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Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
Placing Bruno—both advanced philosopher and magician burned at the stake—in the Hermetic tradition, Yates’s acclaimed study gives an overview not only of Renaissance humanism but of its interplay—and conflict—with magic and occult practices.
502 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
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3382 people want to read
About the author
Frances A. Yates
39 books206 followersDame Frances Amelia Yates DBE FBA was an English historian who focused on the study of the Renaissance. In an academic capacity, she taught at the Warburg Institute of the University of London for many years, and also wrote a number of seminal books on the subject of esoteric history.
Yates was born to a middle-class family in Portsmouth, and was largely self-educated, before attaining a BA and MA in French at the University College, London. She began to publish her research in scholarly journals and academic books, focusing on 16th century theatre and the life of John Florio. In 1941, she was employed by the Warburg Institute, and began to work on what she termed "Warburgian history", emphasising a pan-European and inter-disciplinary approach to historiography.
In 1964 she published Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, an examination of Bruno, which came to be seen as her most significant publication. In this book, she emphasised the role of Hermeticism in Bruno's works, and the role that magic and mysticism played in Renaissance thinking. She wrote extensively on the occult or Neoplatonic philosophies of the Renaissance.
Yates was born to a middle-class family in Portsmouth, and was largely self-educated, before attaining a BA and MA in French at the University College, London. She began to publish her research in scholarly journals and academic books, focusing on 16th century theatre and the life of John Florio. In 1941, she was employed by the Warburg Institute, and began to work on what she termed "Warburgian history", emphasising a pan-European and inter-disciplinary approach to historiography.
In 1964 she published Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, an examination of Bruno, which came to be seen as her most significant publication. In this book, she emphasised the role of Hermeticism in Bruno's works, and the role that magic and mysticism played in Renaissance thinking. She wrote extensively on the occult or Neoplatonic philosophies of the Renaissance.
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November 19, 2009
This book was revolutionary at the time of its publication because Yates rejected the imposition of 20th century categories on earlier periods. Those who studied Bruno's scientific and mathematical advances ignored his interest in magic and mysticism, and vice versa. Yates surmounted this division and showed how inseparable the two truly were. For instance, Bruno's involvement with Copernicus occurred because he needed more accurate astronomical calculations for his astrological work. This study showed how much overlap there was between the commencement of scientific humanism and the continued belief in magic. Yates' groundbreaking work remains an important call for historians to treat the ideas and thinkers of the past on their own ground rather than imposing modern judgments of their validity.
April 24, 2022
16. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates
published: 1964
format: 461-page paperback
acquired: 2013
read: Dec 15, 2021 – Apr 19, 2022
time reading: 33:01, 4.3 mpp
rating: 5
locations: Bruno lived in Nola, Naples, Paris, London (with a stop in Oxford), Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstadt, Frankfurt, Padua, Venice (where we was arrested) and Rome (where he was imprisoned and executed), 1548-1600.
about the author: English Historian associated with the Warburg Institute, University of London: 1899 –1981
Giordano Bruno is famous for fully embracing Copernicus's uncentering of the earth and taking it one step beyond - arguing for infinite universe, the earth just one object in this vast space; and that there was no center. No one else was arguing this. He was arrested in 1592 in Venice, interrogated by the church for 8 years and on February 17, 1600, with his tongue physically muffled, he was hung upside and burned in Rome. Among the intellectually swirling early years of the 17th century and later enlightenment, he was viewed as a martyr to science and as an exemplum of the muffling by the church of free exploration.
Yates book is a targeted correction of the myth. Bruno was no scientist. He was deeply religious and his entire outlook was spiritual. The infinite universe was, to him, kind of a reflection of the infinite thinking-space in our own minds, one which he made an active effort to cram, in memory, everything important (in order to better link in with god). But Yates goes one step further herself, arguing that Giordano Bruno was pursuing a Hermitic religion - that is he took the so called Hermetic writings, roughly discovered by Europe in the mid 15th century, as an ancient source of truth, more ancient than Christianity or its Judaic parent or any known ancient religion. These are very spiritual writings with a striking creation story, and full gnostic ideas related to Egyptian mythology, and full of magic, even providing instructions on how to create magical talismans and statues.
While I can't speak for how original her idea was in 1964, I think she could make her case in a short scholarly article. It's not doubtful. So while this book is thematically all about this argument, it's also a whole lot more: a background, biography and exploration of who Bruno was and what his influence was. The first half is an explanation of these Hermetic writings and what they were. The second half is the life of Bruno and an overview of his constant ferocious writing he continually published until his arrest. Then she ends with a look at how European scientific thought developed after Bruno. The scientific perspective began to dominate the intellectual world a few decades after Bruno's execution, led especially by Rene Descartes. The age of enlightenment did not look back on Bruno's ideas, but marched ahead as if it was always there. And Yates asks, what changed? What allowed the intellectual community to make the shift from religion, and spiritual ideas, and magic and alchemy, to, as Yates put it, "mechanical" sciences? And why is Bruno hanging out in between these two states of mind?
------
The writings of Hermes Trismegistus are a collection of Egyptian-influence Greek religious texts from the 2nd century. They are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, but the true authors are unknown. In the 1460's they were translated from Greek into Latin by Marsilo Ficino for the Cosimo de' Medici. For roughly 150 years Ficino's Hermetica would heavily influence European religious and intellectual thought. They were considered nearly the oldest and most sacred texts available. They were seen to predict Christianity, and were also used to develop practical magic. Shortly after translation Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola merged the ideas in them with Hebrew Jewish Cabalism creating a religious magic philosophy - something not really at all Christian. But still Pope Alexander VI, of the Borgia family, blessed this work as if it were Christian. And this blessing allowed scholars throughout the western Christian world to openly study it. The text (mixed with some other key texts) formed the foundation of respectable occult thinking in Europe. This lasted until Isaac Casaubon, a scholar of Greek with a chip on his shoulder, attacked its age. The language of the work was not an ancient Greek, but a Greek from early Christian era. He published his attack in 1614, after Bruno's execution, effectively closing the Hermetic tradition (although the ideas would linger).
----
Giordano Bruno was a rejected Domincan. Born in Nola, near Naples, he was very religious but kicked out of his Dominican order. He left Italy looking for an audience for his ideas and some sponsorship. He went to Paris where he got some support from King Henry III, then to England where he lived with the French ambassador in London. He famously travelled to Oxford to lecture in what became a something of fantastic argument. Documents of the time point to English scholars slowly picking up on the Hermetic aspects of his Copernican ideas. (Apparently, they brought out their own copies of Ficino). Oddly Bruno was viewed as a papist by protestant Oxford. From England Bruno continued to wander - back to Paris, to Martin Luther's Wittenberg (where he was welcomed warmly), to Prague, Helmstadt, Frankfort, Switzerland, and fatefully to Venice. He had in mind a Giordanic religion. He was no charlatan. He was a sincere magus. Brunos ideas were all in the mind. He elaborated on the medieval memory systems, developing his own style with the goal that he could memorize all the occult information, hundreds and hundreds of facts, complete texts, and that if he could hold it all in his mind at once, he sort of become one with the universe, an all-knowing master. As Yates put it, "The possessor of this system {memorizing eveything} thus rose above time and reflected the whole universe of nature and of man in his mind." Or, as Bruno put it, "Unless you make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand God…If you embrace in your thought all things at once, times, places, substances, qualities, quantities, you may understand God." It's pretty cool stuff. It's also not Christian. Bruno was fearless. Other hermetic scholars tied the hermetica into Christianty. Bruno saw, correctly, they were independent (they are 2nd-century Egyptian gnostic ideas) and dove in. He always saw himself as Christian, but his ideas were truly heretical. This was why he was executed, not because of his patently non-scientific infinite universe.
In the odd swings of history, the documents from Bruno's trial were later carried to Paris and destroyed. But documents from his interrogation exist. And it seems Bruno stuck to his ideas faithfully to the bitter end.
----
I bought this in 2013 in an occult science phase. I started it in December and finished last night. Pages of Hermetic magic, of Latin untranslated, and the writings G Bruno (in Italian and Latin), plus the French commentary, made for very slow reading. But after taking this all in, there is really a rich world to think about. And there is that science thing. The link between the drives of the metaphysical perspectives - those of religion, magic, and science - include a method of structured thinking, but also may be in their origins. Each demands a kind of enlightenment moment to start things off. Even science needs an inspiration. And here at that point of inspiration, Bruno fits all three ideas and makes a nice 3-point intersection. Recommended to anyone excited by these ideas.
published: 1964
format: 461-page paperback
acquired: 2013
read: Dec 15, 2021 – Apr 19, 2022
time reading: 33:01, 4.3 mpp
rating: 5
locations: Bruno lived in Nola, Naples, Paris, London (with a stop in Oxford), Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstadt, Frankfurt, Padua, Venice (where we was arrested) and Rome (where he was imprisoned and executed), 1548-1600.
about the author: English Historian associated with the Warburg Institute, University of London: 1899 –1981
Giordano Bruno is famous for fully embracing Copernicus's uncentering of the earth and taking it one step beyond - arguing for infinite universe, the earth just one object in this vast space; and that there was no center. No one else was arguing this. He was arrested in 1592 in Venice, interrogated by the church for 8 years and on February 17, 1600, with his tongue physically muffled, he was hung upside and burned in Rome. Among the intellectually swirling early years of the 17th century and later enlightenment, he was viewed as a martyr to science and as an exemplum of the muffling by the church of free exploration.
Yates book is a targeted correction of the myth. Bruno was no scientist. He was deeply religious and his entire outlook was spiritual. The infinite universe was, to him, kind of a reflection of the infinite thinking-space in our own minds, one which he made an active effort to cram, in memory, everything important (in order to better link in with god). But Yates goes one step further herself, arguing that Giordano Bruno was pursuing a Hermitic religion - that is he took the so called Hermetic writings, roughly discovered by Europe in the mid 15th century, as an ancient source of truth, more ancient than Christianity or its Judaic parent or any known ancient religion. These are very spiritual writings with a striking creation story, and full gnostic ideas related to Egyptian mythology, and full of magic, even providing instructions on how to create magical talismans and statues.
While I can't speak for how original her idea was in 1964, I think she could make her case in a short scholarly article. It's not doubtful. So while this book is thematically all about this argument, it's also a whole lot more: a background, biography and exploration of who Bruno was and what his influence was. The first half is an explanation of these Hermetic writings and what they were. The second half is the life of Bruno and an overview of his constant ferocious writing he continually published until his arrest. Then she ends with a look at how European scientific thought developed after Bruno. The scientific perspective began to dominate the intellectual world a few decades after Bruno's execution, led especially by Rene Descartes. The age of enlightenment did not look back on Bruno's ideas, but marched ahead as if it was always there. And Yates asks, what changed? What allowed the intellectual community to make the shift from religion, and spiritual ideas, and magic and alchemy, to, as Yates put it, "mechanical" sciences? And why is Bruno hanging out in between these two states of mind?
------
The writings of Hermes Trismegistus are a collection of Egyptian-influence Greek religious texts from the 2nd century. They are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, but the true authors are unknown. In the 1460's they were translated from Greek into Latin by Marsilo Ficino for the Cosimo de' Medici. For roughly 150 years Ficino's Hermetica would heavily influence European religious and intellectual thought. They were considered nearly the oldest and most sacred texts available. They were seen to predict Christianity, and were also used to develop practical magic. Shortly after translation Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola merged the ideas in them with Hebrew Jewish Cabalism creating a religious magic philosophy - something not really at all Christian. But still Pope Alexander VI, of the Borgia family, blessed this work as if it were Christian. And this blessing allowed scholars throughout the western Christian world to openly study it. The text (mixed with some other key texts) formed the foundation of respectable occult thinking in Europe. This lasted until Isaac Casaubon, a scholar of Greek with a chip on his shoulder, attacked its age. The language of the work was not an ancient Greek, but a Greek from early Christian era. He published his attack in 1614, after Bruno's execution, effectively closing the Hermetic tradition (although the ideas would linger).
----
Giordano Bruno was a rejected Domincan. Born in Nola, near Naples, he was very religious but kicked out of his Dominican order. He left Italy looking for an audience for his ideas and some sponsorship. He went to Paris where he got some support from King Henry III, then to England where he lived with the French ambassador in London. He famously travelled to Oxford to lecture in what became a something of fantastic argument. Documents of the time point to English scholars slowly picking up on the Hermetic aspects of his Copernican ideas. (Apparently, they brought out their own copies of Ficino). Oddly Bruno was viewed as a papist by protestant Oxford. From England Bruno continued to wander - back to Paris, to Martin Luther's Wittenberg (where he was welcomed warmly), to Prague, Helmstadt, Frankfort, Switzerland, and fatefully to Venice. He had in mind a Giordanic religion. He was no charlatan. He was a sincere magus. Brunos ideas were all in the mind. He elaborated on the medieval memory systems, developing his own style with the goal that he could memorize all the occult information, hundreds and hundreds of facts, complete texts, and that if he could hold it all in his mind at once, he sort of become one with the universe, an all-knowing master. As Yates put it, "The possessor of this system {memorizing eveything} thus rose above time and reflected the whole universe of nature and of man in his mind." Or, as Bruno put it, "Unless you make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand God…If you embrace in your thought all things at once, times, places, substances, qualities, quantities, you may understand God." It's pretty cool stuff. It's also not Christian. Bruno was fearless. Other hermetic scholars tied the hermetica into Christianty. Bruno saw, correctly, they were independent (they are 2nd-century Egyptian gnostic ideas) and dove in. He always saw himself as Christian, but his ideas were truly heretical. This was why he was executed, not because of his patently non-scientific infinite universe.
In the odd swings of history, the documents from Bruno's trial were later carried to Paris and destroyed. But documents from his interrogation exist. And it seems Bruno stuck to his ideas faithfully to the bitter end.
----
I bought this in 2013 in an occult science phase. I started it in December and finished last night. Pages of Hermetic magic, of Latin untranslated, and the writings G Bruno (in Italian and Latin), plus the French commentary, made for very slow reading. But after taking this all in, there is really a rich world to think about. And there is that science thing. The link between the drives of the metaphysical perspectives - those of religion, magic, and science - include a method of structured thinking, but also may be in their origins. Each demands a kind of enlightenment moment to start things off. Even science needs an inspiration. And here at that point of inspiration, Bruno fits all three ideas and makes a nice 3-point intersection. Recommended to anyone excited by these ideas.
April 7, 2012
This was a path-breaking book, and for me, a revelation. Yates' account of the little monk burnt at the stake in Rome in 1600 was revisionist history, but when I read it, I didn't realise it. Till Yates, Bruno was a revolutionary free-thinker murdered by Papism out of little more than pique. His thinking system was lionised, his memory system admired and his belief in multiple inhabited worlds considered very advanced and even scientific. But I didn't know any of this.
Yates paints a different picture of an unscientific man, whose scientific ideas were mostly cribbed from Lucretius, and whose belief in "Hermeticism" tragic, and her account has triumphed as, in general, it should.
But Bruno, even for Yates, had very redeeming features, and his aim to enlarge Christianity through incorporation of the teachings of one Hermes Trimegistus, was a noble one. Sadly for him, Hermes' works were a forgery and not the words a great thinker who lived even before Moses - but the forgery wasn't revealed till well after Bruno's demise, and even now there are believers.
What I liked most about this book, however, was its truly wonderful account of "white magic" and its place in renaissance thought. It led me on to the real deal, the thinkers who made up the white magic brigade spanning several centuries, and their admirers and acolytes. It has been a fascinating journey and Yates began it for me.
There is a kind of postscript to this: in 2000, the 400th anniversary of Bruno's execution, half a million people gathered at the square in Rome where he was burnt at the stake, and asked among other things that Bruno be pardoned. The Vatican did not agree.
Yates paints a different picture of an unscientific man, whose scientific ideas were mostly cribbed from Lucretius, and whose belief in "Hermeticism" tragic, and her account has triumphed as, in general, it should.
But Bruno, even for Yates, had very redeeming features, and his aim to enlarge Christianity through incorporation of the teachings of one Hermes Trimegistus, was a noble one. Sadly for him, Hermes' works were a forgery and not the words a great thinker who lived even before Moses - but the forgery wasn't revealed till well after Bruno's demise, and even now there are believers.
What I liked most about this book, however, was its truly wonderful account of "white magic" and its place in renaissance thought. It led me on to the real deal, the thinkers who made up the white magic brigade spanning several centuries, and their admirers and acolytes. It has been a fascinating journey and Yates began it for me.
There is a kind of postscript to this: in 2000, the 400th anniversary of Bruno's execution, half a million people gathered at the square in Rome where he was burnt at the stake, and asked among other things that Bruno be pardoned. The Vatican did not agree.
January 14, 2009
Yates' classic study of the 'Renaissance magus' Giordano Bruno left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the book is full of relevant information and insights into the world of esoteric thought in the Renaissance, and this makes it an essential read for students of hermeticism in the premodern period.
At the same time, I felt the work wavered a bit too much between being an introduction in hermetic thought from Ficino to Fludd and beyond, and being a biography of Bruno himself. I found the former tendencies of the book much more satisfying, because, despite an extensive series of chapters on Bruno, the true nature of his thought didn't come across convincingly.
Yates has been criticised in more recent scholarship for trying to force Bruno into a 'grand narrative' of renaissance magical philosophy, and this is also the impression I sometimes got while reading the parts about Bruno. For some reason, I felt Yates' story lacked argumentation, or at least that it did not communicate it clearly enough.
Regardless, the book is indeed valuable as an overview of hermetic and esoteric thinking, and its status as a classic work that would challenge scholarship of religion and history stands to this day. Yates may not have been right about everything, but she certainly stimulated a new generation of scholars to look at things from a fresh perspective.
At the same time, I felt the work wavered a bit too much between being an introduction in hermetic thought from Ficino to Fludd and beyond, and being a biography of Bruno himself. I found the former tendencies of the book much more satisfying, because, despite an extensive series of chapters on Bruno, the true nature of his thought didn't come across convincingly.
Yates has been criticised in more recent scholarship for trying to force Bruno into a 'grand narrative' of renaissance magical philosophy, and this is also the impression I sometimes got while reading the parts about Bruno. For some reason, I felt Yates' story lacked argumentation, or at least that it did not communicate it clearly enough.
Regardless, the book is indeed valuable as an overview of hermetic and esoteric thinking, and its status as a classic work that would challenge scholarship of religion and history stands to this day. Yates may not have been right about everything, but she certainly stimulated a new generation of scholars to look at things from a fresh perspective.
March 27, 2012
Dame Frances Yates is one of the most accessible and passionate scholarly writers I have encountered.
The case presented in this book is somewhat dated, with many of her assumptions and conclusions having been refuted by more modern scholarship. That being said this, along with Dame Yates’ follow-up works, are still the best and most accessible introductions to the case of the reinterpretation and popularization of occult science in the early Renaissance. The beginning of the book gives a brief history of the mythical character Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient sage said to have delivered all science, medicine and magic to mankind, and outlines the influence of this figure on the minds of the greatest thinkers of the Common Era.
From there Yates takes us through the story of the revival of Hermes in the 14th Century in the court of Cosimo de Medici who had his scribe and physician Marsillio Ficino translate the newly rediscovered Corpus Hermeticum, 14 spiritual and philosophic tracts believed to predate the writings of Moses and to have influenced and informed all of the literature of the Monotheistic that led up to the revelation of Christianity. For more on the Hermeticum see Garth Fowden’s “Egyptian Hermes,” and for modern and accessible translations of them I recommend Brian Copenhaver’s “Hermetica.”
Yates makes the case that Hermes’ influence spreads like wildfire across the intellectual West, inspiring in many cases an Egyptian revival as it did in the case of Giordano Bruno, her works’ namesake and the primary subject of the latter half of the book. To develop this point, Yates traces the flood of Hermes ideas and influence through some key figures in the early to late renaissance; Pico de Mirandolla, Cornelius Agrippa and up through the life of Bruno and his contemporaries.
The life of Bruno, and the role of the Hermeticum in his thought is the focus of the entire latter half of the book. It needs to be read in concert with her companion work, “The Art of Memory,” as these two works are designed to develop the life, thought and influence of Giordano Bruno in an incredibly complete sense. To a degree I think that she accomplishes this, though at times it is difficult to tell. The most frustrating thing to me when I originally read this work was that the Latin passages from Bruno and other’s works were not translated; they are given instead in the original with Yates’ commentaries. I am eager to re-read this work once again with the aid of Google translate or a similar program to see if it can help me elucidate Bruno’s thought in something perhaps a little closer to his own words.
This book has continually raised more questions for me than it answered; and this is not a bad thing. Yates’ mind and style of writing have a way of sweeping around the cultural influences of her subjects and sucking you into the history of the age and ideas that I couldn’t help but start searching and seeking out the subtle references she made in the work, couldn’t resist the temptation to seek out the source materials themselves and start to get sucked into the same passion for the mystery of the occult philosophy that Yates spent her entire life uncovering.
The influence of Yates’ works are as wide-sweeping as they come, they uncover hidden threads lying at the heart of many of the greatest movements of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The studies that she spent her life developing along with her fellows at the Warburg institute has in large part transformed Renaissance studies and this is one of the seminal works of her life; I cannot recommend this enough.
The case presented in this book is somewhat dated, with many of her assumptions and conclusions having been refuted by more modern scholarship. That being said this, along with Dame Yates’ follow-up works, are still the best and most accessible introductions to the case of the reinterpretation and popularization of occult science in the early Renaissance. The beginning of the book gives a brief history of the mythical character Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient sage said to have delivered all science, medicine and magic to mankind, and outlines the influence of this figure on the minds of the greatest thinkers of the Common Era.
From there Yates takes us through the story of the revival of Hermes in the 14th Century in the court of Cosimo de Medici who had his scribe and physician Marsillio Ficino translate the newly rediscovered Corpus Hermeticum, 14 spiritual and philosophic tracts believed to predate the writings of Moses and to have influenced and informed all of the literature of the Monotheistic that led up to the revelation of Christianity. For more on the Hermeticum see Garth Fowden’s “Egyptian Hermes,” and for modern and accessible translations of them I recommend Brian Copenhaver’s “Hermetica.”
Yates makes the case that Hermes’ influence spreads like wildfire across the intellectual West, inspiring in many cases an Egyptian revival as it did in the case of Giordano Bruno, her works’ namesake and the primary subject of the latter half of the book. To develop this point, Yates traces the flood of Hermes ideas and influence through some key figures in the early to late renaissance; Pico de Mirandolla, Cornelius Agrippa and up through the life of Bruno and his contemporaries.
The life of Bruno, and the role of the Hermeticum in his thought is the focus of the entire latter half of the book. It needs to be read in concert with her companion work, “The Art of Memory,” as these two works are designed to develop the life, thought and influence of Giordano Bruno in an incredibly complete sense. To a degree I think that she accomplishes this, though at times it is difficult to tell. The most frustrating thing to me when I originally read this work was that the Latin passages from Bruno and other’s works were not translated; they are given instead in the original with Yates’ commentaries. I am eager to re-read this work once again with the aid of Google translate or a similar program to see if it can help me elucidate Bruno’s thought in something perhaps a little closer to his own words.
This book has continually raised more questions for me than it answered; and this is not a bad thing. Yates’ mind and style of writing have a way of sweeping around the cultural influences of her subjects and sucking you into the history of the age and ideas that I couldn’t help but start searching and seeking out the subtle references she made in the work, couldn’t resist the temptation to seek out the source materials themselves and start to get sucked into the same passion for the mystery of the occult philosophy that Yates spent her entire life uncovering.
The influence of Yates’ works are as wide-sweeping as they come, they uncover hidden threads lying at the heart of many of the greatest movements of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The studies that she spent her life developing along with her fellows at the Warburg institute has in large part transformed Renaissance studies and this is one of the seminal works of her life; I cannot recommend this enough.
April 29, 2023
This was a really fun and mind-opening read. Yates stretches a narrative arc over the complex intellectual landscape of the 16th century, focusing particularly on the flowering of hermeticism and how it competed and hybridised with orthodox christianity and emerging scientism. The story starts around 1460 when a monk, Leonardo da Pistoia, arrives in Florence with the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of Greek texts assumedly authored by the legendary Egyptian priest Hermes Trismegistus. Cosimo de Medici requests Marsilio Ficino, who was heading his Plato Academy at the time, to translate the documents. This constituted the birth of a Western neoplatonic, hermetic tradition which has been hugely influential but always suspect as it sat uneasily with dominant intellectual and religious currents of the day. The standing of renaissance hermeticist ideas got a decisive blow when the humanist Isaac Casaubon was able to show in 1614 that the Hermetic writings were not the work of an ancient priest that reflected some foundational theology but were written in post-Christian times. Yates documents how neoplatonic, hermetic ideas flourished in the 150 years between these signature dates through a chain of remarkable figures - starting with Ficino and onwards with Pico della Mirandola, Agrippa, Bruno, and Campanella.
One of the most telling episodes recounted in the book occurs around the 1580s, when a natural sciences-based worldview was gaining ground. The clash between the hermetic and the scientific worldview manifested itself in an emblematic way when the magus Giordano Bruno found himself debating Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system with scholars at Oxford. Both parties in the debate supported the Polish astronomer's findings but based on a radically different way of thinking. For the scholars the famous concentric circle diagram with the Sun at its center was a reflection of mathematical relationships. For Bruno it was a chiffre, a symbol that expressed the magical philosophy of universal animation. The Earth's movement was simply a manifestation of life's divine energy.
It occurs to me that with the Scientific Revolution and subsequent Enlightenment we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. There is something beautiful in the hermetic conviction that everything that is under the sun is a manifestation, at various levels of perfection, of a divine energy, and that it is worthwhile to try and perfect ourselves so as to be able to attune ourselves to this higher presence. It infuses us with feelings of respect for a living cosmos and, as Henri Corbin as underlined, celebrates a creative imagination as theophany, i.e. as a recurrence of Creation.
Hermetic thinking is not dead. It lives on in esoteric practices, artistic creation, analytic psychology and in contemporary philosophy. In the rough-and-tumble of a 21st century transition out of industrial age inertia it may prove to be an important driver of cultural renewal.
One of the most telling episodes recounted in the book occurs around the 1580s, when a natural sciences-based worldview was gaining ground. The clash between the hermetic and the scientific worldview manifested itself in an emblematic way when the magus Giordano Bruno found himself debating Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system with scholars at Oxford. Both parties in the debate supported the Polish astronomer's findings but based on a radically different way of thinking. For the scholars the famous concentric circle diagram with the Sun at its center was a reflection of mathematical relationships. For Bruno it was a chiffre, a symbol that expressed the magical philosophy of universal animation. The Earth's movement was simply a manifestation of life's divine energy.
It occurs to me that with the Scientific Revolution and subsequent Enlightenment we have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. There is something beautiful in the hermetic conviction that everything that is under the sun is a manifestation, at various levels of perfection, of a divine energy, and that it is worthwhile to try and perfect ourselves so as to be able to attune ourselves to this higher presence. It infuses us with feelings of respect for a living cosmos and, as Henri Corbin as underlined, celebrates a creative imagination as theophany, i.e. as a recurrence of Creation.
Hermetic thinking is not dead. It lives on in esoteric practices, artistic creation, analytic psychology and in contemporary philosophy. In the rough-and-tumble of a 21st century transition out of industrial age inertia it may prove to be an important driver of cultural renewal.
February 25, 2025
To understand the Renaissance, the magic of the Renaissance first must be understood. Pseudo-Dionysius, Plotinus, Moses, Plato, Titus Lucretius, and Hermes Trismegistus are part of the magical tradition.
Desperation ensues when superstitions start to die and medieval certainty re-introduces humans and humanity back into the foundation of being. Dante begins the beginning of the Renaissance by re-introducing the old to be seen differently and through its own eyes. The superstitious must react and they latch onto Hermes Trismegistus for reassurance.
Magic needs fools to thrive while progress ignores the idiots. The Renaissance returns humanness for understanding and positive change frightens fools. The fools need a talisman and create a pseudo-Christian in Hermes Trismegistus.
For the magicians and Giordano Bruno and his fellow anti-humanist, nature explains God and Aquinas’ analogical epistemology is too off-putting but on the right track. Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1461) fears humans knowing beyond the certainty of the Gospel message and triune Gods and argues for learned ignorance and contradictions of coincidences becoming our essences for our essences. Bruno tries to save the sinking system through desperately clinging to new myths.
Bruno and his fellow Renaissance magicians go back to the beginning, the foundation of all truth, the Egyptian occultist who started it all, the well-spring of truth Hermes Trismegistus.
The world spirit permeates all and Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things is only slightly off according to the myth builders since the essence of all essences is misunderstood and the swerve at the last moment is guided by the spirit and Pelagius is mistaken. Anti-humanist always mock Pelagius since belief trumps grace and good works are not sufficient for salvation in their mean-spirited weird-world view and mystical talisman are necessary for understanding the God among us through his works and creations.
Bruno latches on to the infinite world and infinite time and infinite attributes for God as revealed by the original revealer, Hermes Trismegistus, and the mysteries that follow from that.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul’s first supposed convert gives a negative understanding for God by identifying what he is not, and creates an angelic divine order and without him the certainty of the Trinity would have been incomplete and even more of a mystery than it is today. Aquinas relies on him extensively and authoritatively. Bruno does too.
This book is very impressive especially considering it is from 1964. There’s one place the author could not have taken the story, and that is Issaac Newton. He was in the cult of Hermes Trismegistus and wrote more about theology than he did physics but his works were only discovered after this book was published. Newton was a non-trinitarian and he was certain that God set the world in motion to balance the world as He revealed Himself through the universe itself. Newton never strayed too far from the cult he learned in his college days.
Desperation ensues when superstitions start to die and medieval certainty re-introduces humans and humanity back into the foundation of being. Dante begins the beginning of the Renaissance by re-introducing the old to be seen differently and through its own eyes. The superstitious must react and they latch onto Hermes Trismegistus for reassurance.
Magic needs fools to thrive while progress ignores the idiots. The Renaissance returns humanness for understanding and positive change frightens fools. The fools need a talisman and create a pseudo-Christian in Hermes Trismegistus.
For the magicians and Giordano Bruno and his fellow anti-humanist, nature explains God and Aquinas’ analogical epistemology is too off-putting but on the right track. Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1461) fears humans knowing beyond the certainty of the Gospel message and triune Gods and argues for learned ignorance and contradictions of coincidences becoming our essences for our essences. Bruno tries to save the sinking system through desperately clinging to new myths.
Bruno and his fellow Renaissance magicians go back to the beginning, the foundation of all truth, the Egyptian occultist who started it all, the well-spring of truth Hermes Trismegistus.
The world spirit permeates all and Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things is only slightly off according to the myth builders since the essence of all essences is misunderstood and the swerve at the last moment is guided by the spirit and Pelagius is mistaken. Anti-humanist always mock Pelagius since belief trumps grace and good works are not sufficient for salvation in their mean-spirited weird-world view and mystical talisman are necessary for understanding the God among us through his works and creations.
Bruno latches on to the infinite world and infinite time and infinite attributes for God as revealed by the original revealer, Hermes Trismegistus, and the mysteries that follow from that.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul’s first supposed convert gives a negative understanding for God by identifying what he is not, and creates an angelic divine order and without him the certainty of the Trinity would have been incomplete and even more of a mystery than it is today. Aquinas relies on him extensively and authoritatively. Bruno does too.
This book is very impressive especially considering it is from 1964. There’s one place the author could not have taken the story, and that is Issaac Newton. He was in the cult of Hermes Trismegistus and wrote more about theology than he did physics but his works were only discovered after this book was published. Newton was a non-trinitarian and he was certain that God set the world in motion to balance the world as He revealed Himself through the universe itself. Newton never strayed too far from the cult he learned in his college days.
February 25, 2016
Good but dated (1964), where I started after our Moon landing and after 15pp of B's Latin poem on the Innumerable Worlds (400pp). Also, GB as magus* is only 1/4 the story. You'd never guess from this that 1) GB wrote a hilarious comedy, Candelaio*; and 2) GB laughed aloud after quoting Aristotle, which he mastered, and taught at the U of Toulouse (1579). 3) He also mastered Copernicus (spherical geometry) and wrote five books on math (one anticipating calculus, De minimo). He interviewed for the open Chair of Math (U Padua, 1592) won by a guy who had published only one piece --on art. The winner would not publish on math (and astronomy) for 16 more years when he became a household name, though Kepler said he used Bruno's habitable idea unacknowledged: Galileo Galilei.
* GB did write 4 books (of his 26) on magic, but he also satirizes Magi in his comedy, with 4 of 'em of different stripes: Scaramuré (whom men trust to improve love, a Caribbean obeah doctor in my version), Bartolomeo the working chemist-alchemist, Cencio the conman-alchemist, and Consalvo the spice-pharmaceutical agent.
* GB did write 4 books (of his 26) on magic, but he also satirizes Magi in his comedy, with 4 of 'em of different stripes: Scaramuré (whom men trust to improve love, a Caribbean obeah doctor in my version), Bartolomeo the working chemist-alchemist, Cencio the conman-alchemist, and Consalvo the spice-pharmaceutical agent.
November 24, 2025
3-3.5 stars
I think one can say that Frances Yates wrote the book on Giordano Bruno and the Renaissance Hermetic tradition, not only literally (in this volume), but also figuratively in the sense that she broke new ground in academia that helped to make the study of the philosophy (theology?) of magic and its practitioners a ‘valid’ pursuit for scholars. Her work is, of course, early and no doubt has been superseded in certain of its aspects since its publication, but I think it still provides an excellent groundwork for those interested in the subject. It attempts to answer a number of foundational questions, amongst them: What was the renaissance magus? Who was Hermes Trismegistus and what did he have to do with Egyptian magic, perennial religion, and esoteric secrets? And how do all of these things play into the life of a Dominican friar in the sixteenth century?
Renaissance Hermetism arose in the sixteenth century in western Europe via the transmission of Greek writings into Latin that were ascribed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. These writings purported to be the esoteric philosophy and theology of ancient Egypt, viewed through this lens as the original golden age where the true philosopher-priest-king Hermes Trismegistus ruled via the ‘true’ universal (or natural) religion which brought down the blessings of the gods through proper use of astral magic. Luckily for the early Christian readers of these texts there were many echoes in them to Judaic and Christian thoughts, beliefs and stories that allowed many of these commentators to see Hermes as the founder and exemplar of a ‘prisca theologia’, or the single true religion of the cosmos that simply found new fruition and continuation in later forms like Christianity (which may or may not have been seen as a diversion that needed to be corrected by the ‘original’ material depending on your perspective).
The earliest, and most famous, progenitors of this belief were Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola who worked hard to bring these ancient beliefs into accord with Christianity in an attempt to create a ‘white’ or ‘natural’ magic (primarily based on astral powers and the theory of microcosm/macrocosm) that could licitly be practiced within the auspices of the Church. While controversial and never accepted as truly orthodox, these beliefs were held by many to be true and even got some traction within clerical circles. Perhaps the most striking example is in Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar from southern Italy, whose adoption of these beliefs took him far beyond the pale of orthodoxy, leading to an itinerant life and ultimately his death at the stake.
Yates’ work can be seen as primarily doing two things: explicating the somewhat tangled beliefs of Hermetism through the writings of Hermes Trismegistus as interpreted by Ficino, della Mirandola and their descendants; and following the life and writings of Giordano Bruno as perhaps the most incandescent of these descendants in his peregrinations across Europe. Yates herself summarizes this process:
A lot of ground is covered and Bruno is depicted as an equally intriguing and difficult figure. He is both a man of brilliance with visions of perfecting human society and a vexing man full of pride and definitely lacking in tact. I think Yates is on her firmest ground in her explication of Hermetic beliefs and following the life and times of Bruno (and the later figure of Tommaso Campanella who she sees as a somewhat softened continuation of Bruno’s Hermetic project). I think her attempt to tie up Renaissance Hermetism with both the Rosicrucians and Freemasonry, all pointing back to a seminal source in Bruno (due to his connections with both England and Germany) is not as successful. While it may not be completely unlikely that Bruno had a seminal influence on these later traditions, it does seem perhaps a bridge too far. I have little doubt that the three esoteric traditions of Hermetism, Freemasonry and the Rosicrucians have interconnections and influences on each other and possibly share similar sources, but the attempt to tie them all directly back to Bruno as a single fundamental source seems a little sparse on evidence (though perhaps I have misunderstood her intentions here).
I must admit to being somewhat surprised at Yates’ final chapter that seems to trumpet the success of ‘genuine science’ over the animistic and wrong-headed magic of the Renaissance Magi. I wouldn’t expect her to believe in the reality of the magic espoused by Bruno and his brethren, but I also wouldn’t have expected her to so soundly beat the drum of modernity’s triumph over the superstitions of the past given her place as the grand dame of esoteric studies. She does, however, credit the Hermetists with the place as the originators of their own downfall: without their intense desire to investigate the mysteries of the living and animated world around them (admittedly through the lens of astral magical influences) using mathematics (admittedly numerological in basis) to learn about a world in which “the operator can rely on the universal validity of the procedures which he uses” she argues that the change in approach that led to the modern scientific method may not have arisen. They were, in essence, sowing the seeds of their own destruction. I am not quite sure how far I would take that, but it’s an intriguing thought that the very methodology of the ‘natural magicians’ of the Renaissance could have been the necessary condition for the rise of the scientific method. Neil deGrasse Tyson would no doubt be driven to distraction by the idea which in itself makes it appealing to me.
I think one can say that Frances Yates wrote the book on Giordano Bruno and the Renaissance Hermetic tradition, not only literally (in this volume), but also figuratively in the sense that she broke new ground in academia that helped to make the study of the philosophy (theology?) of magic and its practitioners a ‘valid’ pursuit for scholars. Her work is, of course, early and no doubt has been superseded in certain of its aspects since its publication, but I think it still provides an excellent groundwork for those interested in the subject. It attempts to answer a number of foundational questions, amongst them: What was the renaissance magus? Who was Hermes Trismegistus and what did he have to do with Egyptian magic, perennial religion, and esoteric secrets? And how do all of these things play into the life of a Dominican friar in the sixteenth century?
Renaissance Hermetism arose in the sixteenth century in western Europe via the transmission of Greek writings into Latin that were ascribed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. These writings purported to be the esoteric philosophy and theology of ancient Egypt, viewed through this lens as the original golden age where the true philosopher-priest-king Hermes Trismegistus ruled via the ‘true’ universal (or natural) religion which brought down the blessings of the gods through proper use of astral magic. Luckily for the early Christian readers of these texts there were many echoes in them to Judaic and Christian thoughts, beliefs and stories that allowed many of these commentators to see Hermes as the founder and exemplar of a ‘prisca theologia’, or the single true religion of the cosmos that simply found new fruition and continuation in later forms like Christianity (which may or may not have been seen as a diversion that needed to be corrected by the ‘original’ material depending on your perspective).
The earliest, and most famous, progenitors of this belief were Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola who worked hard to bring these ancient beliefs into accord with Christianity in an attempt to create a ‘white’ or ‘natural’ magic (primarily based on astral powers and the theory of microcosm/macrocosm) that could licitly be practiced within the auspices of the Church. While controversial and never accepted as truly orthodox, these beliefs were held by many to be true and even got some traction within clerical circles. Perhaps the most striking example is in Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar from southern Italy, whose adoption of these beliefs took him far beyond the pale of orthodoxy, leading to an itinerant life and ultimately his death at the stake.
Yates’ work can be seen as primarily doing two things: explicating the somewhat tangled beliefs of Hermetism through the writings of Hermes Trismegistus as interpreted by Ficino, della Mirandola and their descendants; and following the life and writings of Giordano Bruno as perhaps the most incandescent of these descendants in his peregrinations across Europe. Yates herself summarizes this process:
We have to see Bruno and Campanella within the sequence which we have tried to build up in this book. Ficino revives Hermetic magic, apologises for it as compatible with Christianity, tries to implicate Thomas Aquinas in his use of talismans. Pico della Mirandola thinks that Magia and Cabala confirm the divinity of Christ. Pope Alexander VI has a fresco painted in the Vatican, full of Egyptianism, to mark his protection of Magia. The fact is that Hermes Trismegistus had been received into the Church by Lactantius, and this momentous step, never accepted by all, always subject to severe criticism by the orthodox, eventually led to Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella.
A lot of ground is covered and Bruno is depicted as an equally intriguing and difficult figure. He is both a man of brilliance with visions of perfecting human society and a vexing man full of pride and definitely lacking in tact. I think Yates is on her firmest ground in her explication of Hermetic beliefs and following the life and times of Bruno (and the later figure of Tommaso Campanella who she sees as a somewhat softened continuation of Bruno’s Hermetic project). I think her attempt to tie up Renaissance Hermetism with both the Rosicrucians and Freemasonry, all pointing back to a seminal source in Bruno (due to his connections with both England and Germany) is not as successful. While it may not be completely unlikely that Bruno had a seminal influence on these later traditions, it does seem perhaps a bridge too far. I have little doubt that the three esoteric traditions of Hermetism, Freemasonry and the Rosicrucians have interconnections and influences on each other and possibly share similar sources, but the attempt to tie them all directly back to Bruno as a single fundamental source seems a little sparse on evidence (though perhaps I have misunderstood her intentions here).
I must admit to being somewhat surprised at Yates’ final chapter that seems to trumpet the success of ‘genuine science’ over the animistic and wrong-headed magic of the Renaissance Magi. I wouldn’t expect her to believe in the reality of the magic espoused by Bruno and his brethren, but I also wouldn’t have expected her to so soundly beat the drum of modernity’s triumph over the superstitions of the past given her place as the grand dame of esoteric studies. She does, however, credit the Hermetists with the place as the originators of their own downfall: without their intense desire to investigate the mysteries of the living and animated world around them (admittedly through the lens of astral magical influences) using mathematics (admittedly numerological in basis) to learn about a world in which “the operator can rely on the universal validity of the procedures which he uses” she argues that the change in approach that led to the modern scientific method may not have arisen. They were, in essence, sowing the seeds of their own destruction. I am not quite sure how far I would take that, but it’s an intriguing thought that the very methodology of the ‘natural magicians’ of the Renaissance could have been the necessary condition for the rise of the scientific method. Neil deGrasse Tyson would no doubt be driven to distraction by the idea which in itself makes it appealing to me.
September 2, 2015
This book by Frances Yates revolutionized the historical studies of Giordano Bruno. Up until Yates, Bruno was seen as a proto-typical scientist who was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for his heretical scientific views. Yates demonstrates conclusively, with impeccable research, that Bruno was in fact a dyed-in-the-wool magician who believed thoroughly in magic and the occult, who believed that the One True Faith had existed in Ancient Egypt and that medieval Christianity was a pale imitation of this original faith, and who believed further that he, Bruno, was the magus who would lead humanity back to its true religion. Yates writes of all this in a beautiful style, and writes also of the whole context, the Hermetic Tradition, of which Bruno was such an important part. This book not only teaches you a lot about Bruno (more, in fact, than you might ever have really wanted to know!), but it also teaches you about a vanished world, the world of the Middle Ages which could produce figures such as Bruno. A fascinating book!
August 9, 2011
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. I think that Yates has a bit of a tendency to pigeon-hole Bruno's thought more than she should, insisting throughout that his central goal was a return to Egyptianism and that he was fundamentally anti-Christian, and I think that certainly is an overall flaw. But I'm still going to give it five stars anyways just because it's a book that's absolutely worth reading, especially it's beginning and ending. Yates puts Bruno (and his Hermetic contemporaries) in the proper historical position, clearly illustrating that they weren't classical humanists or persecuted scientists but a brand of their own that wasn't medieval and wasn't modern, but still had roads leading in both directions. Also, as a plus, considering how esoteric the subject matter can be, Yates does a good job keeping her writing crisp and clear without oversimplifying.
April 25, 2008
The highest recommendation for Bruno's ideals is that he was burned at the stake. Frances Yates is brilliant here. Don't miss this one.
March 10, 2016
A bit repetitive at times, with some padding here and there, but otherwise an excellent and eminently readable history.
August 21, 2025
Heerlijke these, verrassend vaag uitgewerkt
August 31, 2014
A. Two main intentions of this book:
1. To show that the writings of Bruno are misunderstood. Bruno is normally celebrated in the history of science for his acceptance of the Copernican theory and his own addition that the universe in infinite. This broke the closed Ptolemaic universe. But, Bruno was not a forerunner of modern science. Instead, he advocated a magical hermetic tradition. For example Bruno used the Copernicus heliocentric chart as a talisman.
2. Bruno still deserves a major position in the history of science. There was a strong connection between hermetic thought in the Renaissance and the emergence of early modern science. Magical operations with number contributed to the emergence of genuine mathematics. The Hermetic corpus was filled with sun worship and thus a heliocentric system is embraced. The main connection between the Hermetic tradition and the scientific revolution was man’s divine powers to dominate nature. This is the root of Baconian utilitarianism (man harnessing nature for his own use).
B. Historiographical info
1. Historiography: Yates begins the “Hermeticist approach to the Scientific Revolution.” This is a radical reinterpretation based upon magic that was influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
2. Yates has argued that she herself is not a sorceress. But the book has a magical feel to it.
3. In 1977 her work was attacked on factual grounds in “The Yates Thesis Reconsidered.”
4. But, despite the outdating of her facts one of the most important things she contributed was the notion of a 2 stage scientific revolution. (Stage 1 is magic, stage 2 is mathematics)
C. The Hermetic Tradition
1. The Hermetic tradition was the written work of Hermes Trismegistus who wrote on Egyptian philosophy, religion, and magic. But, for those in the Renaissance he was considered a real Egyptian priest who lived in Antiquity and it was he who Plato and the Greeks derived there knowledge. In the Renaissance what was considered oldest was most divine. The belief in the reality of this man was a huge historical error which had amazing results. It brought about the Renaissance revival of magic.
2. Ficino was the 15th century scribe who translated Hermes work (which he called the Pimander). He was awe struck at the Mosaic (Moses) and Christian truths which this ancient author mysteriously possessed. The truth is that this Hermetic corpus was really written by different people at different times. Their only unity is a religious approach (without a personal God or savior) to salvation and divine knowledge. The cosmology of these writers was one of astrology.
3. The magic of the Hermetica: This contained treatises on alchemy, astrology, and the occult powers of plants, animals, and stones. Particular emphasis is placed on talismans. These are cookbooks for the magician allowing him to cure disease, live a long life, defeat an enemy, or make someone love you.
4. Pico Della Mirandola and Cabalist Magic: He is important to Renaissance magic because he added to this natural magic a Cabalist magic. This was a spiritual magic attempting to contact higher spiritual powers than the natural powers of the cosmos. This attempts to invoke angles and God himself. The belief was that Cabalistic teachings was a secret doctrine that Moses imparted to some of his disciples. Pico’s great importance (as is evidence by his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”) was the new place he secured for man. Man could control his destiny by using Cabala to act upon the world.
5. Cornelius Agrippa’s Survey of Renaissance Magic: This was a popular book on occult philosophy which was important to Bruno. He divided the world into three parts (elemental, celestial, and intellectual). Each world receives influences by the one above it. The magician tries to draw on this power of the upper world by manipulating the lower world.
6. What was the role that Renaissance magic played? (155-56) It was a key factor in bringing about modern science through a psychological reorientation. The Greeks never took the step from their rational thought to apply their knowledge. Why not? They did not want to operate. Mechanical operations were a degeneration from pure rational thought. The Middle Ages carried on this belief that theological contemplation was the true end of man. Renaissance magic changed all of that and made it dignified for man to operate. It was not contrary to God that his great miracle should want to use his powers.
7. There were theological and humanistic objections to Renaissance magic. A religious Hermeticism emerged (largely in France) without the magic.
D. Giordana Bruno
1. Paris: Bruno made his first visit to Paris in 1581. It was in the art of memory that he revealed himself as a magician. The 2 strands converge--mnemonic art and Hermetical magic. The classical art of memory was to imagine a place or a building with each object inside reminding the orator of something. As he spoke he imagined himself walking through this building. This was changed in the Renaissance by replacing building images with magical or talismatic images. He was sent by Henry III into England--this changed his life from a wandering magician into a strange kind of missionary.
2. Hermetic reform in England: Bruno’s moral reform and philosophy are related to his Hermetic religious mission. This philosophical dialog he later translates in terms of Copernican philosophy. By placing him in this context Bruno is at last placed among the movements of his century. His Spaccio may have been the beginning of Elizabethan Renaissance.
3. Bruno in England and his Hermetic Philosophy: In this philosophy Copernicus was believed to have made a beginning, but since he was only a mathematician he could not uncover the meaning of his discovery.
4. Bruno and the Cabala: How was Bruno different from the Renaissance Hermeticism? He rejected the Christian interpretation in favor of his total “Egyptianism.” He viewed Christ as a good Magus.
5. Study of his love poetry to express philosophical or mystical aims. A spiritual record of a man struggling to become divine. Love and the planet Venus.
6. He returns to Paris a second time. The Mordente compass controversy. Mordente develops a new compass, Bruno publishes for him in Latin. Bruno calls him a triumphant idiot for not realizing the true implications of his work. The compass measures divine powers. This is much like Bruno’s attitude toward Copernicus.
7. He then goes to Germany. He lectured at the Wittenberg University.
8. His last published work was De imaginum. The purpose is to show how it is possible for the individual to concentrate on magical images, to become a Solar, Jovial, or Veneral Magus and lead a magical reformation. This book may be an important key to the way in which the Renaissance composed and used images.
9. Returns to Italy. He had no fear of Catholic action against him. He did not believe himself to be anti-Catholic. Instead he wanted to reform the church. The Inquisition questioned him. There is not enough evidence to reconstruct his trial and condemnation. The only similarity with Galileo’s case was that one of the reasons Bruno was condemned was his belief that the earth moved. Galileo lived in a different world (one of mathematics and not Pythagorean intentions and Hermetic seals). But, did Galileo read Bruno--we don’t know. Bruno was not burned at the stake for his philosophical views. Rather he was burned for his religious view for his philosophy was his religion. He dies in 1600.
10. The book ends with a look at Bruno’s impact on Tommaso Campanella.
11. Hermes Trismegistus was dated by Isaac Casaubon in 1614 as not coming from an Egyptian priest but written in post-Christian times. This is a watershed that separates the Renaissance from the modern world
1. To show that the writings of Bruno are misunderstood. Bruno is normally celebrated in the history of science for his acceptance of the Copernican theory and his own addition that the universe in infinite. This broke the closed Ptolemaic universe. But, Bruno was not a forerunner of modern science. Instead, he advocated a magical hermetic tradition. For example Bruno used the Copernicus heliocentric chart as a talisman.
2. Bruno still deserves a major position in the history of science. There was a strong connection between hermetic thought in the Renaissance and the emergence of early modern science. Magical operations with number contributed to the emergence of genuine mathematics. The Hermetic corpus was filled with sun worship and thus a heliocentric system is embraced. The main connection between the Hermetic tradition and the scientific revolution was man’s divine powers to dominate nature. This is the root of Baconian utilitarianism (man harnessing nature for his own use).
B. Historiographical info
1. Historiography: Yates begins the “Hermeticist approach to the Scientific Revolution.” This is a radical reinterpretation based upon magic that was influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
2. Yates has argued that she herself is not a sorceress. But the book has a magical feel to it.
3. In 1977 her work was attacked on factual grounds in “The Yates Thesis Reconsidered.”
4. But, despite the outdating of her facts one of the most important things she contributed was the notion of a 2 stage scientific revolution. (Stage 1 is magic, stage 2 is mathematics)
C. The Hermetic Tradition
1. The Hermetic tradition was the written work of Hermes Trismegistus who wrote on Egyptian philosophy, religion, and magic. But, for those in the Renaissance he was considered a real Egyptian priest who lived in Antiquity and it was he who Plato and the Greeks derived there knowledge. In the Renaissance what was considered oldest was most divine. The belief in the reality of this man was a huge historical error which had amazing results. It brought about the Renaissance revival of magic.
2. Ficino was the 15th century scribe who translated Hermes work (which he called the Pimander). He was awe struck at the Mosaic (Moses) and Christian truths which this ancient author mysteriously possessed. The truth is that this Hermetic corpus was really written by different people at different times. Their only unity is a religious approach (without a personal God or savior) to salvation and divine knowledge. The cosmology of these writers was one of astrology.
3. The magic of the Hermetica: This contained treatises on alchemy, astrology, and the occult powers of plants, animals, and stones. Particular emphasis is placed on talismans. These are cookbooks for the magician allowing him to cure disease, live a long life, defeat an enemy, or make someone love you.
4. Pico Della Mirandola and Cabalist Magic: He is important to Renaissance magic because he added to this natural magic a Cabalist magic. This was a spiritual magic attempting to contact higher spiritual powers than the natural powers of the cosmos. This attempts to invoke angles and God himself. The belief was that Cabalistic teachings was a secret doctrine that Moses imparted to some of his disciples. Pico’s great importance (as is evidence by his “Oration on the Dignity of Man”) was the new place he secured for man. Man could control his destiny by using Cabala to act upon the world.
5. Cornelius Agrippa’s Survey of Renaissance Magic: This was a popular book on occult philosophy which was important to Bruno. He divided the world into three parts (elemental, celestial, and intellectual). Each world receives influences by the one above it. The magician tries to draw on this power of the upper world by manipulating the lower world.
6. What was the role that Renaissance magic played? (155-56) It was a key factor in bringing about modern science through a psychological reorientation. The Greeks never took the step from their rational thought to apply their knowledge. Why not? They did not want to operate. Mechanical operations were a degeneration from pure rational thought. The Middle Ages carried on this belief that theological contemplation was the true end of man. Renaissance magic changed all of that and made it dignified for man to operate. It was not contrary to God that his great miracle should want to use his powers.
7. There were theological and humanistic objections to Renaissance magic. A religious Hermeticism emerged (largely in France) without the magic.
D. Giordana Bruno
1. Paris: Bruno made his first visit to Paris in 1581. It was in the art of memory that he revealed himself as a magician. The 2 strands converge--mnemonic art and Hermetical magic. The classical art of memory was to imagine a place or a building with each object inside reminding the orator of something. As he spoke he imagined himself walking through this building. This was changed in the Renaissance by replacing building images with magical or talismatic images. He was sent by Henry III into England--this changed his life from a wandering magician into a strange kind of missionary.
2. Hermetic reform in England: Bruno’s moral reform and philosophy are related to his Hermetic religious mission. This philosophical dialog he later translates in terms of Copernican philosophy. By placing him in this context Bruno is at last placed among the movements of his century. His Spaccio may have been the beginning of Elizabethan Renaissance.
3. Bruno in England and his Hermetic Philosophy: In this philosophy Copernicus was believed to have made a beginning, but since he was only a mathematician he could not uncover the meaning of his discovery.
4. Bruno and the Cabala: How was Bruno different from the Renaissance Hermeticism? He rejected the Christian interpretation in favor of his total “Egyptianism.” He viewed Christ as a good Magus.
5. Study of his love poetry to express philosophical or mystical aims. A spiritual record of a man struggling to become divine. Love and the planet Venus.
6. He returns to Paris a second time. The Mordente compass controversy. Mordente develops a new compass, Bruno publishes for him in Latin. Bruno calls him a triumphant idiot for not realizing the true implications of his work. The compass measures divine powers. This is much like Bruno’s attitude toward Copernicus.
7. He then goes to Germany. He lectured at the Wittenberg University.
8. His last published work was De imaginum. The purpose is to show how it is possible for the individual to concentrate on magical images, to become a Solar, Jovial, or Veneral Magus and lead a magical reformation. This book may be an important key to the way in which the Renaissance composed and used images.
9. Returns to Italy. He had no fear of Catholic action against him. He did not believe himself to be anti-Catholic. Instead he wanted to reform the church. The Inquisition questioned him. There is not enough evidence to reconstruct his trial and condemnation. The only similarity with Galileo’s case was that one of the reasons Bruno was condemned was his belief that the earth moved. Galileo lived in a different world (one of mathematics and not Pythagorean intentions and Hermetic seals). But, did Galileo read Bruno--we don’t know. Bruno was not burned at the stake for his philosophical views. Rather he was burned for his religious view for his philosophy was his religion. He dies in 1600.
10. The book ends with a look at Bruno’s impact on Tommaso Campanella.
11. Hermes Trismegistus was dated by Isaac Casaubon in 1614 as not coming from an Egyptian priest but written in post-Christian times. This is a watershed that separates the Renaissance from the modern world
July 29, 2018
This was an incredible read. Clear, logically-developed scholarship of the most rigorous kind, it's practically a blueprint for how good scholarship should be conducted.
As someone with an interest in the intellectual history of the time, I'd been wanting to read this book for a while. Yates's now classic study shed way more light than I was expecting. From Ficino and Mirandola to Agrippa to Bruno, Fludd, and even Shakespeare, she illuminates elements of these figures' thought that was unheard of at the time of writing and is still often neglected.
As someone with an interest in the intellectual history of the time, I'd been wanting to read this book for a while. Yates's now classic study shed way more light than I was expecting. From Ficino and Mirandola to Agrippa to Bruno, Fludd, and even Shakespeare, she illuminates elements of these figures' thought that was unheard of at the time of writing and is still often neglected.
September 24, 2012
This was a difficult book to read without having any previous knowledge of Bruno or Renaissance magic. I had expected it to be a straight biography, but it is not. I know Frances Yates has an excellent reputation for scholarship, but I found the book to be a bit of a slog, which may have been because I did not have sufficient knowledge of the background of the subject rather than because her writing was truly difficult.
At any rate, this is not an introductory book to the subject of Renaissance magic, Hermeticism, or Giordano Bruno, and it's not a breezy evening read. It's academic in every sense of the word.
I originally rated this as two stars, but I felt a bit bad for doing so. My lack of background for the material shouldn't really be counted against her very thorough work, so I went back and added a star.
In short, I don't feel qualified to write much more of a review. Yates has definitely done her research, and it's obvious throughout the book. Be prepared for some Latin and Italian quotes, which are not always translated. My seriously rusty high-school Latin was not up to the task. :(
At any rate, this is not an introductory book to the subject of Renaissance magic, Hermeticism, or Giordano Bruno, and it's not a breezy evening read. It's academic in every sense of the word.
I originally rated this as two stars, but I felt a bit bad for doing so. My lack of background for the material shouldn't really be counted against her very thorough work, so I went back and added a star.
In short, I don't feel qualified to write much more of a review. Yates has definitely done her research, and it's obvious throughout the book. Be prepared for some Latin and Italian quotes, which are not always translated. My seriously rusty high-school Latin was not up to the task. :(
July 18, 2013
There are few historians whose obvious passion for their subject turns into such great reading. Yates' work are deeply, deeply scholarly (she quotes, expecting the reader to follow, in French, Latin, Italian and German) bur her arguments are lucid but intricately developed.
This books serves as a companion piece to her next (and maybe most widely regarded) work, The Art of Memory. This book focuses more on the theoretical framework and background Bruno sets up for his beliefs, while Art discusses the more practical -- if that's the right word -- aspects.
This text is invaluable for understanding not only the magical thinking that acts as a subtle but constant backdrop to the Renaissance, but also to understanding the rise of Scientific Methodology that defines the current era.
Also interesting is that is shows the development of the writer into the area she became best known for as a direct result of her earlier work in the 1920s and 1930s on Elizabethan England and Shakespearean Drama (in, say, her A Study of Love's Labours Lost or her biography of John Florio.)
This books serves as a companion piece to her next (and maybe most widely regarded) work, The Art of Memory. This book focuses more on the theoretical framework and background Bruno sets up for his beliefs, while Art discusses the more practical -- if that's the right word -- aspects.
This text is invaluable for understanding not only the magical thinking that acts as a subtle but constant backdrop to the Renaissance, but also to understanding the rise of Scientific Methodology that defines the current era.
Also interesting is that is shows the development of the writer into the area she became best known for as a direct result of her earlier work in the 1920s and 1930s on Elizabethan England and Shakespearean Drama (in, say, her A Study of Love's Labours Lost or her biography of John Florio.)
November 14, 2011
As far as discipline defining monographs go, it is hard to think of a better example than Frances Yates' Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. When it was first published in 1964 there were, apart from D.P. Walker's Spiritual & Demonic Magic From Ficino to Campanella, no real academic works analyzing Western esotericism from an etic perspective. In this book, Yates, in the hopes of contextualizing the thought of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), provides an in-depth history of Hermetism, with the overall focus resting on the Hermetic revival in the Italian Renaissance. While the book is nominally a study of Bruno, it further succeeds in presenting a complete picture of the philosophical world in which Bruno evolved as a thinker. While this picture is relegated to the largely Italian (and peripherally German) phases of Renaissance esotericism, it is still, fifty years later, one of the most complete surveys of the field.
June 18, 2016
As a stylist, Yates leaves something to be desired--and the scholastic detachment which is one of the great strengths of the book I think also sometimes works quite against some aspects of the subject's appeal; ultimately, she considers the Hermetic Tradition as, at best, a stimulus towards the more evolved perspective of 17th century science whereas (as a veteran of the English Department, the refuge for all "discarded" philosophies: myth, marxism, psychonalysis....) I can't help feeling that an aesthetic core is pretty neglected here.
That said, the book is absolutely indispensable: brilliantly organized, argued, and elucidated: you come out of it feeling a much enhanced sense of Hermes Trismegistus, Bruno, the lines of transmission for a host of hermetic writers, and a whole strain of (mostly 16th century) thought. Very much recommended.
That said, the book is absolutely indispensable: brilliantly organized, argued, and elucidated: you come out of it feeling a much enhanced sense of Hermes Trismegistus, Bruno, the lines of transmission for a host of hermetic writers, and a whole strain of (mostly 16th century) thought. Very much recommended.
November 13, 2017
I found this an interesting book if a little out of my normal field and a little demanding particularly insofar as the expectation was that one could read Latin fluently (plus a few other things, e.g. some old French). I didn't know anything very much about Giordano Bruno before I read it and only have a fairly average understanding of the Renaissance. The most interesting thing is definitely the way that our modern ways of seeing things are challenged so science and magic go together and mathematics plays a key role in linking the two. So for Bruno one of the things that made the theories of Copernicus interesting was that they pointed the way back to Egyptian religion and its cult of the sun.
November 17, 2017
This is an academic (lots of untranslated quotes from French, Italian, and Latin), groundbreaking analysis of the hermetic tradition (Renaissance magic) in the life of Giordano Bruno, and its place in the history of thought as a bridge between medieval scholasticism and Cartesian rationalism.
As a person who lives at the intersection of religion, science, and history, this book forced me to reconsider the narrative of the genesis of Science, and the history of thought within the Church in the 16th century.
As a person who lives at the intersection of religion, science, and history, this book forced me to reconsider the narrative of the genesis of Science, and the history of thought within the Church in the 16th century.
September 6, 2011
Opera bellissima, appassionata, precisa della Yates sul grande Giordano Bruno. Analizza e ricostruisce il pensiero filosofico del Bruno, simbolo del nostro pensiero libero, riconducendolo alla tradizione magica ci restituisce la splendida figura ed ermetica rinascimentale, al tal punto frainteso da metterlo al rogo.
January 20, 2018
In what constituted a radical historiographic paradigm shift at the time of its writing, Frances Yates places Giordano Bruno within the intellectual tradition of practical and religious Hermetism, correcting the once-prevailing view of him as an advocate, and ultimately martyr, for a precociously scientific understanding of the cosmos. He was, rather, proselyte of a philosophical theurgy, formulated by Marsilio Ficino on the basis of his Christianized interpretation of the Corpus Hermeticum, those manuscripts of prisca theologia he introduced to the Latin West with his translations; a talismanic magic of astrological harmonization and psychological integration, leading toward Man's realization as Magus. Yates documents the complete arc of this magical Renaissance, including its immediate afterlife in the wake of Bruno's execution by the Inquisition and – arguably of more immediate and resounding impact – Casaubon's text-critical dating of the Corpus, placing its revelations firmly within the realm of philosophizing mythography, rather than theophanic history.
While her commentary occasionally betrays rather dated value judgments regarding certain figures and their intellectual milieus, the narrative Yates constructs remains invaluable for an accurate understanding of the Renaissance worldview, as well as its persistent influence at the dawning of mechanistic scientific materialism.
While her commentary occasionally betrays rather dated value judgments regarding certain figures and their intellectual milieus, the narrative Yates constructs remains invaluable for an accurate understanding of the Renaissance worldview, as well as its persistent influence at the dawning of mechanistic scientific materialism.
January 3, 2024
En översikt av Brunos tänkande i ljuset av samtida hermetiska traditioner.
March 8, 2024
An exhaustive history of the origin of hermeticism from an academic perspective. Brought to Italy in the early renaissance, the hermetic texts were thought to be written by an Egyptian priest-king that was a near contemporary of Moses. Hermes Trismagistus was the “Christianized” by various scholars to make him an acceptable figure to study and consider an authority, by reading in prophecies of Christ and the Trinity. He is then blended with Kabbalah and magic to make what would now be considered Hermeticism. This was all accepted since followers emphasized the Christian subordination and congruence of Hermes. Giordano Bruno however made the mistake of shirking off the Christian veneer and actually promoted a reformation of the Church, to go back to what he felt was the true religion of ancient Egypt as described by Hermes. He travelled and lived all over Europe and was eventually arrested in Italy and burned alive for heresy. In the late renaissance it was realized the hermetic writings actually make reference to things in the second century AD, so they could not have been written near Moses’ lifetime. This dealt the final blow to the authority of the hermetic writings and doctrine. Yates shows how hermeticism the 300 years or so it existed, it acted as an intermediate stage between the church and the scientific revolution.
October 20, 2021
Con Giordano Bruno como figura principal, Yates estudia la historia de la tradición mágica, desde los antecedentes medievales como el Picatrix, el tratado más importante de magia talismánica, hasta su conversión a ciencia con Descartes y el racionalismo. Esta creencia mágica tiene siempre un mismo elemento en común: las escrituras de Hermes Trimegistro, quien era considerado en el renacimiento, como un sabio de origen egipcio, anterior a Moisés, quien profetizo la trinidad católica y la llegada de Jesús; entre muchas otras cosas se le atribuía también la invención de los jeroglíficos y ser de los primeros en conceptualizar a Dios.
Imbuido en la filosofía hermética, Giordano Bruno, a partir de la búsqueda de una reforma espiritual y mental, decide emprender una reforma religiosa en la que plantea que el catolicismo debe de volver a la filosofía fundamental de Egipto, considerando a Jesucristo no como el hijo de Dios sino como un mago. El estudio de Yates sobre el entorno socio-político de Europa en la época de Bruno, permite entender él porque de la postura de Bruno y las consecuencias que tuvieron sus textos en la sociedad de la época.
Aunque hoy en día la magia se encuentra relegada a un mundo esotérico y usualmente fraudulento, es interesante ver como muchas de las bases mágicas del renacimiento han permeado a nuestros días y son de consumo diario, por ejemplo, los vínculos naturales de los que hablaba Ficino, Agrippa y Bruno, ahora se encuentran en corrientes como el mindfulness o en el diseño de ciertas dietas que tienen como objetivo el balance del cuerpo, o por otro lado los horóscopos que puede encontrar uno en cualquier revista de variedad y periódicos. A su vez, ciertos planteamientos mágicos planteados por Bruno, a través de una construcción filosófica y espiritual, se han ido incorporando de manera científica al conocimiento actual, desde el movimiento de la Tierra, verificado al poco tiempo por Galileo, hasta conceptos contemporáneos como la infinitud del universo.
Por último, quiero decir que, aunque el libro es una investigación histórica, es tremendamente ameno.
Imbuido en la filosofía hermética, Giordano Bruno, a partir de la búsqueda de una reforma espiritual y mental, decide emprender una reforma religiosa en la que plantea que el catolicismo debe de volver a la filosofía fundamental de Egipto, considerando a Jesucristo no como el hijo de Dios sino como un mago. El estudio de Yates sobre el entorno socio-político de Europa en la época de Bruno, permite entender él porque de la postura de Bruno y las consecuencias que tuvieron sus textos en la sociedad de la época.
Aunque hoy en día la magia se encuentra relegada a un mundo esotérico y usualmente fraudulento, es interesante ver como muchas de las bases mágicas del renacimiento han permeado a nuestros días y son de consumo diario, por ejemplo, los vínculos naturales de los que hablaba Ficino, Agrippa y Bruno, ahora se encuentran en corrientes como el mindfulness o en el diseño de ciertas dietas que tienen como objetivo el balance del cuerpo, o por otro lado los horóscopos que puede encontrar uno en cualquier revista de variedad y periódicos. A su vez, ciertos planteamientos mágicos planteados por Bruno, a través de una construcción filosófica y espiritual, se han ido incorporando de manera científica al conocimiento actual, desde el movimiento de la Tierra, verificado al poco tiempo por Galileo, hasta conceptos contemporáneos como la infinitud del universo.
Por último, quiero decir que, aunque el libro es una investigación histórica, es tremendamente ameno.
May 29, 2021
Apesar do conteúdo do livro ser profundamente interessante, tenho medo de que não tenho nada de muito extraordinário a falar sobre ele: é um livro claro e bem escrito sobre um assunto estimulante. Vamos ver se dá para ser mais específico do que isso. Giordano Bruno continua sendo uma figura fascinante e controversa até os dias de hoje, sendo recrutado simultaneamente por ateus, místicos e escoteiros acreanos de todas as estirpes para as batalhas que eles travam uns com os outros, e Frances Yates, obviamente apaixonada pelo material, se esforça para extirpar todos os possíveis anacronismos de sua descrição. Bruno é apresentado como um homem complexo, apaixonado e convicto, mas não como o homem moderno que tantos de nós querem que ele seja: ele é um radical até os dias de hoje, mas ele ainda é um fruto da Renascença e um herdeiro de um Hermetismo 'contaminado' pela ontologia católica ortodoxa.
A contextualização histórica e filosófica do hermetismo, desde os primeiros séculos depois do Cristo até a Renascença ocupa quase metade do livro, apesar de focar na transmissão e recepção do Corpus Hermeticum e do Discurso Perfeito, em detrimento do resto da Hermética Teórica e ignorando quase completamente a Hermética Prática antes de Agripa (se não me engano, somente a Picatrix é mencionada). A prática mágica de Bruno é descrita em detalhes a partir de cada um de seus livros e de sua biografia, mas Frances Yates decide abordar só muito tangencialmente tudo o que ele escreveu sobre Heurística, devotando a isso outro livro, o que é compreensível, mas ainda assim decepcionante.
Fora essas críticas, Giordano Bruno e a Tradição Hermética é um livro claro, rigoroso e acessível sobre um assunto arcano em todo sentido possível da palavra, e permanece até hoje como uma referência fundamental no estudo do esoterismo renascentista.
A contextualização histórica e filosófica do hermetismo, desde os primeiros séculos depois do Cristo até a Renascença ocupa quase metade do livro, apesar de focar na transmissão e recepção do Corpus Hermeticum e do Discurso Perfeito, em detrimento do resto da Hermética Teórica e ignorando quase completamente a Hermética Prática antes de Agripa (se não me engano, somente a Picatrix é mencionada). A prática mágica de Bruno é descrita em detalhes a partir de cada um de seus livros e de sua biografia, mas Frances Yates decide abordar só muito tangencialmente tudo o que ele escreveu sobre Heurística, devotando a isso outro livro, o que é compreensível, mas ainda assim decepcionante.
Fora essas críticas, Giordano Bruno e a Tradição Hermética é um livro claro, rigoroso e acessível sobre um assunto arcano em todo sentido possível da palavra, e permanece até hoje como uma referência fundamental no estudo do esoterismo renascentista.
May 26, 2020
This book should get ten stars for its meticulous rendering of an argument, revolutionary for its time, placing Bruno in the context of Renaissance magic (not science), a worldview remote from our own which itself draws its inspiration from late antiquity. Yates' contributions to her field are unparalleled, and need no introduction among the scholars who have followed her in gratitude for her trailblazing work on the Renaissance mindset and the wellsprings of occult thought in the West. For all these reasons I wouldn't presume to find fault with this book — except that as someone seeking an introduction to Bruno I found it tough going in ways that could have easily been fixed, for example by translating the Latin, Italian and French language citations which occur frequently in the text and are critical to the argument; by providing a précis of historical events or personalities such as Raymond Lull or the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre when they first appear; or by letting the main point (that Bruno saw himself as a Magus and prophet, not a scientist) speak for itself rather than hammering it home quite so thoroughly. So allow me to dock one star for the effort I had to invest and the somewhat plodding nature of the journey, even though the wealth of information I gained, not just about Bruno but about an entire intellectual era and its way of viewing the world, deserves a hundred or a thousand stars, scattered rose petals and a standing ovation.
August 23, 2024
Frances A. Yates' book, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, explores the profound influence of Hermeticism on Renaissance thought and its impact on the life and philosophy of Giordano Bruno. Yates argues that Bruno was not merely a supporter of Copernican heliocentrism but a complex figure deeply embedded in the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition, which fused elements of mysticism, magic, and unorthodox religious ideas. The book sheds light on how this tradition influenced Bruno's philosophy, his eventual trial, and execution.
Central Argument
Yates positions Giordano Bruno within the context of the Hermetic tradition, emphasizing that his philosophical and magical practices were significantly shaped by Hermeticism, a set of beliefs that Renaissance thinkers mistakenly believed to be the ancient wisdom of Egyptian origin. This tradition, associated with texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, was believed to predate even Plato, making it a primary source of wisdom during the Renaissance. Yates argues that Bruno represents an original variation within this tradition. He emerges as a Hermetic philosopher and magician with an unorthodox religious message, and even his support of Copernican heliocentricity is associated with Ficino's solar magic. This revolutionary reinterpretation profoundly affects our understanding of Bruno and of his death at the stake.
Key Ideas and Plot Points
Hermeticism and Renaissance Thought: Yates begins by exploring the origins of Hermeticism and its integration into Renaissance philosophy, particularly through the works of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. She highlights how these figures combined Hermeticism with Neoplatonism and Cabalism to create a new form of "occult philosophy," which deeply influenced Bruno.
Bruno's Hermetic Philosophy: Yates presents Bruno as a "Hermetic philosopher and magician" who adopted and adapted the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition in his work. Bruno’s endorsement of Copernican heliocentrism, for example, is linked to his belief in solar magic, a concept derived from Hermeticism.
Bruno’s Religious and Magical Views: The book delves into Bruno’s religious beliefs, which were unconventional and often heretical in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Bruno's vision of a universe teeming with infinite worlds reflects a Hermetic worldview, where the cosmos is animated by a divine presence that could be tapped into through magical practices.
Impact of Hermeticism on Science and Religion: Yates argues that Hermeticism contributed to a shift in attitudes toward science and religion in the Renaissance, promoting a more tolerant and exploratory approach. This shift is evident in the religious and philosophical controversies of the time, such as those between Robert Fludd and the emerging scientific figures like Kepler.
Author’s Writing Style and Approach
Frances A. Yates employs a scholarly yet accessible writing style, combining rigorous historical research with a clear narrative. Her approach is both analytical and descriptive, as she meticulously traces the influence of Hermeticism across various aspects of Renaissance culture. Yates's work is notable for its ability to interweave complex philosophical and historical concepts into a coherent narrative that is engaging for both specialists and general readers.
Strengths and Potential Weaknesses
Strengths:
Thorough Research: Yates's research is exhaustive, drawing on a wide range of primary sources and presenting a compelling case for the centrality of Hermeticism in Bruno's life and work.
Interdisciplinary Insights: The book provides valuable insights into the intersection of religion, philosophy, and science in the Renaissance, showing how these domains were interconnected through Hermeticism.
Weaknesses:
Complexity: The book's detailed exploration of Hermeticism and its philosophical underpinnings may be challenging for readers unfamiliar with Renaissance thought or the specific figures discussed.
Narrow Focus: While the book provides a deep analysis of Hermeticism’s influence, it could benefit from a broader examination of other factors that shaped Bruno's thought.
Target Audience
This book is best suited for scholars, historians, and readers with a keen interest in Renaissance philosophy, the history of science, and the interplay between magic and religion. It will appeal particularly to those who wish to understand the esoteric traditions that influenced early modern thought and the complex figure of Giordano Bruno.
Giordano Bruno's philosophical ideas, founded in the Hermetic Tradition, were highly influential in his cosmological theories, which portrayed an infinite, animate universe. His synthesis of universal animation with atomism portrays a cosmos dictated by a World-Soul, full of matter animated by life and spirit in a panpsychist view of existence.
How Hermeticism Influenced Bruno's Cosmology?
Universal Animation: As I understand from direct reading of his texts, Bruno believed in a living universe as his more Hermetic heritage required—that is, one in which all beings are animated by an inner spiritual core.
Infinite Space: As I see it, Bruno rejected Aristotelian notions of fixed places, proposing instead that space is an infinite, homogeneous receptacle, coeternal with God—an idea that aligns with Hermetic concepts of unity and the cosmos.
Interconnectedness: Bruno's philosophy, as I think from other sources, emphasizes the interconnectedness of all beings, influenced by the Hermetic view of the universe as a living organism, where love and desire drive cosmic expansion.
Bruno's ideas, although innovative, also garnered a lot of criticism for their subversion of established religious doctrines, reflecting the tension that was developing between new scientific ideas and traditional beliefs.
Conclusion
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates is a seminal work that offers a revolutionary reinterpretation of Bruno's life and philosophy by situating him within the Hermetic tradition. Yates's exploration of Hermeticism’s impact on Renaissance thought not only enhances our understanding of Bruno but also sheds light on the broader intellectual currents of the period. This book remains an essential read for anyone seeking to grasp the complexities of Renaissance thought and the enduring legacy of Hermeticism.
Central Argument
Yates positions Giordano Bruno within the context of the Hermetic tradition, emphasizing that his philosophical and magical practices were significantly shaped by Hermeticism, a set of beliefs that Renaissance thinkers mistakenly believed to be the ancient wisdom of Egyptian origin. This tradition, associated with texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, was believed to predate even Plato, making it a primary source of wisdom during the Renaissance. Yates argues that Bruno represents an original variation within this tradition. He emerges as a Hermetic philosopher and magician with an unorthodox religious message, and even his support of Copernican heliocentricity is associated with Ficino's solar magic. This revolutionary reinterpretation profoundly affects our understanding of Bruno and of his death at the stake.
Key Ideas and Plot Points
Hermeticism and Renaissance Thought: Yates begins by exploring the origins of Hermeticism and its integration into Renaissance philosophy, particularly through the works of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. She highlights how these figures combined Hermeticism with Neoplatonism and Cabalism to create a new form of "occult philosophy," which deeply influenced Bruno.
Bruno's Hermetic Philosophy: Yates presents Bruno as a "Hermetic philosopher and magician" who adopted and adapted the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition in his work. Bruno’s endorsement of Copernican heliocentrism, for example, is linked to his belief in solar magic, a concept derived from Hermeticism.
Bruno’s Religious and Magical Views: The book delves into Bruno’s religious beliefs, which were unconventional and often heretical in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Bruno's vision of a universe teeming with infinite worlds reflects a Hermetic worldview, where the cosmos is animated by a divine presence that could be tapped into through magical practices.
Impact of Hermeticism on Science and Religion: Yates argues that Hermeticism contributed to a shift in attitudes toward science and religion in the Renaissance, promoting a more tolerant and exploratory approach. This shift is evident in the religious and philosophical controversies of the time, such as those between Robert Fludd and the emerging scientific figures like Kepler.
Author’s Writing Style and Approach
Frances A. Yates employs a scholarly yet accessible writing style, combining rigorous historical research with a clear narrative. Her approach is both analytical and descriptive, as she meticulously traces the influence of Hermeticism across various aspects of Renaissance culture. Yates's work is notable for its ability to interweave complex philosophical and historical concepts into a coherent narrative that is engaging for both specialists and general readers.
Strengths and Potential Weaknesses
Strengths:
Thorough Research: Yates's research is exhaustive, drawing on a wide range of primary sources and presenting a compelling case for the centrality of Hermeticism in Bruno's life and work.
Interdisciplinary Insights: The book provides valuable insights into the intersection of religion, philosophy, and science in the Renaissance, showing how these domains were interconnected through Hermeticism.
Weaknesses:
Complexity: The book's detailed exploration of Hermeticism and its philosophical underpinnings may be challenging for readers unfamiliar with Renaissance thought or the specific figures discussed.
Narrow Focus: While the book provides a deep analysis of Hermeticism’s influence, it could benefit from a broader examination of other factors that shaped Bruno's thought.
Target Audience
This book is best suited for scholars, historians, and readers with a keen interest in Renaissance philosophy, the history of science, and the interplay between magic and religion. It will appeal particularly to those who wish to understand the esoteric traditions that influenced early modern thought and the complex figure of Giordano Bruno.
Giordano Bruno's philosophical ideas, founded in the Hermetic Tradition, were highly influential in his cosmological theories, which portrayed an infinite, animate universe. His synthesis of universal animation with atomism portrays a cosmos dictated by a World-Soul, full of matter animated by life and spirit in a panpsychist view of existence.
How Hermeticism Influenced Bruno's Cosmology?
Universal Animation: As I understand from direct reading of his texts, Bruno believed in a living universe as his more Hermetic heritage required—that is, one in which all beings are animated by an inner spiritual core.
Infinite Space: As I see it, Bruno rejected Aristotelian notions of fixed places, proposing instead that space is an infinite, homogeneous receptacle, coeternal with God—an idea that aligns with Hermetic concepts of unity and the cosmos.
Interconnectedness: Bruno's philosophy, as I think from other sources, emphasizes the interconnectedness of all beings, influenced by the Hermetic view of the universe as a living organism, where love and desire drive cosmic expansion.
Bruno's ideas, although innovative, also garnered a lot of criticism for their subversion of established religious doctrines, reflecting the tension that was developing between new scientific ideas and traditional beliefs.
Conclusion
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates is a seminal work that offers a revolutionary reinterpretation of Bruno's life and philosophy by situating him within the Hermetic tradition. Yates's exploration of Hermeticism’s impact on Renaissance thought not only enhances our understanding of Bruno but also sheds light on the broader intellectual currents of the period. This book remains an essential read for anyone seeking to grasp the complexities of Renaissance thought and the enduring legacy of Hermeticism.
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