The Mage's Images: Heinrich Khunrath in His Oratory and Laboratory, Volume 1

Prologue: Bio-Bibliography & Introduction to Khunrath's Images
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-68168-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 37, 472 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 848 g

Reihe: Aries Book Series

This is the 1st volume in a 4-volume work entitled The Mage’s Images. The work provides the first in-depth examination of the life and works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), ‘one of the great Hermetic philosophers’, whose Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1595/1609) has been described as ‘one of the most important books in the whole literature of theosophical alchemy and the occult sciences’. Khunrath is best known for his novel combination of ‘scripture and picture’ in the complex engravings in his Amphitheatre. In this richly illustrated monograph, Forshaw analyses occult symbolism, with previously unpublished material, offering insight into Khunrath’s insistence on the necessary combination of alchemy, magic, and cabala in ‘Oratory and Laboratory’.

Autoren/Hrsg.

J Forshaw, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Eklektizismus, Esoterik, Anthroposophie, Theosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Okkultismus und andere religiöse Praktiken

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introductory Note

1 Prologue: a Bio-Bibliographical Introduction

1 1560 Birth in Leipzig

2 1570 Immatriculation at the University of Leipzig

3 1575 Apprenticeship in Alchemy

4 1588 Immatriculation at the University of Basel

5 Khunrath’s Portrait Engraving

6 1588 On the Signatures of Natural Things, Graduation in Basel

7 1589 Bremen: a Meeting of Maguses

8 1588–1589 Magical Manuscripts in Berlin

9 1591 A Patent Application to the Emperor

10 1591 A Powerful Patron in Bohemia

11 1592 The Ancient Arabian King and Sage Zebel, Prague

12 1595 First Edition of the Amphitheatre, Hamburg

13 1596 Confession concerning the Chaos of the Physico-Chemists, Magdeburg

14 1597 On Primaterial Chaos, Magdeburg

15 1597 Fashioning Magical Armour

16 1598 A Physico-Chymical Testament, Hamburg

17 1599 Universal Magnesia of the Philosophers, Magdeburg

18 1599 Inventing an Alchemical Furnace, Magdeburg

19 1601 Correspondence from Berlin

20 1602 Extra Engravings for the Amphitheatre, Magdeburg

21 Looking at the Watermarks

22 1603 Second Edition of the Athanor, Magdeburg

23 1603 Water of Health, Magdeburg

24 1603 Signature of Magnesia

25 1604 Gera

26 Practical Philosophical Counsel

27 A Practical Confession

28 Cabbalistic Theosophical Tables

29 1605 Khunrath’s Death, Dresden

30 1607 Three Questions, Leipzig

31 1607 Urim & Thummim, Magedburg

32 1608 On the Fire of the Mages and Sages

33 1608 An Amphitheatre in Mageduburg

34 1609 Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, Hanau

35 A Puzzling Discovery

36 ‘Complete in All Its Parts’: the Structure of the Amphitheatre

37 Changes in the Text between the 1595 and 1609 Editions

38 The Gratulatory Verses

39 Chimerical Editions

40 1611 A Physico-Medical Treatise

41 1614 Light in Darkness

42 1615 Athanor; 1616 Chaos, Magdeburg

43 Manuscripts & Untraced Works

2 Images in the Amphitheatre

1 Part I. The Image of an Amphitheatre

2 Sculpta, Picta, Scripta: ‘Not Just of Words, … but Rather of Things’

3 Part II: the Amphitheatre Engravings

4 The ‘Inventor’ and His Engravers

5 Naming the Images

6 Four ‘Theosophical Figures’

7 Circular Figure 1: Christ-Cruciform

8 Circular Figure 2: Adam Androgyne

9 Circular Figure 3: Rebis or Alchemical Hermaphrodite

10 Avis Hermetis: Hermes’ Bird

11 Circular Figure 4: the Oratory-Laboratory

12 The Oratorium

13 The Laboratorium

14 The Central Table

15 The Auditorium

16 A Matter of Perspective

17 The Dormitorium

18 Underlying Geometries and Symmetries in the Four “Theosophical” Figures

19 Volvelles

20 Reading the 1595 Circular Images

21 From 1595 to 1602: Changes in the Circular Images

22 The 5 Rectangular ‘Hieroglyphic Figures’ (1602)

23 The Theo-Magical School of Nature

24 The Entrance of the Amphitheatre

25 The Triumphal Pyramid

26 The Alchemical Citadel

27 Mercurius and Caduceus

28 Hieroglyphic Monad or Mercury?

29 A Heart with Thorns

30 Changing Perspective

31 The Calumniators

32 The Bespectacled Owl

33 The Sequence of the Images

34 Interconnections and Correspondences

35 Khunrath’s Dog

36 Hermes’s Caltrop in the Cave of Nature

37 Part III: Hieroglyphs or Emblems?

38 Hieroglyphica

39 Emblemata

40 Visual Exegesis or Eisegesis?

41 Khunrath’s Visual and Symbolic Terms

42 Khunrath’s Use of Symbolum

43 Hieroglyphic Impressions

44 Part IV: the Roles of the Images

45 1. The Synoptic Role

46 The Amphitheatre’s 1609 Title Page

47 Retrospective Synopsis in the Rectangular Figures

48 Raising up and Defending Truth

49 2. Didactic, Pedagogical, Instructional Roles

50 3. Polemical Role

51 A Surprising Discovery

52 Conclusion

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Index of Biblical Citations

Über Autor(innen)

Peter J. Forshaw, Ph.D. (2004), London University, is Associate Professor in History of Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam. He was editor of the journal Aries (2010-2020), has edited essay collections and published articles and chapters on esotericism and occult philosophy.