El Corpus Hermeticum y tres poetas españoles: Francisco de Aldana, fray Luis de León y San Juan de la Cruz. Conexiones léxicas y semánticas entre la filosofía hermética y la poesía española del siglo XVI, por Susan Byrne.
Byrne studies lexical and semantic connections between the Corpus Hermeticum and the poetic works of three sixteenth century Spanish poets: Francisco de Aldana, fray Luis de León and San Juan de la Cruz.
Renaissance humanists celebrated the author of the hermetic texts, Hermes Trismegistus, as a key figure in their prisca theologia or pia philosophia. Following on Marsilio Ficino's 1471 translation of his works, they were widely read and discussed throughout Europe until an early seventeenth century historicist, philologist critique debunked their dating and undermined their authority.
The three poets, writing prior to that rejection of Hermes Trismegistus as a pagan source, seamlessly weave hermetic images and ideas into their original verse works. The soldier-poet Aldana, the mystical Doctor San Juan de la Cruz, and the complex, erudite figure of fray Luis de León each reflect, in their own inimitable way, the hermetic current so prevalent in sixteenth century thought.
ISBN 978-1-58871-114-4 (PB, 264 pp.) $30