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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The literary evidence describing the revelation of the strange Christian prophet Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio in the communities of Italy and France at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century has been treated with considerable interest by a number of scholars. W. B. McDaniel was the first to publish the existing evidence on this unusual figure, together with the text of a hermetic plague tract attributed to him with an English translation. These sources portray a divinely inspired prophet, together with his wife, five children, and his disciples, making his way as a mendicant through Italy and France. Mercurio sees as his task the reprobation of all the sins of the Catholic Church and Christian peoples. He is empowered with the magical gift of the Supreme Being to prepare an antidote against the horrendous plague.
This essay is based substantially on a part of my doctoral dissertation submitted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in June 1974, under the supervision of Professor Haim Beinart, ‘Abraham Farissol: An Historical Study of his Life and Thought in the Context of Jewish Communal Life in Renaissance Italy’ (in Hebrew). I would also like to thank Professor Eugene P. Rice, Jr., of Columbia University, who first called my attention to the literature on Mercurio.
1 ‘An Hermetic Plague-Tract by Johannes Mercurius Corrigiensis,’ first published in Fugitive Leaves of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 1935-36 (mimeographed); later revised and republished in Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Series iv, 9 (1941-42), 96-111, 217-225; See especially McDaniel's summary of the Oratio ad sanctam crucem, pp. 217-218.
2 On Sosenna, see McDaniel, p. 219; Paul Kristeller, Oskar, ‘Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Corregio,’ in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome, 1956), pp. 25lff.Google Scholar; Pardi, G., Lo studio di Ferrara nei secoli XVe XVI (Ferrara, 1903), p. 148.Google Scholar On Lazzarelli, see McDaniel, pp. 220, 222fF.; Ohly, Kurt, ‘Johannes “Mercurius” Corrigiensis,’ Beitraege zur Inkunabelkunde, n.f., II (1938), 140ff.Google Scholar; Thorndike, L., A History of Magic and Experimental Science, v (New York, 1941), 533 Google Scholar; Kristeller, P. O., ‘Marsilio Ficino e Ludovico Lazzarelli, Contributo alla diffusione delle idee ermetiche nel Rinascimento,’ in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome, 1956), pp. 222–240 Google Scholar, and ‘Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio, due Ermetici del Quattrocento, e il manoscritto II.D.I.4 dell Biblioteca Comunale degli Ardenti di Viterbo,’ in Biblioteca degli Ardenti delta Città di Viterbo, Studi e Ricerche nel 150° della Fondazione, ed. A. Pepponi (Viterbo, 1960), 13-37.1 have used an offprint of the article in the Columbia University Library, paginated 1-25, from which I cite. See also the references cited in this last article on p. 8, n. 18. On Trithemius, see McDaniel, pp. 220, 222ff.; Ohly, pp. 140ff.; Thorndike, v (1934). 524; vi (1941). 439.
3 Ohly, pp. 140ff., and McDaniel, pp. 221ff., who also discusses Ohly's contention. The entire Epistola Enoch was later published along with other selections of Lazzarelli's writings in Testi umanistici su l'ermetismo, ed. Garin, E., Brini, M., et al., Archivio di filosofia (Rome, 1955), PP. 34–47.Google Scholar
4 Kristeller, ‘Marsilio Ficino e Ludovico Lazzarelli … ,’ pp. 222-240; ‘Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio,’ pp. 249-257, esp. p. 257; and ‘Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio … ,’ pp. 10-13, 20-22.
5 Garin, Eugenio, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Comitato per Celebrazione Centenarie (Mirandola, 1963), pp. 39–40.Google Scholar
6 On Farissol, see my doctoral dissertation and my Hebrew lecture, to be published in the proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies, held in Jerusalem, August 1973, entitled ‘Abraham Farissol's Iggeret Orhot Olam in its Historic Context.’
7 Samuel Lowinger previously published selections from Magen Avraham along with a discussion of the time of Farissol's disputation and of the manuscripts of Farissol's polemic. Cf. Samuel Lowinger, ‘Selections from Magen Avraham of Abraham Farissol’ (Hebrew), Ha-Zofeh, 12 (1927-28), 277-297; and ‘Récherches sur l'oeuvre apologetique d'Abraham Farissol,’ Révue des études juives, 105 (1939), 23-52, as well as my corrections and additions to his discussion in my thesis, chapter v, and appendix II. A list of approximately thirty-five extant manuscripts of this composition is also found in appendix II of my thesis.
8 Selections from this chapter (numbered chapter 5 in most manuscript versions), along with a discussion of the views found there, were first published by Ben-Sasson, Hayim Hillel, ‘The Reformation in Contemporary Jewish Eyes,’ preprint from Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 4 (Jerusalem, 1970), 249–254 Google Scholar (also published in an original Hebrew version).
9 Magen Avraham, chapter 5. I have consulted a number of manuscripts in quoting Farissol's description here, especially MSS. New York-Jewish Theological Seminary of America-Adler 254, Oxford Bodleian 2295.2, and the manuscript utilized by Ben-Sasson, Ms. Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, Heb. 8°783, edited by Z. A. Poznanski from several manuscripts. I have also consulted the English translation of this passage in Ben-Sasson's article in making my own translation of this passage.
10 Translated by McDaniel, p. 220.
11 Exhortationes in Barbaros Thurcos Scythas … perorate, Lyons, May 26, 1501, in McDaniel, p. 217.
12 Ohly, p. 136; Garin and Brini, p. 41.
13 McDaniel, p. 220; Kristeller, ‘Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio,’ p. 250.
14 McDaniel, p. 219; Ohly, p. 136. The direct appellation of son of God in describing Mercurio had to be avoided, understandably, but the implication that he was in fact the son of God is nevertheless made by some of his enthusiastic followers. See the discussion on Lazzarelli below.
15 McDaniel, p. 219; Ohly, p. 135; Garin and Brini, p. 37. Calmeta similarly writes of Miis natural eloquence: ‘essendo di facondia e di ardente pronuncia dalla natura dotato …’ (quoted in Kristeller, ‘Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio … ,’ p. 11).
16 Oratio ad sanctam crucem, in McDaniel, p. 217; as well as Exhortations, p. 218; Enoch Chronicle, p. 219 (which claims he left his family in Bologna); Cesena Chronicle, p. 220; Trithemius, p. 220. See also Ohly, p. 137.
17 Kristeller, ‘Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio,’ pp. 251ff.
18 On Ercole's relationship to Savonarola, see Gardner, Edmond, Dukes and Poets in Ferrara (New York, 1904), pp. 324ff.Google Scholar, 363ff.; Chiappini, Luciano, ‘Girolamo Savonarola ed Ercole I d'Este,’ Atti e memorie della deputazione provinciate ferrarese di storia patria, n.s., 7, parte 3 (Ferrara, 1952-53), 45–53 Google Scholar; and more generally, Gundersheimer, Werner I., Ferrara: The Style of a Renaissance Despotism (Princeton, N.J., 1973), pp. l86ff.Google Scholar On the influence of astrology and magic at Ercole's court, see Bertoni, Giulio, La biblioteca estense e la cultura ferrarese ai tempi del duca Ercole I (1471-1505) (Torino, 1903), pp. 117ff., 126ffGoogle Scholar; Rotondò, Antonio, ‘Pellegrino Prisciani,’ Rinascimento, 11 (1960), 69–110.Google Scholar Professor Kristeller (in ‘Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio … , ‘ p. 11, n. 30) has already suggested Mercurio's possible link to the same Northern Italian feudal family of da Correggio which produced Niccolò da Correggio (1450-1508), the poet, playwright, and diplomat who was in close contact with the ducal court of Ferrara. Pompeo Litta, in his family tree of the da Correggio family (Famiglie Celebri Italiane, II [Milan, 1825]), does in fact list two lesser known members of the family with the name Giovanni, both of them living at the end of the fifteenth century. Besides Niccolò, a number of other members of this distinguished family were also in close contact with the Este court including Manfredo and Antonio da Correggio (see Litta above). If Giovanni Mercurio was indeed a relative of this distinguished clan, his connection with Ercole is all the more understandable. On Niccolò da Correggio and his connections with the Este house, see Gundersheimer, pp. 211, 223, 258, 260; Bertoni, p. 147; and Arata, Alda, Niccolò da Correggio nella vita letteraria e politico del tempo suo (1450-1508) (Bologna, 1934).Google Scholar
19 On his first visit, see Ohly, pp. 135ff.; McDaniel, p. 219; Garin and Brini, pp. 37ff.; On his visit described in the Oratio, see McDaniel, p. 217.
20 Kristeller, ‘Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio,’ p. 250.
21 Garin, p. 40.
22 Farissol was in Mantua in 1480 when he copied Ms. Heb. 8°5492 in the National and University Library, Jerusalem, for an unknown female patron. During 1481-82, Farissol copied the following Hebrew manuscripts for Samuel da Pola in Sermide; MSS. London-British Museum 95; Cambridge add. 1821/1; London-British Museum 622; Parma DeRossi 79.
23 In Bologna, he copied MS. Cincinnati Huc 331; MS. Firenze-Laurenziana Or. 475 may have been completed by Farissol in Mantua in 1485. In addition, Farissol definitely completed another manuscript in Mantua in that same year. Cf. Kirschstein, S., Die Judaica-sammlung (München, 1932), p. 14, n. 215.Google Scholar
24 Farissol also mentions in chapter 29 of Magen Avraham that he had visited Rome, where he personally inspected a copy of Jerome's translation of the Psalms.
25 Along with the other intellectuals like Lazzarelli, Trithemius, and Sosenna already mentioned, Garin (pp. 39-40) states that before Mercurio's imprisonment by the inquisitor of Florence, he was also invited to meet with both Pico della Mirandola and Flavius Mithridates, Pico's teacher, in the spring of 1486. I intend to discuss Farissol's relationship with Pico and Mithridates in a future study.
26 ‘However this man believed and argued the correctness of this false and foolish view that he be called the son of God in his account and in his writings and according to what I understood from his words, so it was …’ (my emphasis).
27 McDaniel, p. 220.
28 Quoted by Walker, D. P., Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (London, 1958), p. 65.Google Scholar
29 Walker, p. 68. Walker's summary is based on Kristeller, ‘Marsilio Ficino e Ludovico Lazzarelli,’ pp. 232-240. Neither Kristeller nor Walker were able to locate Lazzarelli's source in Sefer Yezirah. Secret, F. (Les Kabbalists Chrétiens de la Renaissance [Paris, 1964], p. 75)Google Scholar also omits this reference. According to Gershom Scholem, introductory chapters appended to the earliest texts of Sefer Yezirah actually describe similar magical practices to that mentioned by Lazzarelli. Lazzarelli may have consulted such an appended version of this composition. On the magical use of Sefer Yezirah in Jewish mystical tradition, see Scholem, G., Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1962), p. 26 Google Scholar, and more fully in the same author's printed lectures, The Beginning of the Kabbalah and Sefer ha-Bahir [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1962), pp. 57-63. The popularity of Sefer Yezirah among Christian cabalistic circles is attested by its publication in a Latin translation by G. Postel in 1552, ten years before the first Hebrew printed edition of the work. It is most ironic that Farissol, a Jew, had learned of this magical practice from a Christian who had in turn mastered the practice through the study of an ancient Jewish text.
30 Walker, p. 70. This bizarre teaching was not restricted to Lazzarelli alone but was shared by other Italian intellectuals as well, including Giovanni Nesi and Pico della Mirandola. See Weinstein, Donald, Savonarola and Florence, Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1970), pp. 192ff.Google Scholar, and Francis A. Yates, ‘Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Magic,’ in L'Opera e il pensiero di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola nella storia dell'umanesimo, Convegno internazionale, 1, Relazioni (Firenze, 1965), pp. 159-203, esp. pp. 182-188, republished as the fifth chapter of her book, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (Chicago, 1964).
31 Walker, p. 36.