1.
Lodovico Enoch Lazzarelli Septempedanus, once a poet, but now by new regeneration a son of the true wisdom, sends greetings to Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio.
Dear teacher, dearly beloved father Giovanni Mercurio: I have become so absorbed in the study of the divine books of Hermes Trismegistus and also in the most holy words of Moses and the prophets, and most of all in those of Jesus Christ our Savior, that all other writings, whether of ancients or of moderns, have completely lost their appeal to me and make me sick to my stomach. For they are all sitting at one table, and with friendly faces serve their fellow dinner guests the fragrant dishes of the gods, and their refreshing drinks. Here is the food of the angels, here is the substance of God which attends to everyone's will, here is prepared the bread of heaven that has in it all delight and all that is sweet to the taste, here is the fountain of the water of life that springs up to eternal life, here is the consonant harmony of the words of God that reach into the soul, here the life-bestowing apples of the tree of life offer themselves to accommodate all wishes. Here, finally, is the fullness of the garden of all delights. And any man that will taste of them will be able to understand himself, to free himself from his ties with the material world, break free from the motions of the celestial harmony, escape from the light of obscurity, transcend the seven spheres, and thus join the ranks of the powers. All those who devote themselves to other authors and scriptures: what else do they find but the fleeting food of Tantalus, the substance of sin, a bread devised to draw down souls, a cup of forgetfulness, opinions that are at variance amongst themselves, the deadly apples of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—in one word, all the deadly lures of Hell? Having become entangled in them, man, who once had existed supreme above the harmony, has fallen into the harmony and has become a slave of death. So farewell, Aonian Parnassus, for henceforth I will sedulously celebrate Mount Zion. Farewell, well of Helicon, for henceforth I will be refreshed by the crystal-clear waters of that other well, which at the time of regeneration gush forth copiously in the heavenly city of Jerusalem descending from the sky, from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Farewell, Tymbrian Apollo, for henceforth and forever the Nazarene Christ will be my Guide and my God, my Godhead, my Father, and my Good. And finally, farewell to the nymphs, the daughters of King Pierus, for although there may be sixty queens and eighty concubines, and slave-girls without number, one only is my dove, and undefiled; she is her mother’s only one and the chosen of her that gave birth to her, rising from Lebanon overflowing with delights, fair as the Moon, beautiful as the Sun, terrible as an army in array. Only she now has ravished my heart. She has ravished my heart with one of her eyes, and one hair of her neck. What then shall I give you in return for such a gift, O guide, O most wise ruler of my life, who by your work has made me able to enjoy the delights of such a lovely maid? At the moment I really have nothing else but to dedicate all my works to you, freely and gratefully, for what they are worth. So while I read through all the books of Hermes that I possibly could, as a student of true wisdom, I did not omit the preface by Marsilio Ficino to those books that he recently translated into Latin, and which I am now sending you, with these others, as a token of my esteem. In it, I found many things that were quite elegantly, gracefully, and eloquently written about our Hermes, which filled me with love for the translator of the work, Marsilio, to a wonderful degree, because he had celebrated your father (and my grandfather) with so many excellent praises although the tongues of all the scholars together could not express and do justice to the merits of this truly perfect and godly man. One thing only I considered incorrectly said in the beginning of the preface, namely what he tells us later generations about the lifetime of this Hermes. For Trismegistus did not live after the times of Moses, as he tells us there, but, rather, a long time before, as can clearly be gathered from the books of Diodorus. For in his description of the dynasties of Egypt he relates how first the gods and then men reigned in Egypt. And it is a known fact that this Mercurius Trismegistus lived among the gods in the time of the gods: and it is well established that these gods were perfect and true men and sages. But Moses, as is quite clear from the sacred scriptures and many records of the ancients, lived in a period when the Pharaohs reigned in Egypt: people who were neither divine nor true and perfect men, but can scarcely be called human at all. For no one can be called human if he has not reached the true and proper form and force of a man, that is to say the light, the life, the mind, the word of God, and judgment and dominion over all things in the world: such as Hermes has not only reached himself, but has also abundantly poured forth to others in his sacred writings and teachings, and in his divine Crater. Now just think over this point of view of mine and as always give me your precise and true opinion, since you always bring light to dark and mysterious questions , for you know not only the origin, succession, duration, and end of the world, but also by your generosity make them known to me. You also bring about (if love does not blind me) that by your work the road to true wisdom, which had long been lost and put in doubt, has been made visible, straight and clear to all people. Goodbye, my guiding star, and love me as you always do.
2.
An ode to Giovanni Mercurio of Correggio, by Lodovico Enoch Lazzarelli of Sanseverino, a born-again son of true wisdom.
Counsel of our days, whom our era has given us;
O hope and salvation of your times,
Father Mercurius, teacher by fatherly love,
Hail to you, who are like a god to me.
You have begotten me anew by ethereal seed,
And taught me to be born again without deceit.
As on wings of a bird you lift me to heaven,
Who was pressed to the ground by the weight of the body.
Already now you show me the teachings of Almighty Christ,
Fathomed to the depths: a sweet work of salvation.
The impassable roads were laid open by you;
Those that used to be steep have become even.
You alone have gone through the secret caves of father Hermes,
By roads unknown to all, and have returned from there;
You alone have unveiled the secrets of threefold nature,
By you the sacred bosom of Pallas Athena was embraced.
See, Father, I send you the cherished presents of your father,
Look, I send you the sacred books of Hermes.
He begat you, and behold, as a father you have made me new.
You are my father, so I should call him grandfather.
What he was the first to teach men, now you yourself
Have begun to teach, yes, father, you may teach even better things.
So his sacred name rightly belongs to you as well.
The Word is in you and the high grace of the greatest God.
See, by God's command, through you the golden ages now arise again,
And once again man will own the gift that is his own.
Poem.
In the counsel of our fleeting days, a figure stands,
Father Mercurius, a beacon to our lands.
With fatherly love and guiding hand so true,
Hail to the one who feels as a god anew.
Through ethereal seeds, you've sown a rebirth,
Taught me to rise above the weight of earth.
Like a bird on wings, you lift me high,
From the shadows of the ground to the open sky.
Your teachings of Christ, vast as the sea,
A sweet work of salvation, setting spirits free.
You paved clear the once impassable road,
Made smooth the paths that once heavily slowed.
Through secret caves of Hermes, you alone did tread,
Paths unseen, where others feared to tread.
You revealed the threefold wisdom we seek,
And embraced the sacred knowledge, unique.
Father, I send you these cherished scrolls,
The sacred books where Hermes’ wisdom unrolls.
As he begot you, you’ve made me anew,
In this lineage of knowledge, I call you my due.
What he first taught to early men,
You now impart, teaching even better than then.
His sacred name, a title you bear,
With the Word and God's grace, beyond compare.
Through you, Father, the golden ages arise,
And once again, man's true gift will reprise.
In the dawn of ages, renewed and divine,
Through your counsel, humanity again will shine.
3.
Lodovico Enoch Lazzarelli of Sanseverino, once a poet but now by new regeneration a son of the true wisdom, sends greetings to Giovanni Mercurio of Correggio, and wishes him peace and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
My dear father and most benign teacher Giovanni Mercurio, when under your guidance and by the grace of Almighty Jesus Christ I set foot on the inscrutable ways of true wisdom, I took my leave from the fountains of Aganippe and Pegasus, which had never quenched my thirst, and while as a hart that is thirsting after Zion's green fields, I tried to reach that sweetest fountain that wells up from the mouth of God and of the Lamb, towards that inaccessible and most lucid darkness of God, it happened that among the old books of godlike men which I sedulously explored I quite unexpectedly fell upon a goblet of nectar filled with all sweetness, which I do not doubt has emanated from the divine and immense mixing-bowl of Hermes Trismegistus, that is to say: a Greek booklet titled the Definitions of Asclepius. And when I read it through I was wonderfully impressed by its brevity and the mystic way in which it renders our tradition of divine wisdom. For while I read it, it filled me with that sweetness which I have often (and with joy and pleasure) tasted in a pure supper, without animals, at the table of the Lamb, shared out by your generous and gracious mind, far away from prying eyes. And since it seems to me that the delight of a son and disciple cannot be complete if he does not share it with his father and teacher, I have translated this little Greek work into Latin for you
—not with great sophistication, but rather without any verbosity or embellishments, word by word according to the Greek. I took into account that the Greek interpreter (whoever he may have been) who first rendered this work from the Egyptian idiom into his native tongue did this the same way. For it does not smack of Greek eloquence, but looks more like some