The Corpus Hermeticum and Academic Study

Real academic study of the Corpus Hermeticum begins with Richard Reitzenstein, the first to undertake the study of these texts with full scientific rigor [Poimandres, Leipzig, 1904). But naturally one should not underestimate some of his predecessors, such as Casaubon, Tiedemann, Menard, Pietschmann, nor even Mead (see above for all of these). Esotericism at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century helped to stimulate erudite research into Hermetism. After Reizenstein, text-criticism and erudition are represented above all by Walter Scott and A. J. Festugiere  

Poimandres. TraitesII-XVII (du Corpus Hermeticum). Asclepius. Fragments extraits de Stobee, texts established and translated by A. D. Nock and Andr6-fean Festugiere, 4 vols. (Paris Les Belles Lettres, 1954-1960). 

Festugiere, La Revelation dHermes Trismegiste, 4 vols. (Paris, 1949-1954 reissued by Les Belles Lettres, 1981). 

Festugiere, Hermetisme et mystique paienne (Paris Aubier-Montaigne, 1967). 

The above works of Father Festugiere constitute the indispensable basis for scholars. Other studies have appeared, also bearing on the Hermetica properly so-called. There is no question here of 

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