On the Art of the Kabbalah

...you emerged more skilled, indeed as a boy having embraced the sweetness of the most polished Poliziano Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), a brilliant Renaissance humanist and tutor to the Medici children. Why use many words? In that age, nothing was more flourishing than Florence. Within it, the best of the arts—all of which had previously fallen into decay—were being reborn; nothing of languages and letters remained untouched that the noble Florentines did not practice. I was then strongly moved by that fame, seized by a desire for that place—not only for the magnificent architecture of your ancestral home (unusual to us from the Hercynian Referring to the Hercynian Forest, a classical term for the wooded mountains of central and southern Germany regions), which they named for the Great Cosimo, but also by a longing to see your father, from whom such great benefits have come to our century.

Therefore, having set out for Italy with the illustrious Eberhard the Bearded Eberhard I (1445–1496), the first Duke of Württemberg, whom Reuchlin served as a counselor, the first Duke of the Swabians in our time, to whom I served as Secretary, I entered Florence around the 21st of March original: "xii. Kalend. Apriles", in the Year of Christ 1482. And when I had commended the distinguished nobility of the Medici family to that Duke, as indeed I was bound to do by the truth of the matter, he desired to have a conversation with that man [Lorenzo]. When Lorenzo noticed this (revealed by I know not whom), he took the foreigner’s right hand most graciously and led us all to his home, showing us every single thing worthy of sight. First, the most skillfully built stables for horses; then the armory filled with every preparation for war; then each chamber decorated with most precious hangings and beautiful carpets; and, on the high roof of the building, a grove planted with trees, like the Gardens of the Hesperides with golden apples. When I praised his Library to the heavens with my words, that sweetest man responded most graciously (as was his custom) that he possessed a greater treasure in his children than in his books.

I beg you, Most Holy Pope, allow me, a man from the lowest rank of the common people, to speak somewhat more freely with you. With what great admiration and joy do you think I was seized when, amid universal applause, I heard that you—the best son of the best and wisest Prince, the divine Lorenzo de' Medici—had ascended to the highest peak of affairs? I suddenly remembered, like some hierophant A priest or interpreter of sacred mysteries, that paternal prediction which was truly like a prophecy. What could sprout from this Laurel A pun on "Laurentius" (Lorenzo) and "Laurus" (Laurel) that would be more precious, not only to the people of Laurentum but to the whole world? What greater treasure could be imagined than your ineffable reign, from which all riches flow to us as if from the depths of the Pactolus A river in modern-day Turkey, famous in antiquity for being the source of King Croesus's gold, ◦ along with all graces, all ornaments of the best literature, and everything that is good in human affairs?

Your father sowed the seeds of all ancient philosophy, which now, with you as his son, rise into stalks, so that during your reign we may reap the ears of grain in all languages: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic original: "Chaldaïca & Chaldiaca" — referring to the languages of the Near East, in which these books are now offered to your Majesty. Everything begun so prudently by your father is being brought to a more fruitful completion under your rule. Therefore, considering that only the Pythagorean teachings were missing for scholars—which nevertheless are found scattered in the aca... catchword: "demia" (academy)