Poimandres

In the upper left margin, there is a faint institutional stamp featuring a coat of arms topped with a crown and surrounded by a circular border containing illegible text.

he lived a philosophical and pious life, devoting himself to the contemplations of the nous intellect/mind, and taking no thought for the downward-tending things of matter. Having returned to his homeland, he wrote many treatises concerning the music, philosophy, and theology of that time. Of these, two are preeminent: the one called Asclepius, and the other Poimandres, which is the first. The latter was translated long ago into the Latin tongue, though not very accurately, and was printed in Venice by Aldus the Roman Aldus Manutius (1449–1515), the famous Venetian printer.. Later, it was translated from this into the local dialect in Florence and published. But as to the printing of this in the Greek tongue—from which it was translated—I do not know how, whether through the negligence or carelessness of the printers, no mention was made of it at all. Therefore, having considered that it is not reasonable to provide so much care for works derived from it while remaining indifferent to the more archetypal version, I deemed it necessary that this should be printed generally in Greek. If indeed I should dedicate it to anyone, it must be to you, who show great zeal for sacred discourses, both ancient and modern, so that you may not be uninitiated in these more ancient writings and how they held knowledge of divine things. For they seem to agree with those of our own time in certain respects, as it is possible to know in the present. For it is proposed to Hermes, conversing here with his disciple Asclepius and his son Tat, to speak about divine and ineffable things, so that with all attention and...