Lazzarelli's scriptures - Overview

Little is known about the author. Lazzarelli (1450-1500) was one of the many minor Italian humanists of the period, part of whose works are still accessible only in manuscript. He seems to have studied mathematics and astrology, and Greek as well as Hebrew. We are told that Lazzarelli exorcized impure spirits by the sign of the cross, predicted the future, and at one time fell under the suspicion of magical practice. Especially interesting is his connection with the strange figure of Giovanni "Mercurio" da Correggio (?1451-?), a wandering prophet who made a spectacular appearance in Rome on palm sunday 1485. The episode has been described in detail in an anonymous Epistola Enoch, attributed to Lazzarelli. Correggio rode to the Vatican on a black horse, then left the city, to return riding a donkey, clothed in a blood-stained linen robe, and carrying a crown of thorns on his head. Correggio presented himself to the people as Jesus of Nazareth's chosen servant and son, and referred to himself as Pimander. This, as well as his added name Mercurio, demonstrate his self-identification as the hermetic Christ. Lazzarelli appears to have seen in Giovanni da Correggio his spiritual master, who had effected his "spiritual regeneration" . It is in this context that the Crater Hermetis must be understood.

9 Hermes Trismegistus. De potestate et sapientia Dei
Ms on vellum, late fifteenth century
(Viterbo, Biblioteca Communale II D I 4)

Copy of Ficino's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum I-XIV, to which is added the Latin Asclepius, together with the first Latin translation of CH XVI-XVIII, the Definitiones Asclepii, which were lacking in the Greek manuscript which Ficino used [no 3]. The translation of the Definitiones was made by Ludovico Lazarelli (1450-1500) after an unknown Greek manuscript. Lazarelli dedicated the work to his teacher Giovanni Mercurio da Corregio, a prophet whom he met in Rome in 1484 and decided to follow. Da Corregio preached like a sort of Hermetic Christ, decked out with a crown of thorns supplied with the text: 'This is my son Pimander whom I have elected'.

The Greek text of the Definitiones Asclepii saw the light in 1554 as book XVI of the Corpus Hermeticum edition of Turnebus [no 43].

Ref. Kristeller 1969, 221-47.

24 Hermes Trismegistus. Pimander. Asclepius.
Ludovico Lazarelli. Crater Hermetis.
Paris, Henri I Estienne 1505

First edition of Ficino's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum in which the Asclepius is presented as a complement. The commentaries by Lefèvre d'Etaples have been added to the separate discourses in this edition. The Asclepius is divided into fifteen paragraphs, and likewise provided with explanatory notes.

Lefèvre categorically rejects the famous magical passage from the Asclepius; it is an 'error' of Hermes. In the margin of Chapter XIII he writes in capital letters: 'lapsus Hermetis'. In the explanation he refers to Augustine's De civitate Dei VIII [see no 1].

Added to this edition is a hymn by Ludovico Lazarelli (1450-1500), the translator of the Definitiones Asclepii (CH XVI-XVIII) [see no 9], which is entitled Crater Hermetis, a text modelled after CH IV, in which the magical passage from Asclepius is interpreted in a Christian sense. Lazarelli explains the animation of statues as an act of creation through the Word - with reference to the Kabbala - and he compares the animation of statues by demons with Christ's inspiration of the apostles: a rebirth which the master brings about in the disciple, who as a result comes to self-knowledge and the knowledge of God.

Ref. Pantin; Rice, 133-37; Walker 1958, 64-72

Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447 - 1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents. By Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Ruud M. Bouthoorn This is the first complete edition and translation in any modern language of the Hermetic writings of Lodovico Lazzarelli, an Italian poet and mystical philosopher of the late 15th century. While recognized as a seminal figure by Italian scholars such as Kristeller and Garin, Lazzarelli’s life and work have nevertheless been neglected by historians. This book’s extensive Introduction challenges existing interpretations and presents a fresh new perspective on Lazzarelli’s work and significance. It also argues that the evidence about him and his spiritual master, the prophet Giovanni “Mercurio” da Correggio, forces us to rethink Frances Yates’ concept of Renaissance Hermeticism. (ISBN: 0-86698-324-4 / MR 281)