Marsilio Ficino’s portrait of Hermes Trismegistus and its afterlife
Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of the Greek Corpus Hermeticum was carried out in 1463 at Cosimo de’ Medici’s request and first printed in Treviso in 1471 without Ficino’s consent. This translation, together with Ficino’s preface running through Trismegistus’s life and writings, was the starting point of modern Hermetism. The striking success of the Pimander–by far the most widespread of Ficino's works–is demonstrated by more than 40 extant manuscripts, 24 printed editions up to the end of the sixteenth century, and renaissance translations in many vernacular languages.