RE14EWS
S{',\HAT 3: AI/TIJMN 1999
SYMBOLOS. Revlsla Interflucional de Arte Cultura Gnosis, edited by Federico Gonzillez. Vol. 11-12: Tradici6n Hermdtica, 1996. Guatemala: Agartha. Address: Apartado Postal 108-F, Guatemala, Guatemala. Email:
[email protected] Pp. 465. Subscription: 90 Quetzales/1 3. 120 Pesetas/$ 26.
Reviewed by Edmund S. Meltzer
Egyptian precursors of 'Hermes Trismegistos', the dating of the Hermetica, and the sage Petosiris. (One interesting discussion of some of the Eglptian interfaces is Howard M Jackson's article in Chronique d'Egtpte 6l [1986] I I 6- 1 3 5.) The speech of Thoth from the Ramesseum copied and translated by Champollion, reproduced on p 94, is a fascinating glimpse ofearly Egyptology. The accuracy of his translation is remarkable, but the Egyptologist who
scrutinizes Champollion's pseudo-Coptic transliteration This handsomely produced journal is a welcome and refreshing discovery which deserves to be widely read and appreciated, especially in a world in which Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum achieves best-seller status. The editor and contributors have attempted with considerable success to cover the gamut of Hermetic literature and commentary, along with many illustrations reproduced from the works of John Dee, Robert Fludd, Heinrich Khunrath, Paracelsus and others. The editor's preface is followed by a section of major articles dealing with Hermeticism and 'Christian' Cabala (J M Dolcet), Hermes himself (F Trejos), the Invisible College (J Godwin), the Hermetic Books (FGonzilez), Nicholas ofCusa (F Ariza), Hermetic notes (A Casanovas), and Husserl (E Saura). A 'Notes and News' section includes a number of items, among which the reviewer finds of special interest an obituary notice of Don Francisco Garcia, the last (alasl) awd (shaman) of the Sdbiliwik clan of the Bribri Indians of Costa Rica. The'Documents' section consists of an annotated translation of Po imandres I-XI which, the introduction makes clear, depends heavily on earlier translations. A short portfolio of striking images from classic works of the 17th and 1Sth Centuries is followed by a Spanish franslation of an article on 'The Cosmic Dualities' by Ren6 Guenon, which was written itt 1921but not published until 1972. Thevolume concludes with a substantial section of book reviews and a briefer survey of other joumals. The book section includes a short notice of El Papiro de Leyden (Ed Atalanta, Barcelona, 1995) and reviews of Spanish editions of works by Robert Fludd, Marsilio Ficino, Mircea Eliade, Gershom Scholem, and Frances Yates. Our brief survey of the contents bears witness to the scope of the work, and the documentation throughout shows the erudition and dedicated research of the authors. The articies by Trejos, Conziiez and Godwin briefly describe some
relevant Egyptian deities and materials, but those scholars (and other contributors) could have gone into more detail about such matters as the proposed Egyptian sources and antecedents of the Hermetica, the specific
will
discern
interestingly mistaken readings of the hieroglyphs such as hahnhoou'myriad of days' for (n)hh with sun-disk determinative ('eternity').
In conclusion, the reviewer heartily commends Symbolos l1-12 to anyone interested in the Hermetic tradition and its ramifications . Dr Gonz|lezand his collaborators deserve our thanks for their articulate and enthusiastic labor.
ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, edited by Viktor Krupa & Jozef Genzor, vol 6 nos I & 2 (1997). Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19,8L4 64Bratislava, Slovakia. 8", pp l-1 l6 (no 1) & I 17232 (no 2). Reviewed by Nicholas Bush This welcome journal from Slovakia, now in its seventh year of publication, covers a diverse range of subjects within the broad sphere orAfrican andAsian research. The latest two issues, like their predecessors, tend to emphasize semantic aspects and are particularly strong on Sinological studies. Among the interesting papers feaf"rred in volume 6 are considerations of 'Erotic imagery in classical Arabic poetry' and 'Texts and contexts: Goethe's works in Chinese translation prior to 1985'. Since this reviewer's interests lie mainly in the field of Chinese and Japanese will focus on articles in these disciplines, although the scope of the
studies, he
joumal is far wider. Volume 6 part I provides
a
rich array of confributions,
such as Marian Galik's lengthy comparisonbetrveen the Song of Songs and the Book of Songs. This very lucid paper discusses comparisons between the
Bible and Chinese poetry, complete with a full bibliography. It examines the lyrical quality ofChinese poetry and its author concludes that the language and poelry of the Book of Songs has been inadequately sttrdied from the literary point of view. 93
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