Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition: Frances (Routledge Classics)

One of the few books in my life I gave up on... not for trying, since it was mentioned and praised by the incomparable Terence McKenna himself (which is why I bought it, and subsequently gave it my best shot). And for an overall overview of the Hermetic Tradition, I've no doubt it meets all the scholarly attributes necessary. However... I was looking for the great Giordano Bruno himself, and even the authoress states that "Well, this is really about the Hermetic Tradition, not necessarily Bruno per se, who was, by the way, really known historically as an expert at the science and art of memorization..." Sorry, not what I was looking for. Nor was I in agreement with her on the origins of Hermeticism either, as she waffled about origins (ancient Egyptian, Judaic, Greek, and/or Alexandrian)... gimme a break! In any case, I got more on Giordano out of Wikipedia than I did out of this book... more definitive information, that is, but again, that is not to say that it is not worthwhile for some other student... just not me. Thus, 3 stars.

I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a book "you're supposed to read" if you're studying hermeticism and the western esoteric tradition. For such dry material I found it an interesting read, I attribute that to Yates' writing style. The one caveat I do have is that it puts direct quotes in Latin into the text to show how it was written, but doesn't have a translation. It would've been helpful for the Latin to have a best effort translation so I don't need to reference Google Translate every other page.

Others have extolled well-enough the virtues of this book, so I'd like to note a grievance. As is the case with many wonderful books, the publishers, in their infinite wisdom (please note the sarcasm), saw fit to leave untranslated a great many passages which are quoted from works in other languages — a notable example being the Latin "Conclusions" of Pico della Mirandola. Why this must be the case I cannot, for the life of me, imagine. I can only suggest that it is an especially repugnant academic pretension, which many in the literary field superstitiously believe confers upon them some aura of scholarly prestige. I do not hesitate to call it, more or less metaphorically, a species of black magic, which has long held sway over the publishing world. The fact — which would otherwise be glaringly obvious — is that readers (along with the books they read) are left very much in the dark; a decidedly unfortunate result, considering that so many of these works are already rather obscure, or occult, as concerning their subject matter. In conclusion, I'd just like to add: What the actual ****?

This text is essential for those interested in Hermetic writings. If you're a student of esotericism, you really need to understand the history of what you're dealing with. This book is a good start.I do feel a need to warn readers, however, that this book doesn't see Hermetic writings as legitimate Mystery School teachings. Recent archeological discoveries offered new evidence that the writings of Hermes might actually be as old as originally claimed. These discoveries, however, were made AFTER this book was published and during a time when many "serious" writers saw things like the Corpus Hermeticum as a more-or-less recent construction.Overall, this is a good bit of history any student of Western esotericism should read, but understand that it's not written by an adept of the teachings. There won't be any insight here; it's all academic and--as a result--very skeptical of anything outside the sphere of objective approaches.

This is a classic and deservedly respected study; the scholarly precision is a healthy balance to the often-unguarded celebration of Renaissance magical material and, Bruno aside, includes a full and informed review of the state of textual analysis (at the time of writing) of the period's famous texts (and their provenance) which it is difficult to find summarised elsewhere. It stands as a first class academic introduction to the entire subject of European magic and its practice over the middle of the last millennium and would serve also as a useful aide even for those looking to excercise some of that magical content. Because of the textual history, even the study of the assumed Egyptian texts, still so widely accepted at face value, is made more complete by this research. Yates is one of England's great historians and this work represents her dedication to the enticing and exciting ideas which so moved Europe then. But most of all it is her wisdom as an historian, her insight into the shifting intellect of Europe during the Renaissance, especially in the meta-ideas about Man, Time, God, Science and Thought itself, let alone Magic and the origins of Knowledge, that makes this book such a beautiful and graceful study.

Frances Yates' work often stirs up strong emotions and the other reviews of this book bear witness to this fact. I had to study this book during my Masters programme in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter. Hermeticism is a complex topic itself above and beyond its source in the anonymous or pseudepigraphic works of Hermes Trismegistus. However it is one that is well worth investigating, I would not recommend beginning with this book however and would suggest reading Goodrick-Clarke's Western Esoteric Traditions or Von Stuckrad's Western Esotericism beforehand to gain some foundational knowledge in the field. This book would make a lot more sense once some background knowledge has been obtained. I cannot add anything to Slater's comprehensive review for detail on the content of the book but can certainly support his summary.

The content of the book gets 5 stars!! The book itself arrived damaged fresh off the printing press. The pages were cut in a way that I've never seen before. I'm surprised that anyone actually chose to ship it and not just throw it in the trash... With that said, I am keeping it to go ahead and read through entirely, simply because I don't feel like returning it and taking the chance of not receiving a better copy. Content 5 STARS

Frances Yates, like an archeologist, has rediscovered and brought to light the real Giordano Bruno (well one of the them at least, he is perhaps too complex for only one interpretation). In any event, at the suggestion of Terence McKenna himself, I got it and read it and re-read it.If you like hermeticism or the western esoteric tradition, you want to learn about as "first hand account" as you are going to get from the 15th century. Get this classic. Can't recommend it enough.

A fascinating book tracing aspects of the history of hermeticism. The cover is dreadfully at odds with the textual content but this isn't of any real significnce.

Together with Dame Frances' other books on Renaissance philosophy a first class introduction to the way people thought in those days.

Lights to guide you home .

Excelente libro de Frances Yates sobre el pensamiento hermético. Excelente servicio de Amazon, llegó al siguiente día y en perfectas condiciones. Muchas gracias!!