may be said that far from considering Greece as the original home of civilization, wisdom and the arts, the humanists recog- nized and gave credit to the earlier contributions of the pre-classical civilizations of the ancient Orient. True, much of their interest was based on misunderstanding and misinformation, yet inaccurate and partial as was their knowledge, the humanists evinced a great interest in the ancient cultures and thought of the pre-Greek nations. They certainly did not ignore the great debt of Greece to her earlier neighbors.

Elmira College. 70 De emendatione temporum losephi Scaligeri (Frankfort, 1593), 133. 71 See Karl Giehlow, "Die Hieroglyphenkunde des Humanismus in der Allegorie

der Renaissance, besonders der Ehrenpforte Kaisers Maximilian I." in the Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhochsten Kaiserhauses, XXXII (1915); Ludwig Volkmann, Bilderschriften der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1923); and Karl H. Dannenfeldt, Late Renaissance Interest in the Ancient Orient (Dissertation, Uni- versity of Chicago, 1948), Ch. IV.



Documents

The Renaissance and the Pre-Classical Civilizations