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A CHRISTIAN-HERMETIC-JUDAIC INITIATION...
This is the same man who, about three years ago, on the 12" of November, when
the cardinals were coming together appeared on the stairs of the palace, holding
a sacred Bible mystically closed with seven seals, on the front cover of which this
sacred oracle could be read: fT . . . ] Ihis is my beloved and waxing son, in whom
I am well pleased; hear him and obey him, speaks the Almighty.” (EE 12.1, ibid.,
141-43)
Giovanni came from a well-established family in Bologna, but nothing is
known about how he turned into a prophet or why he decided to assault
the Papal consistory in Rome. According to historical reconstruction, when
Lazzarelli witnessed da Correggio’s first entry into Rome, he recognized in
him the reincarnation of Hermes, while he himself underwent a mystical
transformation, recognizing himself as the “son of Hermes,” actually Enoch,
who now turned from the leaves of Parnassus to Mount Sion, meaning that
from now on, he would leave profane poetry and “pursue the road of spiritual
wisdom” (Hanegraaff, Lazzarelli, 24). The combination of Hermes and Enoch
in this spiritual reunion is noteworthy and reminds us of one of the medieval
speculations about the identity of the two sages.’ Our present protagonists
must have been aware of the tradition of the three Hermeses, one of them
being Enoch.
In 1938, Paul Oskar Kristeller announced his discovery of a late¬
quattrocento codex preserved in the city library of Viterbo which contained
an intriguing collection of Hermetica.* The codex in question includes a copy
of Ficino’s translation of the Corpus Hermeticum 1-XIV, together with his
preface and commentaries. Added to this is Lazzarelli’s own translation
of another Hermetic tract unknown to Ficino (today it is labelled CH XVI,
“The Definitions of Asclepius”). Among these texts, three dedications have
been inserted to Giovanni da Correggio by Lazzarelli, whom he addresses as
Giovanni “Mercurio” and who, from this time on, indeed adopted this name
for himself. These prefaces are of utmost interest, because Lazzarelli not only
outlined in them his theoretical opinion of the Hermetica, but also revealed
his personal relationship with the wandering prophet. It is also revealed that
Lazzarelli presented this codex to Mercurio in 1482 in order to provide him
with a most complete anthology of the Hermetic corpus.
The first preface is in prose. In it, Lazzarelli-Enoch recommends the writings
of Hermes Trismegistus together with those of Moses and Jesus Christ (i.e.
the Old and New Testaments), as those who “are all sitting at one table, and
with friendly faces serve their fellow guests the fragrant dishes of the gods”
On the reinterpretations of Hermes and Enoch in the Middle Ages see Szönyi, The
Reincarnations of Enoch...; on the origins of these contaminations see Bladel, The Arabic
Hermes (2009).
® Cod. II D1 4, see Kristeller 1938 and 1960; Hanegraaff, Lazzarelli.
* 143 ¢
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