Nicolai de Cusa annotationes in Apulei Madaurensis de philosophia libros et Hermetis Trismegisti Asclepium (Bibliothecae regiae Alberti primi cod. Bruxellensis 10054-56), cura et studio Paschalis Arfé. In: Cusanus-Texte III. Marginalien 5. Apuleius. Hermes Trismegistus. Aus Codex Bruxellensis 10054-56 herausgegeben und erläutert von Pasquale Arfé. Vorgelegt am 18. Oktober 2003 von Werner Beierwaltes (Schriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften 32)

This work contains the diplomatic-interpretative edition of the glosses in the hand of Nicholas of Cusa on two of the most significant texts of the Latin philosophical traditions of Hermeticism and Platonism between Middle Ages and Renaissance, i.e. the Asclepius attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and the Opuscula philosophica of Apuleius, which are preserved in the Ms. Bruxelles, Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er, 10054-56. This codex is a document of great importance, as it provides the reflections of Cusanus on two witnesses of pagan culture which had been strongly criticized by Augustine because of their idolatrous and blasphemous content. The annotations show that Cusanus’s interests run, on the one hand, in line with the conciliatory exegesis of Lactantius, who had seen Hermes as a pagan prophet of Christian revelation, while move, on the other hand, within absolutely original speculative needs. The broad historical and philosophical introduction – which analyzes the meaning of the annotations in the context of Cusanus’s philosophical and theological thought – makes classifiable this publication not only as an edition of a Latin text, but also as a monographic essay on such a special aspect of Hermetic speculation by Nicholas of Cusa.