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Enochic Studies in the 1500s--Works and Authors

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Overview

At the beginning of the 16th century the book of Enoch still remained an elusive presence. In De arte cabalistica (1517) Johannes Reuchlin seemed to imply that Pico had it as one of the "seventy secret books of Ezra," but the Christian cabalists had access to Enochic tradition only through Menahem Recanati's work, of which the editio princeps was published in 1523 and a commentary by Mordecai Jaffe appeared in 1595.

The figure of Enoch remained popular in esoteric circles all around Europe. In 1530 the Venetian alchemist Giovanni Agostino Panteo published 26 charachters purporting to be the Enochian alphabet. Expectations of the "return" of Enoch were very strong in millenaristic circles. In 1524, Martin Luther himself had to intervene to disprove these beliefs. The most notable incident occurred in 1533-34; after Melchior Hofmann predicted that Christ would return to earth, the anabaptist Jan Matthys ruled the city of Munster, Germany as the "New Jerusalem," declaring that he was the prophet Enoch redivivus.

First evidence of the existence of an actual book of Enoch in Ethiopia came in mid-16th century by Guillaume Postel. In 1551 in De Etruriae regionis Guillaume declared that the Enoch's prophesies made before the Flood were preserved in the archives of the Queen of Sheba and that to this day they were believed to be canonical scripture in Ethiopia. In 1553 he wrote in his De originibus that in Rome (most likely, in 1547) he had met an Abyssinian priest who illustrated him the content of 1 Enoch. According to Luis de Urreta, the Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library Guglielmo Sirleto also was made aware of the existence of the Book of Enoch in Ethiopia by two friers who visited the country (in 1579?) as members of a delegation sent by Pope Gregory XIII. But no progress was made in the recovery of the actual content of the book of Enoch.

The idea that magic and alchemy could provide a shortcut continued to fascinate European intellectual circles. The works of Panteo and Postel inspired British alchemist John Dee to team with visionary Edward Kelley in the search for the lost book. In 1583 they claimed to have received from the archangel Michael portions of the Book of Enoch written in the angelic (or "Enochian") alphabet that Enoch himself used to communicate with the angels.

@2014, Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan