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Article CURIOUS BOOKS. ← Page 2 of 2
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Curious Books.
Nicolai , 1781 . There was also an edition printed in 1615 at Cassell , by the same William Wessell , given forth by a "Philomago , " the confession being in Latin . This edition is now very rare . Kloss asserts , on the authority of Kagauer , that the work was written by a certain Yung , an Hamburgh mathematician , but the fact is not at all
certain . Kagauer ' s work is very rare , and is of date 1715 . Some have claimed John Valenti ^ Andrea to be the author of " Fama . " He wrote the " Chemische Hockzeit , " Strasburg , 1616 , and is even by some asserted to be the real founder of Rosicrucianism , But in this , I think such writers are wrong , though it is a curious fact
that the Rosicrucian literature commences about 1614 . Kloss alludes to an Italian book of 1612-13 , but I have not been able to hear of it . An Hermetic society had no doubt existed in the world long anterior to 1614 , but I am not so far aware , that the Fraternitas
Roseae Crucis by name appears on the scene before then . We find in this " Fama " the only known account of the founder and that order , and of Bro . C . R . Christian Rosenkreutz , and other names or initials . Whether Christian Rosenkreutz was a real name and person , or a mystical myth , is a " crux " which so far , has not been clearly decided
one way or the other . Some writers lean to the one view , some to the other , and , as often happens in like cases , a good deal may be said on both sides of the question . One thing is clear , amid all these doubts and uncertainties , that the history of Hermeticism requires to be more carefully studied than so far it has been . Hermetic societies
are very old in the world ' s history ; and no doubt occult learning and mystical teaching were kept up , by quasi secret societies of Hermetics . When the Rosicrucians first appeared is a very moot point . Their names have had vaiious interpretations . They come it is alleged from Fraternatis , " Roese Crucis , " Red or Rosy Cross .
The great difficulty always has been as to the dates . In the Fama and Confession no dates are given . We hear of the founders going to the east , and forming a brotherhood of four , and then of eight . The first who died , is said to have died in England , and then the Rose Croix passed away into Gaul , and his tomb was found with these
words : " Post 120 annos patebo , " but still no dates . Later writers have affixed dates , distinct and precise , but it is this absence of dates which has made many writers look upon the " Fama" not as the history of a real person , but as a book of mystical meaning and Hermetic mystery . How later writers got at
the dates I know not . They are not to be found in the old German edition of the Fama of 1614 . The context alludes to an eai'lier work than I have found them in . One as regards 1617 . p
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Books.
Nicolai , 1781 . There was also an edition printed in 1615 at Cassell , by the same William Wessell , given forth by a "Philomago , " the confession being in Latin . This edition is now very rare . Kloss asserts , on the authority of Kagauer , that the work was written by a certain Yung , an Hamburgh mathematician , but the fact is not at all
certain . Kagauer ' s work is very rare , and is of date 1715 . Some have claimed John Valenti ^ Andrea to be the author of " Fama . " He wrote the " Chemische Hockzeit , " Strasburg , 1616 , and is even by some asserted to be the real founder of Rosicrucianism , But in this , I think such writers are wrong , though it is a curious fact
that the Rosicrucian literature commences about 1614 . Kloss alludes to an Italian book of 1612-13 , but I have not been able to hear of it . An Hermetic society had no doubt existed in the world long anterior to 1614 , but I am not so far aware , that the Fraternitas
Roseae Crucis by name appears on the scene before then . We find in this " Fama " the only known account of the founder and that order , and of Bro . C . R . Christian Rosenkreutz , and other names or initials . Whether Christian Rosenkreutz was a real name and person , or a mystical myth , is a " crux " which so far , has not been clearly decided
one way or the other . Some writers lean to the one view , some to the other , and , as often happens in like cases , a good deal may be said on both sides of the question . One thing is clear , amid all these doubts and uncertainties , that the history of Hermeticism requires to be more carefully studied than so far it has been . Hermetic societies
are very old in the world ' s history ; and no doubt occult learning and mystical teaching were kept up , by quasi secret societies of Hermetics . When the Rosicrucians first appeared is a very moot point . Their names have had vaiious interpretations . They come it is alleged from Fraternatis , " Roese Crucis , " Red or Rosy Cross .
The great difficulty always has been as to the dates . In the Fama and Confession no dates are given . We hear of the founders going to the east , and forming a brotherhood of four , and then of eight . The first who died , is said to have died in England , and then the Rose Croix passed away into Gaul , and his tomb was found with these
words : " Post 120 annos patebo , " but still no dates . Later writers have affixed dates , distinct and precise , but it is this absence of dates which has made many writers look upon the " Fama" not as the history of a real person , but as a book of mystical meaning and Hermetic mystery . How later writers got at
the dates I know not . They are not to be found in the old German edition of the Fama of 1614 . The context alludes to an eai'lier work than I have found them in . One as regards 1617 . p