Editing Hermeticism (section)

===Renaissance revival===
{{further|Renaissance magic}}
[[File:Corpus Hermeticum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''Corpus Hermeticum'': first Latin edition, by Marsilio Ficino, 1471, at the [[Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica]], [[Amsterdam]].]]

The [[Western esoteric tradition]] has been greatly influenced by Hermeticism. After centuries of falling out of favor, Hermeticism was reintroduced to the West when, in 1460, a man named Leonardo di Pistoia{{efn|This Leonardo di Pistoia was a monk {{cite web |url=http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/c/p/lib/coll.html |title=J.R. Ritman Library – Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica |access-date=2007-01-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101222307/http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/c/p/lib/coll.html |archive-date=2007-01-01 }}, not to be confused with the artist [[Leonardo da Pistoia]] who was not born until c. 1483 CE.}} brought the ''[[Corpus Hermeticum]]'' to [[Pistoia]]. He was one of many agents sent out by Pistoia's ruler, [[Cosimo de' Medici]], to scour European monasteries for lost ancient writings.{{sfn|''The Way of Hermes''|1999|p=9}} The work of such writers as [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]], who attempted to reconcile [[Kabbalah|Jewish kabbalah]] and [[Christian mysticism]], brought Hermeticism into a context more easily understood by Europeans during the time of the Renaissance.

In 1614, [[Isaac Casaubon]], a Swiss [[Philology|philologist]], analyzed the Greek Hermetic texts for linguistic style. He concluded that the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were not the work of an ancient Egyptian priest but in fact dated to the second and third centuries&nbsp;CE.{{sfnm|1a1=Tambiah|1y=1990|1p=27–28|2a1=''The Way of Hermes''|2y=1999|2p=9}}

Even in light of Casaubon's linguistic discovery (and typical of many adherents of Hermetic philosophy in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries), [[Thomas Browne]] in his ''[[Religio Medici]]'' (1643) confidently stated: "The severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of Hermes, that this visible world is but a portrait of the invisible."{{sfn|Browne|2012|loc=part 1, section 12}}

In 1678, flaws in Casaubon's dating were discerned by [[Ralph Cudworth]], who argued that Casaubon's allegation of forgery could only be applied to three of the seventeen treatises contained within the ''Corpus Hermeticum''. Moreover, Cudworth noted Casaubon's failure to acknowledge the codification of these treatises as a late formulation of a pre-existing oral tradition. According to Cudworth, the texts must be viewed as a [[terminus ad quem]] and not a [[terminus a quo]]. Lost Greek texts, and many of the surviving vulgate books, contained discussions of alchemy clothed in philosophical metaphor.{{sfn|Genest|2002}}

In 1964, [[Frances Yates|Frances A. Yates]] advanced the thesis that Renaissance Hermeticism, or what she called "the Hermetic tradition", had been a crucial factor in the development of modern science.<ref>{{harvnb|Yates|1964}}; {{harvnb|Yates|1967}}; {{harvnb|Westman|McGuire|1977}}</ref> While Yates's thesis has since been largely rejected,<ref>{{harvnb|Ebeling|2007|pp=101–102}}; {{harvnb|Hanegraaff|2012|pp=322–334}}</ref> the important role played by the 'Hermetic' science of alchemy in the thought of such figures as [[Jan Baptist van Helmont]] (1580–1644), [[Robert Boyle]] (1627–1691) or [[Isaac Newton]] (1642–1727) has been amply demonstrated.<ref>{{harvnb|Principe|1998}}; {{harvnb|Newman|Principe|2002}}; {{harvnb|Newman|2019}}.</ref>