Liber XIV · History & Scholarship
Liber XIV
Western Esotericism: History & Scholarship
How historians study esotericism, and the people who made it.
Western esotericism became a serious academic field in the late twentieth century, with chairs in Paris and Amsterdam and the pioneering work of Antoine Faivre and Wouter Hanegraaff. This section explains how scholars define and study esotericism, profiles the major figures of its history, and provides the context that connects every other part of the library.
Chapters
- Introduction1 article
- I.Biographies5 articles
- II.Defining Esotericism4 articles
- III.Historians & Scholars9 articles
- Aries Journal: The Flagship Journal of Esotericism Studies
- Correspondences Journal: Open-Access Esotericism Studies
- Eranos Conferences: Jung, Scholem, Corbin and Eliade at Ascona
- ESSWE: The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
- Frances Yates and Giordano Bruno: The Hermetic Tradition Thesis
- Historians of Esotericism: The Scholars Who Built the Field
- The Amsterdam Chair in History of Hermetic Philosophy (1999)
- The Enoch AI Model and the Redating of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- The Paris EPHE Chair: First Academic Post in Esotericism
- IV.Periods & Movements6 articles
- Esotericism in Late Antiquity: Hermetism, Gnosis and Theurgy
- Esotericism in the Enlightenment: Lodges, Seers and Magnetists
- Esotericism in the Middle Ages: Magic, Kabbalah and Hermes
- Esotericism in the Renaissance: Hermes, Kabbalah and the Magus
- Periods and Movements in the History of Western Esotericism
- Traditionalism: René Guénon and the Perennialist School
The primary texts
All 5- On the Operation of Daemons (Pseudo-Psellos)Traditionally attributed to Michael Psellos (1018–c. 1078); now generally considered pseudonymous · Traditionally 11th century; possibly late 13th or early 14th century; English translation 1843
- The Sphere of SacroboscoJohannes de Sacrobosco (John of Holywood, c. 1195–c. 1256) · c. 1230; English translation by Lynn Thorndike 1949
- A Letter, Containing a Most Brief Discourse ApologeticalJohn Dee (1527–1608) · dated Mortlake 1595; printed London, 1599
- Solomon and the Ars Notoria (Lynn Thorndike)Lynn Thorndike (1882–1965) · New York, 1923
- Peacock Angel (E. S. Drower)E. S. Drower (Lady Ethel Stefana Drower, 1879–1972) · London, 1941
On the shelf
All 23 booksChronology
The full timeline- First Eranos conference1933
- Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism1941
- Jonas's The Gnostic Religion1958
- Gardner dies; Yates's Bruno1964
- EPHE chair in esoteric Christianity1965
- Faivre takes the Paris chair; Pagels's Gnostic Gospels1979
- Faivre co-founds Aries1983
- Idel's Kabbalah: New Perspectives1988
- Death of Manly P. Hall1990
- Faivre's L'ésotérisme and Copenhaver's Hermetica1992
- Williams's Rethinking 'Gnosticism'1996
- Amsterdam chair in Hermetic Philosophy1999








