The Annotations of Nicolaus Cusanus and Giovanni Andrea Bussi on the Asclepius

Latin translation of a lost Greek original text Λόγος τέλειος, the Asclepius was the sole witness of the ancient Hermetic philosophical tradition known to Western scholars throughout the Middle Ages. Nicholas of Cusa was well acquainted with this treatise, as it is amply shown by his works and Ms. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er, 10054-6, which contains the text of the Asclepius densely annotated in Nicholas of Cusa’s own hand. His interpretation of the Asclepius followed concordist lines and developed in conjunction with the speculation on divine names, deriving from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Brussels glosses reflect the same general understanding of Hermeticism which is found in his writings, and they further demonstrate that his attention was focused chiefly on the theme of the dignity of man. In the final years of his life (1458-64), Cusanus brought the codex with him to Rome, where he met Giovanni Andrea Bussi, the learned humanist, who became his secretary. My palaeographical examination of the manuscript has uncovered the presence of numerous notes in the hand of Bussi who was editor of the first printed edition of the Opera of Apuleius and of the Asclepius (Rome 1469) published by the German printers Sweynheym and Pannartz. The Brussels manuscript played therefore a significant role both in Cusanus’s Hermetic speculation and in Bussi’s philological work towards the editio princeps Romana: philosophy and philology seem all togheter at work on it. The Appendix contains some specimina of annotations by Cusanus and Bussi.