The Corpus Hermeticum

The Hermetic Writings of Trismegistus

The Corpus Hermeticum is the foundational text of the Western esoteric tradition. Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus — Thrice-Greatest Hermes, identified with the Egyptian god Thoth — it presents a series of dialogues about the nature of God, the mind, and the cosmos that were believed in the Renaissance to be of immense antiquity, perhaps older than Moses. Cosimo de’ Medici was so impatient to rea

Codex Digital EditionComing soonEdition currently in preparation

Edition035

FormatDigital PDF

Editorial statusIn review

TraditionHermetic Arts

Before you read

Context without the mythology.

Codex ISO separates the surviving evidence from later interpretation, so you can encounter the text without being told what to believe about it first.

01 / Historical context

Written 1st–3rd century AD. Preserved by Islamic scholars when Europe burned its libraries. Suppressed by the Church as pagan magic. Rediscovered in Florence, 1460.

02 / Why it matters

The Medici paid a fortune to read it first. Now it costs £1.99.

From / associated with the text

““As above, so below. As within, so without. As the universe, so the soul.””

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Source before story.

We identify the edition, translation and surviving evidence; distinguish documentation from tradition; and state uncertainty rather than turning it into a sales claim.

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Continue the archive

The Corpus Hermeticum

Context without the mythology.

Source before story.

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The Emerald Tablet of Hermes

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