The Need for the Factor Hermeticism in the Renaissance Thinking

It is well known that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the interest in studying the culture and philosophy of the Renaissance in the post-Soviet area grew even more. This article discusses the controversial aspects of the study of the Renessas era and shows the need for a hermetic tradition in understanding it. This is because humanistic ideas of the Renaissance display many elements of esoteric traditions. With the collapse of the ideological monopoly of the former Soviet Union, a pluralistic principle from the paradigmatic point of view in various fields of science, particularly in the social and humanitarian field, began to dominate. In particular, the study of the Renaissance focused on the influence of various esoteric traditions. Our aim is to identify the causes of the same relationship by analyzing two overlapping views on the tradition of hermeticism in the Renaissance. At the same time, special attention is paid to the peculiarities of hermetic ideas as a paradigm.

AS DROPS IN THEIR SEA: ANGELOLOGY THROUGH ONTOLOGY IN FAḪR AL-DĪN AL-RĀZĪ’S AL-MAṬĀLIB AL-῾ĀLIYA

In this article, I examine key passages from the Aš῾arite theologian Faḫr al- Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 606/1210) final work, Al-Maṭālib al-῾āliya (“ The lofty inquiries ”), in order to theorize Rāzī’s cosmology and angelology. In his attempt to prove the existence of these beings, Rāzī divides reality into material and intelligible realms. Angels, which signify the celestial intellects and spheres, exist as non-space-occupying beings and represent an aspect of the intelligible world. Of these, some are associated with celestial bodies, and others are entirely unassociated with materiality. I then present evidence for the possibility that Rāzī believed that these celestial spiritual beings are pre-eternal with God. These positions indicate a certain degree of conceptual continuity with the falsafa tradition, and reflect al-Ġazālī’s (d. 505/1111) previous integration of the philosophical structure of reality into some of his texts. Additionally, one may look to other philosophical currents that developed in the Islamic world beyond the falāsifa, and connect Rāzī’s cosmology to both the Hermetic tradition and the Epistles of the Iḫwān al-Ṣafā᾿.

Barthélemy Aneau’s Alector ou le coq and the Paradox of Renaissance Cosmopolitanism

Barthélemy Aneau’s histoire fabuleuse, Alector ou le coq (1560) epitomizes a burgeoning sixteenth-century awareness of the globe and its scope. New possibilities for envisioning global space went hand in hand with the development of cosmopolitan sympathies among Renaissance humanists; namely, enthusiasm for the ideal of a world republic. In this article, I show how Aneau’s fictional narrative demonstrates an idealized vision of the French monarch’s global role. I argue that Alector is written in the spirit of the princely manual, with a singular emphasis on the monarch’s obligatory mastery of spatial navigation that evinces sixteenth-century awareness of geography’s relevance to governance. Aneau creates a pastiche of French foundation myths and of geographical sources in order to emphasize both the French monarch’s preeminence and his worldwide reach. Elements of the hermetic tradition are manifest in Alector, where space is allegorized to illustrate Aneau’s conception of France’s place in the cosmos; in this way, his work is similar to that of his contemporary, the self-described cosmopolitan Guillaume Postel. Ultimately, there is a discord between the real geography evoked in Alector and the fictional genre that houses it. This dissonance emphasizes the paradoxical nature of a cosmopolitanism that strives to incorporate nationalism, and illustrates an unresolved complexity for would-be Renaissance world citizens. L’histoire fabuleuse de Barthélemy Aneau, Alector ou le coq (1560) illustre la conscience grandissante de la Renaissance pour le globe terrestre et son espace. Les nouvelles façons de voir l’espace global se sont développées en même temps que les sympathies cosmopolites de certains humanistes de la Renaissance, en particulier en ce qui concerne leur enthousiasme pour la république mondiale. Dans cet article, l’auteur montre comment la trame narrative d’Aneau illustre une vision idéalisée du rôle global du roi de France. On y analyse qu’Alector est écrit dans l’esprit du manuel du prince, en mettant l’accent particulièrement sur l’obligation qu’a le roi de maîtriser l’espace de navigation, illustrant l’idée au XVIe siècle que la connaissance géographique se situe au cœur de la gouvernance. Aneau crée un pastiche de mythes de fondation française et de sources géographiques afin de souligner à la fois la prééminence du roi de France et son rayonnement mondial. Certains éléments de la tradition hermétique peuvent également être retracés dans Alector, puisque l’espace y fonctionne comme une allégorie de la conception d’Aneau de la place de la France dans le cosmos. De cette façon, son œuvre est similaire à celle de son contemporain, Guillaume Postel, qui se décrivait lui-même comme un cosmopolite. Enfin, un décalage s’observe entre la géographie réelle évoquée dans Alector et le cadre fictionnel qui l’abrite. Ce décalage souligne à son tour la nature paradoxale d’un cosmopolitisme voulant intégrer les nationalismes, ce qui représente bien une question complexe et non résolue pour les citoyens du monde en devenir de la Renaissance.