Psellus, Michael

Although the church in the West never welcomed learning in the way that the Arabs did, or the Byzantines under the great scholar Michael Psellus (1018—c. 1078), who offered a free university education to anyone who wanted it, there was, for a brief period, a climate of enquiry that put alchemy firmly on the map in Europe. Although one may usually associate alchemy with mediaeval ignorance, explosions of interest in it tended to occur in times of flourishing intellectual enquiry. Just as Hellenistic... 

Michael Psellus, Byzantine Platonist of the eleventh century, uses the Hermetic and Orphic texts to explain the Scriptures. 

Yet, religious tolerance in Harran had effectively ended some one hundred years before the Crusaders. The Seljuk Turks occupied Baghdad in 1055CE. The Sabian Schools of Baghdad and Harran made their way to Constantinople where Michael Psellus was leading a Platonic revival." Michael Psellus later became Prime Minister of Constantinople. 

The Corpus Hermeticum that fell into the hands of Cosimo de Medici was probably the personal copy of Michael Psellus, spirited away from Constantinople in 1453CE before the Arabs captured the city. Michael Psellus received this same copy from the Sabians of Harran in 1055CE. 

Proclus, On the Platonic Theobgy, 317 (ft. 102, Majercik) do not gaze at Nature her name is Destiny. See also Michael Psellus, PG122,1145 (fr. 103 Majercik) Do not aid in inaeasing fate. The wisest of the Greeks designate fate as nature. ... 

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