After reviewing the evidence that Descartes’ philosophical itinerary was to a significant degree shaped by a reading of the Hermetic writings translated by Ficino, this article proposes that, in the Cartesian and Hermetic texts alike, the body from which an emergent autonomous subjectivity seeks to separate itself is gendered female. Some of the implications of this argument are explored through a reading of Marvell’s poem “The Garden,” which is seen here as a parallel response to the Hermetic texts.

1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Keefer, Michael. ""Inter inextricabiles... difficultatum tenebras": Ficino's Pimander and the Gendering of Cartesian Subjectivity." Renaissance and Reformation 34 (1): 2010. 23-34. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v34i1.10846. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.