Epilogue — Trismegistus to Asclepius: On the Maker, the Made, and the Goodness of God

The fourteenth and final book of Ficino's Pimander is addressed to Asclepius — the healer, the mature disciple. Trismegistus explains that in Asclepius's absence, young Tatius wished to learn the nature of all things; many things were said to accommodate his youth. Now, for Asclepius, the whole may be summarized: all things perceived by sense are made, made not by themselves but by another. There is therefore a Maker, unbegotten, older than the begotten, unique, sole, and truly wise. He is invisible yet makes precisely in order to become visible. He deserves three names — God, maker, father — and the two categories of maker and made contain all things: nothing stands between them.

The discourse climaxes in Ficino's summary of the Hermetic theodicy: from the maker comes nothing evil and nothing shameful. The passions that follow created things — rust on iron, mud on the living body — are not from God any more than the smith introduces the rust. God sows immortality in heaven, change on earth, life and motion throughout the world. This is the epilogue: four things encompass all — God, generation, and all things comprehended therein.

This translation renders Book XIV from Ficino's Latin as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition. It is the concluding book of the Pimander. The underlying text is designated Corpus Hermeticum XIV in modern scholarship.

Since my son Tatius, in your absence, wished to learn the nature of all things — and would not allow me to delay, being a youth now approaching the knowledge of each thing — I was compelled to say many things, so that the insight might be easy and expeditious for him. I thought it worthwhile, choosing the best from the many, to repeat to you now in summary the preceding discussion. For with you, as one versed in the nature of things, it is fitting to run through certain mysteries.

All things perceived by sense are made and are made daily. The begotten are made not by themselves but by another. Many things are begotten, perceptible to sense individually, differing and not entirely alike. Whatever things are begotten proceed from another.

There is therefore a certain maker of these things, and he is unbegotten — that he might be older than the begotten. For we said that the begotten flow from another. Nothing, however, but the unbegotten can be older than the begotten. The maker is indeed prior and unique — he alone is truly wise in all things, since nothing at all precedes him. He dominates the multitude, the magnitude, the activity, the continuity, and the difference of all begotten things.

Moreover, the begotten are visible; he is invisible. He makes for the very reason of becoming visible. Therefore he makes always.

It is worthy to understand, and understanding to wonder, and wondering to call oneself blessed — recognizing the legitimate father.

For what is sweeter than a legitimate parent? Who is he? Where shall we find him? Is it fitting to attribute to him the name of God alone, or of maker, or of father? Or all three equally? Call him God on account of his power; maker on account of his act; father on account of his good. For his power differs greatly from the begotten things; his act is in the production of all.

Wherefore, setting aside the variety and vanity of words, it is fitting to meditate above all on these two things: the begetter and the begotten. Nothing stands between them; nor is there anything besides these. When therefore you wish to understand all things, remember these two, and hold that they are all things. Nothing shall be uncertain to you — neither of the higher things nor the lower, neither the divine nor the mutable, neither the manifest nor those which lurk in shadows. For these two have been said: the begetter and the begotten. Nor can the one be separated from the other — for it is not possible that the begetter exist without the begotten. Each of them is what it is. Therefore neither can one be disjoined from the other, just as neither can be divided from itself — since the maker, being nothing besides what he makes, is simple; for as he always is, so he is always making, and the same to himself both in existing and in acting.

But nothing begotten is begotten from itself; therefore the maker is not apart from the making. He who subtracts one of these destroys the other also. For one by its own nature always looks toward the other. If therefore two things are granted — the maker and the made — they are united to each other; yet one precedes and the other follows. The one that precedes is God the maker; the one that follows is whatever is made — whatever that may be. Let no one be alarmed at the variety of things — as though the construction of such diverse things were either arduous or unworthy of the divine majesty. For this is the one glory of God: the constitution of all things — and this is, as it were, the body of God the maker. From the maker himself comes nothing evil, nothing shameful.

These are the passions that follow created works — as rust follows iron and mud follows the living body. But neither did the ironsmith introduce the rust, nor the begetter of the living body the filth and impurity. In the same way, neither did God introduce evil. Generation through its succession compels evil to creep in — and for this reason God has established change in things, as a certain purification of generation itself.

Moreover, is it not given to the same painter to depict heaven, earth, sea, gods, men, beasts, trees, and lifeless things — and shall one God lack the power to do such things? O foolish one, O blind one, wholly inexpert in all divine knowledge! Nothing is more ridiculous, O Asclepius, than what happens to such a person — who professes to venerate God and yet, because he relieves himself of the business and care of creating, utterly ignores God himself; and what is worse, attributes to him the passions of mortals — envy, pride, ignorance, weakness. For if he does not make all things, he is either proud or rather weak — both of which are impious. God has one single nature, and that is the Good. The Good is neither proud nor impotent. That is God himself. The Good — the very power of all making.

Whatever is begotten is begotten by God — begotten by the Good, and by the one who can do all things. If you wish to understand how he makes and how those things are made — you may, with great beauty and most fitting similitude, observe. Look, I pray, upon the farmer sowing his seeds in the bosom of the earth: here wheat, there barley, elsewhere other kinds of seed. Look upon the same man planting vines, apples, and figs, pruning and cutting. In the same way, God himself sows immortality in heaven, change on earth, and life and motion in the whole world. These are not many things but few, determined by a fixed number. For all things are four: God and generation — by which all things are comprehended.

Ficino's Scholion: The fourteenth presents what is perceived by sense: all things are made, and made continuously. For as they flow from another, who rules all things omnipotently, so too he continuously sustains them, lest by their own nature they fall headlong into nothing. Whose sole knowledge makes one happy and blessed — who is God, maker of all things, and father. He alone is the begetter, and all other things are begotten; between begetter and begotten no middle can be interposed. And these two are all things; for all are two: begetter and begotten. Moreover, he asserts that evil does not depend from God (just as rust does not depend from the ironsmith) but follows created works. And from our human art he elevates us to the comprehension of divine art — and declares that God himself sows immortality in heaven, change on earth, and in the whole world life and motion. This is the epilogue.

Lefèvre d'Étaples's closing: These few things we have appended by way of argument — though we freely confess that each and every dialogue requires a greater work of explanation, and a far more excellent talent than our modest strength can supply. Let Mercury nevertheless come forth here, now into the light, for the honor of God and the illumination of readers — he who from those especially who came forth from among the nations was conspicuous through all ages for the remarkable piety of his discourses. To which we shall next append his book on the divine will.

Colophon

Translated from Ficino's Latin Pimander as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition: Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei. Asclepius. Eiusdem Mercurij liber De voluntate divina. Item Crater Hermetis a Lazarelo Septempedano (Rome, 1505). Digital text from the Internet Archive, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, held by the National Central Library of Rome. Public Domain Mark 1.0.

This is Book XIV of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates Epilogus (The Epilogue), addressed to Asclepius, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum XIV in modern scholarship. It is the concluding book of the Pimander. The editorial gloss that follows Ficino's scholion is by Lefèvre d'Étaples (Jacobus Faber Stapulensis), the editor of the 1505 volume, and represents his own assessment of the Hermetic corpus — not Ficino's words. The modern critical Greek edition (Nock and Festugière 1945) was not consulted; translation is derived independently from Ficino's Latin. G. R. S. Mead's 1906 English was not consulted.

With this book, Ficino's Pimander — his Latin rendering of the Corpus Hermeticum, Books I through XIV — is complete. The text that ignited the Renaissance revival of Hermeticism, translated into English from the Latin for the first time in an open-access edition.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Epilogus — Liber XIV

Latin source text from Ficino's Pimander as preserved in the Lefèvre d'Étaples 1505 edition, accessed via the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Transcribed from the OCR text with corrections for long-s rendering (ſ → s), hyphenated line-breaks rejoined, and obvious OCR splits resolved. Source fetched from bytes 123,479–130,167 of the djvu.txt file.

Mercurij ad Esculapium. Epilogus. XIIII.

Quoniam filius meus Tatius (te absente) naturam quae omnium discere voluit, cunctari vero me noluit ipse, ut pote iunior ac nunc accedens ad cuiusque cognitionem, coactus sum plurima dicere, ut facilis illi foret atque expeditus intuitus. Operepretium esse censui ut ex multis eligens potiora, summatim nunc tibi disputationem praecedentem repetam. Licet enim tecum, ut pote rerum naturae perito, per mysteria quaedam percurrere.

Quae sensu percipiuntur, facta sunt omnia, fiuntque quotidie. Genita non a seipsis, sed ab altero fiunt. Multa sunt genita, sensu patentia singula: differentiaque nec omnino similia. Quaecunque gignuntur, procedunt ab altero.

Est ergo quis factor istorum, atque is ingenitus, ut genitis antiquior sit. Genita enim diximus ab alio fluere. Nihil autem praeter ingenitum genitis esse potest antiquius. Factor quippe posterior est et unicus: solusque re vera sapiens universa, cum nihil omnino ipsum praecedat. Dominatur quoque multitudini, magnitudini, actioni, continuitati, genitorumque omnium differentiae. Praeterea genita visibilia sunt; invisibilis ille. Ob id vero facit, ut visibilis fiat; semper igitur facit.

Dignum est intelligere, intelligendo mirari, admirando se beatum vocare: patrem legitimum recognoscentem. Quid enim dulcius parente legitimo? Quis iste? Quo eum reperiemus? An illi appellationem dei soli decens est attribuere, vel factoris, vel patris? An tria pariter cognomenta: deum ergo cognominato propter potentiam; factorem propter actum; patrem denique propter bonum. Est enim potestas a genitis admodum differens: actus autem in productione cunctorum.

Quamobrem sermonis varietate vanitatisque dimissa, duo haec in primis meditari oportet: genitorem scilicet ac genitum. Horum nihil est medium: nec quicquam praeter haec aliud. Cum ergo omnia intelligere volueris, horum recordare duorum, eaque esse universa memento. Nihil tibi erit ambiguum, nec superiorum nec infernorum, seu divinorum, seu mutabilium, aut patentium, aut eorum quae in tenebris delitescunt. Duo nempe dicta sunt: genitor ac genitum. Nec secerni alterum ab altero potest; neque enim genitorem absque genito esse possibile est. Utrumque illorum id ipsum existit. Itaque neutrum disiungi licet ab altero, quemadmodum neutrum a seipso dividitur; siquidem ipsum faciens, nihil praeter ipsum quod facit est aliud; simplex enim est; ut semper est, ita semper est agens; idemque sibiipsi et in existendo pariter et in agendo. Nihil autem quod genitum, a seipso genitum est; non ergo seorsim factum a faciente. Qui horum unum subtrahit, perdit et alterum. Unus quippe natura propria; natura semper altera respicit. Si itaque duo concessa sunt, efficiens et effectum: unita quidem sunt invicem; sic tamen ut unum praecedat, alterum vero sequatur. Praecedens sane deus efficiens; sequens vero id quod est effectum. Quicquid id denique fit: neque diffidat quisquam in iis quae diximus, varietate rerum perterritus, quasi tam diversorum constructio vel ardua sit vel indigna maiestate divina. Unica enim deo gloria: omnium constitutio, atque id est velut corpus dei effector. Ab ipso profecto factore: nihil malum nihilque turpe. Haec siquidem passiones sunt creata sequentes opera, quemadmodum aerugo animata corpora limus. At neque faber ferrarius induxit rubiginem, neque animati corporis genitor coenum ac sordes. Eodemque modo: nec deus etiam malum. Generationis autem per senescentia: malum surrepere cogit; eaque de causa mutationem deus rebus instituit, et ceu quadam generationis ipsius purgatione.

Praeterea eidem pictori figurare licet coelum, terram, mare, deos, homines, bruta, arbores, ac vita carentia: deo vero uni talium deerit agendorum facultas? O dementem, o caecum, et totius divinae cognitionis inexpertem! Nihil est magis o Asclepius ridiculum, quam quod huic accidit. Nam dum se deum venerari fatentur, ex eo quod creandi negocio curaque liberet, deum ipsum prorsus ignorant; quodque deterius est, mortalium illi passiones ascribunt: invidiam, superbiam, ignorantiam, imbecillitatem. Nisi enim faciat omnia, aut superbus est aut potius imbecillis: quorum utrumque nefarium. Deus enim unicam propriamque naturam habet; idque ipsum bonum est. Bonus autem nec superbus est nec impotens. Ipsa vero bonitas deus est. Bonum quippe: ipsa vis omnia agendorum. Quodcumque genitum a deo genitum est: ab bono, et ab eo quod omnia potest. Vide quo ille quidem facit, quo etiam illa fiunt; quod si comprehendere velis, licet magna ratione, perpulchre atque simillima intueri. Aspice precor agricultorem semina in terrae gremium diffundentem: hic tritica, ordea alibi, alibi vero reliqui generis semina. Aspice eundem vites, malosque et ficus repastinare atque amputantem. Eodem modo deus ipse in coelo quidem serit immortalitatem, in terra vero mutationem, in totum denique mundum vitam atque motum. Haec autem haud multa sunt, sed pauca, certoque numero determinata. Cuncta enim quattuor sunt, ac deus et generatio: quibus omnia comprehenduntur.

[Scholion] Quartus decimus haec asserit: quae sensu percipiuntur, facta esse omnia, atque continue fieri. Nam quemadmodum ab alio fluunt, qui omnibus omnipotens rebus dominatur, ita quoque ea continue sustinet, ne sua natura sui prona casus ruant in nihilum. Cuius sola cognitio felicem facit atque beatum; qui deus, omnium factor, atque pater est, et solus ipse genitor et cetera omnia genita: interque genitorem et genitum nullum intercipi potest medium. Et haec duo universa sunt: sunt enim duo omnia, genitor atque genitum. Praeterea hoc asserit: malum a deo non pendere (ut neque a ferrario fabro ferri rubigo) sed creata sequi opera. Et ex humana nos arte ad divinam artem concipiendum eleuat; et deum ipsum in coelo immortalitatem serere, in terra mutationem, in toto vero mundo vitam atque motum. Haec epilogus.

[Lefèvre:] Haec pauca per modum argumentorum subiecimus: quis ingenue fateamur singulum quaeque dialogorum maiore declarationis opera desiderare, et longe praestantius quam nostrae modicule vires suggerant ingenium. Prodeat tamen Mercurius hic de divina potestate nunc in lucem ad dei honorem et ad illuminationem legentium, ex iis praesertim qui ex gentibus prodierunt, omnibus seculis insigni sermonum pietate conspicuus; cui deinceps librum eiusdem de voluntate divina subiungamus.

Mercurii Trismegisti de sapientia et potestate divina Finis.

Source Colophon

Latin source text drawn from Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei (Rome: Lefèvre d'Étaples, 1505), digitized by the National Central Library of Rome and made freely available on the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Public Domain Mark 1.0. OCR text corrected for long-s rendering (ſ → s) and standard Latin abbreviations expanded.

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