Divine wisdom, divine nature : the message of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes in the visual language of the seventeenth century / edited by José Bouman and Cis van Heertum.

The Message of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes in the Visual Language of the Seventeenth Century. This lavishly illustrated work, published on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes in 2014-2016, focusses on an extraordinary range of images which appeared in Germany in the early 17th century. The illustrations partly originated in a circle of artists and thinkers who were directly inspired by the Rosicrucian Manifestoes and also by similar sources expressing the relationship between God and Nature, the macrocosm and the microcosm. The images were included in the works of several authors: Heinrich Khunrath, Daniel Mögling, Stephan Michelspacher, Robert Fludd and Michael Maier. The books themselves were published in various cities in Germany: Hanau, Frankfurt, Augsburg and Oppenheim. It is probably no coincidence that the majority of the works came out in the years 1616-1618, after the publication of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes. 'Divine wisdom, divine nature' opens with a general introductory part on the people behind the Rosicrucian Manifestoes and continues with a discussion of the images in the works of these five authors, at least four of whom claimed allegiance to the ideals and aspirations of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood.