Liber XXIV philosophorum

The Liber XXIV Philosophorum (Book of the 24 Philosophers) is a short anonymous Latin anthology of 24 definitions of God, composed no later than the 12th century. Each definition is attributed to a different 'philosopher' and takes the form of a paradoxical metaphysical aphorism.

The Infinite Sphere

The most celebrated of the 24 definitions is the first: "Deus est sphaera infinita cuius centrum est ubique, circumferentia nusquam" — "God is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere." This phrase, transmitted through Alain de Lille's De Maximis Theologiae (Basel, 1492), became one of the most widely quoted definitions of God in the Western philosophical tradition. Nicholas of Cusa paraphrases it directly in De Docta Ignorantia (1440), Giordano Bruno weaponizes it as a pantheistic axiom, and Robert Fludd and Jacob Böhme absorb its geometric theology.

Medieval Transmission

Though its aphorisms resonate deeply with Hermetic notions of divine unity, the text is not a Hermetic document in the strict Greek sense. As curator José Bouman of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica notes, the oldest manuscripts are 12th-century and often appear in scholastic miscellanies labeled Sententiae Hermetis, alongside the Asclepius and Liber de Causis. Its Hermetic label was a reception-history phenomenon: medieval scholars recognized in its mathematical-theological style the same 'Hermetic' spirit of creation by number, order, and figure. David Porreca's work on manuscript evidence confirms that commentators treated it as a classroom text — not an occult document — with full scholastic-style glosses.

Scholarly Edition

The standard critical edition is by Françoise Hudry (Hermes Latinus / Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, Brepols). Paolo Lucentini and the Hermes Latinus editorial board, including David Porreca, provide the authoritative scholarly context.