Medieval Archives
Figures and manuscripts of the Medieval period.
The Medieval period saw the survival and expansion of Hermeticism primarily through the Islamic world. Arabic scholars integrated 'Hermes' into the prophetic lineage of Idris and Enoch, producing foundational texts like the Sirr al-Khaliqa (The Secret of Creation) and the Picatrix.
In the 12th century, the translation of these Arabic texts into Latin introduced the Emerald Tablet and the technical Hermetica to Europe, influencing theologians like Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon. This 'Medieval Hermetica' laid the structural groundwork for the more famous Renaissance 'rediscovery'.
Figures
Abu Ma'shar
Highly influential Persian astrologer who formalized the historical lineage of the three Hermes.…
Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes)
Persian polymath and experimental alchemist.…
Al-Kindi
Arab philosopher whose De Radiis Stellarum theorized celestial influence.…
Alain de Lille (Alanus ab Insulis)
French theologian and poet (c. 1128–1203), nicknamed Doctor Universalis. He transmitted the Liber XXIV Philosophorum to the Latin West via his De Maximis Theologiae.…
Albertus Magnus
Doctor Universalis who integrated Aristotelianism and alchemy.…
Bernard of Trevisan
Aristocratic alchemist who wrote the 'Livre de la Philosophie Naturelle des Metaux'.…
Gerard of Cremona
Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–1187) was an Italian scholar and the most prolific translator of the twelfth-century Toledo translation school, responsible for rendering approximately eighty-seven Arabic scientific, philosophical, and medical…
Gilbert of Poitiers (Gilbertus Porretanus)
Bishop of Poitiers (c. 1085–1154) and the probable author of De sex rerum principiis. A leading 12th-century metaphysician of the Chartres school.…
Hugo of Santalla
Hugo of Santalla (fl. 1119–1151) was a twelfth-century scholar and translator working under episcopal patronage in Aragon, notable as one of the earliest and most innovative Latin translators of Arabic…
Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Geber)
The most influential figure in Arabic alchemy.…
Khalid ibn Yazid
Umayyad prince often credited as the 'first' Islamic alchemist.…
Muḥammad ibn Umayl
Major author of symbolic Arabic alchemical poetry.…
Nicolas Flamel
Parisian scribe legendary for creating the Philosopher's Stone.…
Petrus Bonus
Author of the 'Pretiosa Margarita Novella'.…
Ramon Llull
Catalan mystic and inventor of the Ars Magna combinatory system.…
Robert Grosseteste
Bishop of Lincoln (c. 1175–1253), first Chancellor of Oxford, who cited De sex rerum principiis and pioneered the use of mathematics in natural philosophy.…
Robert of Chester
Robert of Chester (fl. 1140–1150) was an English scholar and translator active in Spain who produced the first Latin translation of the Quran (1143, with Herman the Dalmatian) and, more…
Roger Bacon
Early advocate of the experimental method.…
Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi
Founder of Illuminationist (Ishraqi) philosophy who integrated Hermetic sages into Islamic prophecy.…
Thierry of Chartres
Chancellor of the Cathedral School of Chartres (d. c. 1150) and key figure in the 12th-century Platonist synthesis of Timaeus cosmology with Christian theology.…
Thomas Aquinas
Synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian principles.…
Thomas of York
A 13th-century English Franciscan philosopher who used Hermes Trismegistus as a named authority in his scholastic works, documented by David Porreca.…
William of Conches
A leading Chartres school philosopher (c. 1090–1154) who synthesized Platonic cosmology with natural philosophy, providing the intellectual milieu for De sex rerum principiis.…
Manuscripts & Texts
Ars Notoria
Medieval Solomonic ritual text promising knowledge, memory, and mastery of the liberal arts through prayers and figures.…
De Maximis Theologiae (Regulae Theologiae)
134 theological maxims with commentary by Alain de Lille, containing the earliest printed transmission of the 'infinite sphere' definition from the Liber XXIV Philosophorum.…
De sex rerum principiis
A 12th-century cosmological treatise, often associated with the School of Chartres.…
Kitāb Sirr al-Khalīqa
The earliest source of the Emerald Tablet.…
Liber XXIV philosophorum
The Liber XXIV Philosophorum (Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers) is a brief but extraordinarily influential Latin philosophical text of probable twelfth-century composition, presenting twenty-four definitions of God in the voices…
Liber de Causis
An Arabic adaptation of Proclus's Elements of Theology, falsely attributed to Aristotle in the Middle Ages. A major vehicle for Neoplatonic emanationism in Latin scholasticism.…
Liber de spiritu et anima
A pseudo-Augustinian 12th-century mystical psychology of the soul that cites Hermes. Circulated widely in scholastic miscellanies alongside the Asclepius and Liber XXIV.…
Picatrix (Ghayat al-Hakim)
The Picatrix, the Latin title of the Arabic Ghayat al-Hakim (The Goal of the Sage), is the most comprehensive medieval manual of astral magic, compiled in Andalusia c. 10th–11th century…
Picatrix (Latin Translation)
The Latin translation of the Arabic Ghayat al-Hakim, produced in Castile c. 1256 under Alfonso X. The definitive manual of astral magic in the Latin West, translated with commentary by…
Sirr al-Khaliqa (The Secret of Creation)
The earliest Arabic text to preserve the Emerald Tablet, attributed to Balinas (Apollonius of Tyana).…
Speculum astronomiae
Scholastic treatise that classifies astral and magical books and distinguishes licit natural study from illicit spirit work.…
The Emerald Tablet
The Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina) is a short Hermetic text of thirteen lines that became perhaps the most widely cited and commented-upon document in the Western esoteric tradition. First attested…
Turba Philosophorum
The 'Assembly of the Philosophers', translating Arabic alchemy into a Greek philosophical framework.…