Continuing with Talisman by Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval

Specialized scholars who study ancient literature often argue that there is no strong genetic link between the known religious texts of ancient Egypt (which span the period from roughly 2300 BC to 0 BC) and the Hermetic texts composed in Alexandria in Egypt between approximately AD 1 and AD 300. ‘There is a want of technical Egyptian mythological, liturgical and sacerdotal knowledge in the [Hermetic] texts,’ explains Tobias Churton. ‘We really learn nothing about Egyptian religion, except in the most general terms, terms which would not stretch the vocabulary gained by the average reader of a tourist guide to ancient Egypt today.’ 4

The scholarly dissection of the Hermetica began with Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614), who late in his life argued, successfully, that none of the texts could possibly have been written by an ancient Egyptian named Hermes Trismegistus – as had been widely believed since their rediscovery in 1460. By skilful textual analysis he rightly attributed them to the early Christian period in the first three centuries AD and thus, it seemed, ‘debunked’ the notion that they were as old or older than Moses. Casaubon’s findings took many years to be fully accepted, but wherever they were accepted they removed from the texts the aura of prestige that their false antiquity had given them. The inevitable result, over the next century and a half, was that ‘the Hermetic writings lost their hold on men’s interest, and sank into comparative neglect’. 5

A renewal of academic interest in the Hermetica was brought about almost single-handedly in the 1960s by Dame Frances Yates, whose works we cite frequently in Talisman. By ‘making Hermes a major figure in the preliminaries to the scientific revolution’ and a vital catalyst of the Renaissance she has ensured that the Hermetic writings are now once again ‘required reading for many students of early modern thought and letters’. 6
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2023/02/part-5-talisman-two-phoenixes-city-of.html