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GYÖRGY E. SZÖNYI turn which boosted Enochs reputation was initiated by Pico della Mirandola, who included a really radical idea among his famous 900 philosophical conclusions: “There is no science that assures us more of the divinity of Christ than magic and the Cabala” (9>9 in Farmer ed., 497). In order to prove this, he used the concept of Metatron, the transfigured Enoch, about whom he could learn, indirectly, via Abulafia and Mithridates, from 3 Enoch. Thus, Pico can be considered the first modern gentile intellectual, who, although not directly seeing the text, became aware of the secretively hiding Books of Enoch. Lazzarelli’s case is perhaps even more complex. Above all, he must have been influenced by the medieval Arabic-Jewish-Christian tradition, which either strongly associated or even conflated Hermes and Enoch. This became particularly important in the context of the Hermetic revival initiated by Ficino. So, in a heated religious-psychological situation, triggered by the pageant of the wondering apocalyptic prophet, da Correggio, Lazzarelli came to identify himself as a reincarnated Enoch and da Correggio as Mercurius Hermes. A couple of years later, already separated from his spiritual father, Lazzarelli further developed his interest in a syncretic Christianized-CabalisticalHermetism and theorized about it in his Crater Hermetis. In it, Enoch is used as an example and authority to attest to the possibility of exaltatio, the mysticalmagical deification of man and the union with God. Thus, in that work he endeavoured to offer an individual initiation into the mysteries. BIBLIOGRAPHY BLADEL, Kevin van, The Arabic Hermes. From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science. Oxford University Press, 2009. BRACH, Jean-Pierre, Umanesimo e correnti esoteriche in Italia: l’esempio della ‘qabbalah cristiana’ (XV—XVII secolo). In Gian Mario Cazzaniga ed. Storia d'Italia Annali 25. Esoterismo. Torino: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2010, 257-89. BRINI, Mirella, Lodovico Lazzarelli: Testi scelti. In E. Garin et al. eds. Testi umanistici su l’Ermetismo. Roma: Fratelli Bocca, 1955, 23-33. BROEK, Roelof van den and Wouter Hanegraaff (ed.), Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998. CHARLESWORTH, James H., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, New York: Doubleday, 1983. COPENHAVER, Brian P., Number, Shape, and Meaning in Pico’s Christian Cabala: The Upright Tsade, the Closed Mem, and the Gaping Jaws of Azazel. In Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi ed. Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999, 25-76. Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 154 ® 2020. 06.15. 11:04:18
