Allison P. Coudert The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia In addition to being one of the largest collections of Jewish kabbalistic texts published in Latin up to that time, the Kabbala denudata (1677, 1684) can also be described as an esoteric encyclopedia. For by joining God, man, and nature in a symbiotic whole and by linking together disciplines that we now consider separate such as theology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, alchemy, and chemistry the Kabbala denudata offers a true »circle of learning«, or enkuklios paideia – the origin of the modern word ›encyclopedia‹. It is this emphasis on the circle of learning connecting heaven and earth, man and nature, and Jew and gentile that enabled the compiler of the Kabbala denudata, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-1689) and his collaborator Francis Mercury van Helmont (1614-1698) to dedicate the work to »The lover of Hebrew, philosophy, and Chemistry«, subjects that seem entirely unrelated in the contemporary world but which in the early modern period represented complementary aspects of the two books revealed by God – Scripture and the Book of Nature. But, while the Kabbala denudata is an encyclopedia in terms of the scope of its subject matter, it is an esoteric one because, as Rosenroth claims, it and it alone provides a key to unlock the secrets of the first and greatest esoteric encyclopedia of all, the Bible.1 The notion that the Bible was the fount of all knowledge was, of course, a common opinion in the early modern period. Rosenroth, emphasized this point when he describes the Old Testament as a »gold mine« and »treasure chest« of knowledge. As he says: And if we examine the golden writings of the Old Testament, what do we find there but the deepest goldmine of all the arts and sciences and a treasure chest, in which the most precious gems of philosophy and the immense riches of the law and, first and foremost, all the treasure of divine and salvific wisdom? I will not mention the fact that the light of the truest chronology radiates from these books, that they display the purest mirror of all the virtues and vices, and that they contain the fountain from which we can drink the most precise principles of politics and economics. If only I could demonstrate more fully how those remarkable books contain in their simple written letters not only the secrets of nature but also the secrets of civilization, to say nothing of the secret prophecies!2 1 2 The most comprehensive historical discussion and analysis of the Kabbala denudata appears in Die Kabbala Denudata. Text und Kontext. Akten der 15. Tagung der Christian Knorr von Rosenroth-Gesellschaft unter Mitarbeit von Philipp Theisohn herausgegeben von Andreas B. Kilcher, Morgen-Glantz. Zeitschrift der Christian Knorr von Rosenroth-Gesellschaft 16 (2006). F.M. van Helmont: Alphabeti vere naturalis Hebraici brevissima Delineatio […], Sulzbach 1667 [1657], preface, p. 10r: »Et si aurea illa Veteris Testamenti scripta respiciamus, quid ibi inveniemus aliud, quam profundissimam omnium Artium atque Scientiarum Aurifodinam, & Gazophylacium, in quo preciosissimae Gemmae Philosophicae, immensae Divitiae Juris, & quod primarium, omnes Divinae atque Salvificae Sapientiae Thesauri Reconduntur? Ut taceam, 60 | Allison P. Coudert This view of the Bible as the repository of all knowledge was supported by the humanists and reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who encouraged reading the Bible as literal history. The fact that publications and works of art routinely included illustrations of biblical stories and diagrams of the Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the Temple, as well as maps pinpointing sites mentioned in the text reinforced the conviction that the Bible presented a true historical account of the world. The English Geneva Bible (1615), for example, shows the location of the Garden of Eden as if it were just one of many real geographical location, and Ralegh’s Historie of the World in Five Bookes (1614) contains an illustration of the Ark after it landed on Mt. Ararat, clearly implying that this was a verifiable historical event. The title page of John Parkinson’s Paradisi in sole paradises terrestris (1656) is one of a multitude of depictions of the Garden of Eden published in the early modern period, all of which inculcated the idea that Eden was a real place with a real history.3 As Jim Bennett and Scott Madelbrote have shown, the biblical stories of the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and Temple of Solomon were mentioned so frequently in the early modern period because they provided readers with exemplary moral tales that both warned of the dangers of human pride and sinfulness while at the same time offering the hope of restitution: The image that they conjured up was […] both hopeful and threatening. It demanded that human beings temper material and intellectual change with spiritual or moral development. The stories seemed to many to allow for the possibility of transforming the world through the application of human intellect and endeavour. Yet they also emphasized the contemporary belief that the earth had once been a better place, and that human ignorance and suffering were themselves the products of disobedience, error, and folly. The knowledge which was needed to change human life and the natural environment for the good depended on an understanding of the dangers of moral frailty as well as of the achievements of intellectual ingenuity. That understanding could best be developed through an awareness of biblical history and a sense of the working of providence, both of which were enhanced by acquaintance with the lessons of the Garden, the Ark, the Tower, and the Temple.4 Genesis, for example, revealed how pride and sinfulness led to the corruption of man and nature. Instead of simply plucking fruit from the trees to gain his daily bread, man was forced to labor by the sweat of his brow and wrest food from a grudging earth. This was a tragic tale to be sure, but one that led many early modern readers to conclude that improvements in morality might lead to improve- 3 4 quod exinde unicum versissime Chronologiae lumen affulgeat, ibidem purissimum omnium Virtutum atque Vitiorum Speculum pateat, & ex ista Fonte exactissimae totius Politices & Oeconomices regulae hauriri queant.« The conviction that the bible was the source of all wisdom was common among both Jews and Christians. On the idea of Hebrew as the source of all knowledge, see Allison P. Coudert: The Impact of the Kabbalah in the 17th Century. The Life and Thought of Francis Mercury van Helmont, 1614-1698, Leiden 1999), ch. 4. This was first published in 1629. Jim Bennett and Scott Mandelbrote point out the punning nature of the title with its play on the author’s name (»Park-in-sun’s park on earth«) in The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple. Biblical Metaphors of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, Oxford 1998, p. 62. Ibid., pp. 7-8. The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 61 ments in agriculture, and that both might lead man back to paradise. This hopeful message was reinforced by interpretations of the flood that envisioned Noah as a righteous man who retained enough of Adam’s primordial wisdom to construct the Ark, assemble the animals in pairs, and bring this vast menagerie of men and beasts to a new world and a new beginning. There was a long tradition in Christianity regarding Noah as a type of Christ and the Ark as an allegory of salvation. This positive view of Noah was current in the early modern period and offered a model of how fallen men might cultivate their innate intelligence, knowledge, and skills and regain some, if not all, of Adam’s prelapsarian wisdom.5 In the early modern period, Noah’s ark became a prototype for the encyclopedic cabinets of curiosities and collections of plants, animals, and natural objects that proliferated throughout Europe. The story inspired people to collect and classify specimens in an effort to regain the kind of natural knowledge lost through the fall and with it the dominion over the natural world possessed by Adam. Paula Findlen sees these collections and the museums in which they were housed as forerunners of institutions such as London’s Royal Society and the French Academy of the Sciences. Thus, biblical precedents were influential in shaping the early modern scientific imagination.6 Even the cautionary tale of the destruction of the Tower of Babel was given a positive spin in early modern texts because it suggested to many naturalists and philosophers that the Tower might be restored and people reunited through the creation of a »universal« or »natural« language.7 The story of the Temple resonated equally positively in early-modern ears, for the Temple was represented as a repository of wisdom and as an architectural masterpiece embodying the principles of divine geometry. The fact that Solomon, like Noah, was renowned for his wisdom long after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden provided a positive example of how the loss of Adamic knowledge might be overcome through diligent study and hard work.8 5 6 7 8 Ibid., 73 ff. Cf. Peter Harrison: »Original Sin and the Problem of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe«, Journal of the History of Ideas 63 (2002), pp. 239-60. Paula Findlen: Possessing Nature. Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy, Berkeley CA 1994. The bibliography on the search for, or attempts to create, a natural or universal language in the early modern period is huge. See, for example, Arno Borst: Der Turmbau von Babel. Geschichte der Meinungen über Ursprung und Vielfalt der Sprachen und Völker, 6 vols., Stuttgart 19571963; James Knowlson: Universal Language Schemes in England and France, 1600-1700, Toronto 1975; Hans Aarsleff: From Locke to Saussure. Essays on the Study of Language and Intellectual History, London 1982; James Bono: From Ficino to Descartes, vol. 1 of The Word of God and the Languages of Man: Interpreting Nature in Early Modern Science and Medicine, Madison 1995); Umberto Eco: The Search for the Perfect Language, translated by James Fentress, Oxford 1995); Robert Markley: Fallen Language. Crises of Representation in Newtonian England, 1660-1740, Ithaca NY 1993; Paolo Rossi: Logic and the Art of Memory. The Quest for a Universal Language, translated with an introduction by Stephen Clucas, London 2000; Margaret Slaughter: Language and Scientific Taxonomy in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge 1982. Helen Rosenau: Vision of the Temple. The Image of the Temple in Judaism and Christianity, London 1979; R.J. van Pelt: Tempel van de Wereld. De Kosmische Symboliek von de Tempel van Salomo Utrecht 1984; idem: »Through the Temple of Solomon to the Temple of Heaven: Bacon’s New Atlantis«, Boletin de Arte 2 (1981), pp. 45-52. 62 | Allison P. Coudert These biblical stories fueled the millenarian dreams and utopian speculations that fired the imaginations of so many natural philosophers in the early modern period. Unlike today, when a literal interpretation of the Bible characterizes those who oppose science, in the early modern period a literal reading produced the opposite effect in many readers, encouraging scientific inquiry by providing the model of a perfect past that might be restored through human knowledge and ingenuity. For people like Rosenroth and Helmont, the fact that the Bible was historically true made it all the more imperative to approach this sacred text through other sacred texts such as those of the Jewish Kabbalah. For in their view, all theology and philosophy pointed to an original prisca theologia, and while this wisdom was most clearly and completely enshrined in the biblical text, fallen men had lost the ability to read this text. They consequently needed all the help they could get to rediscover the wisdom within it. As both readers of texts and as natural philosophers, it was their goal to recover the prisca theologia and to use this pristine and divine knowledge to restore the world to its prelapsarian state. In their minds, a literal view of the Bible was entirely compatible with a deep appreciation and commitment to esoteric sources like the Kabbalah and Hermetica. Since all these sources derived from the original revelation that God gave to Adam in Eden and again to Moses on Mt. Sinai, they were useful tools for uncovering those »secrets both of nature and custom« concealed in the biblical text. In the early modern period, biblical literalism and esotericism were not only compatible with a belief in progress and the pursuit of natural philosophy, but in certain cases both fostered the empirical investigation of the natural world. Esotericists like Rosenroth and Helmont were Christian kabbalists and natural philosophers in equal measure, and they were deeply interested in the practical applications that would emerge from their reading of esoteric texts and scientific investigations. They studied esoteric texts and the natural world with the declared intention of making their discoveries public. These themes appear in the frontispiece of the Kabbala denudate, which proclaims the message that by unveiling the secret wisdom of the Kabbalah mankind will regain the divine and natural knowledge forfeited through original sin. As we can see in the illustration, the Kabbalah provides keys to unlock the secrets of both the Old and the New Testaments. These keys hang from the wrist of the young woman personifying the Kabbalah as she runs along a narrow ledge separating the sea on the right from a cave on the left while gazing up at the heavens. Her destination is a doorway marked »Palatium Arcanorum« (the Palace of Secrets). Within the cave appear the astrological signs for the planets and their comparable metals.9 In her right hand, which is stretched over the swelling waves, she holds a burning torch, under which is written »mare concupiscientiarum« (the sea of concupiscence). In her left hand she carries a scroll representing the Scriptures on which is written »explicat« (she explains). A ship sails in the distance, while on the edge of the shore there is the faint figure of a tree. A great circle of light breaks through the 9 For an excellent interpretation of the symbolism of the frontispiece see Rosmarie Zeller: »Der Paratext der Kabbala Denudata. Die Vermittlung von jüdischer und christlicher Weisheit«, Morgen-Glantz: Zeitschrift der Christian Knorr von Rosenroth-Gesellschaft 7 (1997), pp. 141-169. The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 63 clouds and darkness, and within this light are three circles, which in turn enclose three smaller circles. These stand for the ten kabbalistic sefirot, or the ten faces (parzuphim) of the hidden deity as he revealed himself in the act of creation. Where the sea meets the sky, the words »Metaphysica gentiles« are written, indicating that gentile wisdom has clear limits – it does not reach to nor come from heaven the way the Kabbalah does. Like many of his contemporaries, Rosenroth attributed the divisions among Christians to their misplaced dependence on Greek wisdom which, far from being the source of true philosophy, had simply muddied the pure waters of divine Hebraic wisdom.10 This frontispiece emphasizes the esoteric and encyclopedic nature of the Kabbalah. Not only does it reveal a theology that will unite Christians, Jews, and pagans in a single, ecumenical religion, but it offers a morality and ethic that calms the passions besetting the soul (illustrated by the lurching ship on the stormy sea). In addition, the Kabbalah provides an entrance to the ›Palace of Secrets‹, which houses the wonders and marvels of natural philosophy, represented especially by alchemy. The Kabbalah thus unlocks the esoteric wisdom hidden in the two great books God has given man, the book of Scripture and the book of Nature. This great truth leads to another, namely, that the perceived gap between the material and spiritual realms, or matter and spirit, is non-existent. Matter and spirit are simply different aspects of all created entities. Rosmarie Zeller, whose explanation of the iconography of this frontispiece I have relied on, points out the similarity between the figure of the Kabbalah and that of Wisdom in Caesare Ripa’s Inconologia (1611).11 Like Wisdom, the Kabbalah’s feet hardly touch the ground, an indication that she possesses divine knowledge. Unlike the figure of Wisdom, however, the Kabbalah does not hold a lamp, but a torch. Zeller comments that the torch is most often associated with Prometheus, which may indicate that the light of the Kabbalah was not simply given to men through revelation but had to be wrested from the heavens through human effort.12 Rosenroth certainly emphasizes the difficulty he had separating the pure gold of kabbalistic truth from the dross with which it is mixed.13 Such a metaphor is indicative of the close parallel he saw between the activities of kabbalists and alchemists, for in both cases human ingenuity and sheer dogged effort must join forces with divine revelation if any kind of transmutation or restoration is to occur. In this regard, it may not be too far fetched to suggest that the tree growing to the right of the entrance to the palace might represent the tree of knowledge, implying that by means of the Kabbalah human beings may now be in the position to eat from the tree and attain knowledge without contravening the law of God. 10 11 12 13 D.P. Walker: The Ancient Theology. Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, London: 1972. The figure of the Kabbalah also recalls the Goddess of Philosophy who offered Boethius such consolation in his prison cell. Zeller: »Der Paratext« (n. 9), pp. 149-50. Kabbala denudata seu doctrina hebraeorum transcendentalis et metaphuyscia atque theologica […], Sulzbach 1677, vol. I, p. 2-3. 64 | Allison P. Coudert Fig. 1: Kabbala Denudata, Volume 1, Frontispiece The Kabbala denudata presents a philosophical and theological framework for understanding how the world came into being and why it has degenerated to its present state. In addition to this, it offers an analysis of what could be done to restore creation to its original perfection and the role that man is expected to play in this process. Rosenroth and Helmont came to the Kabbalah with minds steeped in Renaissance Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and alchemy. What they found in the Kabbalah confirmed what they already knew. The alchemical concept of transmutation as a regenerative experience for both matter and the alchemist has striking The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 65 similarities with the concept of restoration, or tikkun, elaborated by Isaac Luria; and the hermetic vision of the alchemist as a gnostic savior who could redeem base matter has astonishing parallels with the incredible powers attributed to man in the Lurianic Kabbalah. In the Kabbalah, man is held responsible for maintaining the connection between God and the world. Moshe Idel comments on the extraordinary scope given to human activity in the Lurianic Kabbalah: The focus of Kabbalistic theurgy is God, not man; the latter is given unimaginable powers to be used in order to repair the divine glory or the divine image; only his initiative can improve Divinity […] the Jew is responsible for everything, including God, since his activity is crucial for the welfare of the cosmos.14 He labels this kabbalistic view of man’s function in creation »Universe Maintenance Activity«!15 R.J. Zwi Werblowsky goes even further, suggesting that in the Lurianic Kabbalah the role of man and God is inverted as man becomes God’s savior: This is spiritual activism at its most extreme, for here God has become a real salvator salvandus. But to the Jew, Israel’s exile became meaningful because it was seen as a participation in the profounder exile of God, and God Himself required Israel’s active participation in the redemption of Himself and His people. It is not surprising that in this kabbalistic system the personality of the messiah played a relatively minor role. He was not so much a redeemer as a sign and symbol that the redemptive process had been achieved. In fact, the messianic doctrine of Lurianic Kabbalah comes close to the structure of an evolutionist scheme.16 All these ideas appear in the Kabbala denudata, which, as I mentioned earlier, provided the intellectual rationale for restoring the world to its prelapsarian perfection. In this sense, the Kabbala denudata sheds ›light‹ on the human and cosmic situation, but with its emphatic insistence on the necessity for human activity, it also fulfilled Bacon’s call for ›fruit‹. For it was not enough to contemplate restoring the world to its original perfection, concrete action was required. For all their interest in the abstruse theology of the Kabbalah, Rosenroth and Helmont were not thinkers cloistered in ivory towers. Their interest in the Kabbalah was inextricably tied to their active engagement in the world of politics, science, and religion. Rosenroth acted as Chancellor for Prince Christian August of Sulzbach during the same period he was collecting, editing, and publishing kabbalistic texts; practicing alchemy in the laboratory he and Helmont set up in Sulzbach; collaborating with Helmont on various books dealing with penal reform and the rediscovery of He14 15 16 Moshe Idel: Kabbalah. New Perspectives, New Haven 1988, p. 179. Ibid., p. 170. On the importance of human activity in the process of tikkun, see Gershom Scholem: Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, New York 1954, pp. 244-86; idem, Sabbatai Zevi: The Mystical Messiah, Princeton 1973, ch. 1; R.J. Zwi Werblowsky: Joseph Karo, Lawyer and Mystic, Philadelphia 1977, pp. 97 ff.; David B. Ruderman: »Hope against Hope. Jewish and Christian Messianic Expectations in the Late Middle Ages«, in: Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, ed. by David B. Ruderman, New York 1992, pp. 299-323, especially pp. 313 ff. R.J. Zwi Werblowsky: »Messianism in Jewish History«, in: Essential Papers on Messianic Movements and Personalities in Jewish History, ed. Marc Saperstein, New York 1992, p. 48. 66 | Allison P. Coudert brew as a natural language; writing plays, poetry, and alchemical allegories, and translating into German three classic texts in the natural magic tradition, Porta’s Magia Naturalis, J.B. van Helmont Ortus Medicinae, and Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica. Rosenroth’s work as a translator was deeply rooted in his religious and kabbalistic vision of a world restored to its original pristine condition through the cooperative efforts of human beings. As the language of ordinary Germans, especially artisans and craftsman, Rosenroth believed German to be the best medium for disseminating the most up-to-date ideas in natural philosophy. Translating was therefore part of Knorr’s larger project of breaking down the barriers between Latin and vernacular culture in the interest of enlisting as many people as possible in the task of tikkun. Knowledge had to be communicated and shared. It could no longer remain the exclusive province of a few privileged intellectuals and scholars. Like Rosenroth, Helmont was deeply immersed in politics at the same time as he pursued literary and scientific endeavors. He was an advisor to both Karl Ludwig of the Palatine and Christian August of Sulzbach – in fact, it was through Helmont that Rosenroth obtained his position as Chancellor in Sulzbach. Helmont was instrumental in publishing his father’s chemical writings, and he published a number of works in his own right, promoting his brand of ecumenical kabbalistic natural philosophy. Both men were reputed to be skilled chemists possessing formulas for miraculous medicines, and they were often consulted on medical matters. In their daily lives, theory was not divorced from practice; scholarship was a means to the greater end of the common good.17 Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between natural philosophers, craftsmen, and artisans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the impetus these relationships gave to the development of science.18 In his »Memoirs«, Helmont described himself as a »wandering eremite«, in quest of »wisemen« from whom he hoped to learn »fundamental Knowledges and Arts«.19 Unlike many of the sixteenth century collectors and naturalists described by Findlen, Helmont was amazingly egalitarian in his outlook and no respecter of class.20 He was eager to converse with artisans and craftsmen from all walks of life: 17 18 19 20 Allison P. Coudert: »Seventeenth Century Natural Philosophy and Esotericism at the Court of Sulzbach«, in: Mélanges d’Histoire des Religions réunis en l’honneur de M. Antoine Faivre par ses éleves, collègues et amis, ed. by Joscelyn Godwin and Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Louvain 2001, pp. 27-46. As Steven Shapin points out, this started with Marxist scholars (Steven Shapin: The Scientific Revolution, Chicago, pp. 141 ff.). F.M. van Helmont: »Memoirs«, London, British Library, Sloane MS 530. Findlen describes how collecting began as a »gentlemanly« pastime that helped to articulate social difference, although it gradually led some collectors to venture into marketplaces and artisan workshops. As she says, »the decision to enter the marketplace in search of new materials with which to study nature forged a new relationship between knowledge and experience«. And even though class snobbism remained very much a fact of life, Findlen shows that »classical wisdom was increasingly tempered by the untutored descriptions of apothecaries, gardeners, fishermen, and hunters whose occupations gave them privileged access to the secrets of nature« (Possessing Nature [n. 6], pp. 174 f.). Cf. William Eamon: »From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge.« In: Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by David C. Lindberg and Robert The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 67 I then bent all my Senses, whereby I might make my self known unto wise men so called, hoping at length, to find some wise man, not learned according to the common manner, in all places where I should passe throw (which I might call Nations:) of whatsoever profession or condition they were, I spake to them according to their desire, that I might joyn in friendship with them by discourse, and according to my abilities, I imparted unto them the whole cause: by this and other means I touched at many clear fundamental Knowledges and Arts.21 Helmont’s tolerant, egalitarian attitude became characteristic of the Sulzbach court as a whole. In this small principality, the niceties of class distinction were ignored and theoretical speculation went hand in hand with manual activity. Van Helmont encouraged gentlemen to mingle with craftsman and insisted that the youth of Sulzbach become proficient in various trades. Even the Prince engaged in manual labor. This comes out in the charges brought against van Helmont by the Roman Inquisition when he was imprisoned on the charge of »Judaizing«. In the indictment, Helmont was accused of bringing Protestant workmen to Sulzbach, who spread their heretical views as they taught various trades. The Inquisitors were deeply dismayed, even horrified, by the fact that Helmont encouraged the Prince to mingle and actually eat with these artisans: [Helmont] brought to Sulzbach a colony of Hebrews, Anabaptists, and especially Quakers (under the name of Dutch or Dutch Lutheran artisans) [… who], having set up workshops in separate houses, even began to frequent the court itself, evidently so that the prince might be induced to work among them more easily, and they began to shun the courts, which look after the public administration and the good government of its subjects. And so that the sons of the citizens might thoroughly learn the arts of these craftsmen, the schools are deserted and the education of the youth begins to be neglected so that the citizens are compelled more easily to apply their sons to the learning of these new crafts, so that they are steeped in the poison of the new religion [… E]veryone goes to work, taking up his weaving or some other craft. Finally, they approach the kitchen pots (a shameful matter) to cook their food and they dare to invite the prince himself on the authority of Helmont, so that he might eat (says that teacher) of the labor of his hands and according to the Apostle: he who does not work, does not eat. Immediately afterwards they run to and fro through the workshops of the different craftsmen; nay, there is not a worker among them who does not work as smiths at the anvil with their hammers grasped or draw thread with the cobblers so that, in this manner, just as Anabaptists say, they might put charity and duty before profit. Now and then they suddenly rush into the woods so that they may see the inner light and be moved to speech by it. They say among themselves that in the midst of their work they see visions of angels, wonderful evidence on account of which they teach that princes ought to abandon the management of their affairs and that they ought not to hamper these illuminations of the soul with any consideration of justice or for any other reason.22 21 22 S. Westman, Cambridge 1990, pp. 333-366; idem: Science and the Secrets of Nature. Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, Princeton 1994. J.B. van Helmont: Oriatrike or, Physick Refined […], trans. by Walter Charleton, London 1662, preface, p. 1. Archivo Segreto Vaticano, Archivo della Nunziatura di Colonia 81. Cited in: Coudert: The Impact of the Kabbalah (n. 2), p. 352 f. 68 | Allison P. Coudert The Inquisitors were further affronted by the fact that Helmont convinced the Prince to give up his coach and horses and use his own two feet to get from one place to another. In addition to these assaults on prevailing decorum, they claimed that Helmont was too familiar with the Prince and did not address him with due formality.23 Even worse than this was the pig farm Helmont proposed to set up in the middle to the Hof gardens. As the Inquisitors comment, »Thus, the courtyard of the prince would look like a farm or rustic dwelling.«24 The Inquisitors interpreted Helmont’s defiance of social conventions as clear proof of a dangerous kind of social leveling that would inevitably lead to anarchy. Their reactions reveal how radical the social scene in Sulzbach appeared from their perspective. As members of a hierarchical Church, they clearly believed, as most people did at the time, that hierarchy was the divinely ordained principle of social organization. The economy of Sulzbach had been decimated by the Thirty Years’ War and Helmont’s pig raising scheme was only one of the projects he suggested to Prince Christian August as a way to get the principality back on its economic feet. In his »Memoirs«, he describes advising a certain Prince – who could only be Christian August – to sow flax and set up weaving shops to employ the beggars in the territory.25 According to Leibniz, Helmont was a skilled weaver who made his own clothes, so this was a trade with which he was familiar.26 He also designed and constructed his own spinning wheels. In 1714, when the books and curiosities of Helmont’s good friend Benjamin Furly (1636-1714) were sold at public auction, two of Helmont’s spinning wheels and a reel were listed for sale in the catalogue: 15. A spinning wheel made of palm wood and brass, — you can spin with both hands and the whole can be screwed together, and made by Mr. F.M. van Helmont. 16. One made like it, and invented and made by Mr. F.M. van Helmont. 17. A beautiful winder, which can be screwed together, also invented and made by Mr. van Helmont.27 They were sold for sold for ƒ 3.50, 2.00 and 2.25 respectively, fairly tidy sums at the time, which suggests they were indeed both unique and valuable. Van Helmont’s practical bent comes out in many other inventions as well. He constructed a device to straighten crooked backs, a chair and desk that could be heightened or lowered for invalids, two turning lathes, and a bookcase with moveable shelves.28 Among Locke’s papers in the Bodleian Library, there is a drawing of a device for polishing stones that Helmont constructed while staying with Locke over a five-month period in 1688.29 Locke’s Journals also include Helmont’s recipes for making boot polish, 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Ibid., 354. Ibid. Helmont: »Memoirs« (n. 19), fol. Gr (39). Correspondence de Leibniz avec l’Electrice Sophie de Brunswick-Lunebourg, publiée par Onno Klopp, 3 vols., Hannover 1874, vol. 2, p. 8. List of curiosities in: Bibliotheca Furliana, Rotterdam 1714, pp. 348 f. Ibid. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Locke c. 30, fol. 98: »Machina ad poliendos lapides pretiosos, [Francis Mercry van] Helmont, [16]88.« The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 69 preparing a primitive blackboard from kid’s skin, and preserving beer.30 Towards the end of his life, while at Hannover and in the company of Leibniz, Helmont and Leibniz worked together devising practical schemes for better cooking pots, more efficient wheelbarrows, and even shoes with springs for »fast get-aways«.31 Agricultural reform was a topic of great concern at the time, especially among millenarians and utopian thinkers who were convinced that the world could be improved and that only then would Christ’s second coming occur.32 The idea of reform, improvement, and the modern idea of progress emerged out of these millennial dreams. Over time they were cut loose from their religious moorings and became part of the secular Enlightenment view of progress. But their religious and esoteric roots should not be forgotten. Helmont’s commitment to the kabbalistic idea of tikkun, or restoration, is revealed in another practical scheme he proposed to Christian August for improving the Sulzbach economy by planting trees and establishing woodworking shops. Books offering advice on reforestation and on the improvement of agriculture were common in the early modern period, reflecting, as I mentioned earlier, the desire to restore the world to its original state in the Garden of Eden.33 In Helmont’s mind, as in the minds of many other reformers and innovators at the time, practical schemes went hand in hand with proposals to reform and expand education and disseminate knowledge through the printing and distribution of books, pamphlets, and broadsheets. In this respect Helmont was instrumental in establishing two printing presses in Sulzbach, which he financed along with Rosenroth and the Prince. One dealt primarily with books in Latin and the vernaculars and the other was devoted to books printed in Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic.34 In emphasizing the importance of publishing a variety of religious texts as well as the biblical texts in their original languages, Helmont followed the lead of many of his contemporaries who saw the spread of religion and science as working hand in hand to reform the world. As the creator of the universe, God could be known in one of two ways, and these ways were entirely compatible: through the Scriptures and through the very universe he 30 31 32 33 34 Kenneth Dewhurst: John Locke (1632-1704), Physician and Philosopher. A Medical Biography with an Edition of the Medical Notes in his Journals, London 1963, pp. 276 f., 280 f. G.H. Pertz (ed.): »Tagebuch«, in: Geschichtliche Aufsätze und Gedichte. Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz’ Gesammelte Werke, Hannover 1847 (repr. Hildesheim 1966): »7. August. Habe diesen Abend mit Herrn von Helmont viel geredet, wegen Erd ausbringen: ob Schiebekarrn guth. Durch motum hominis mit den Karrn viel tempus und vergebene Mühe. Praestat, hominem movere sine motu tanto sui. Von Gold schlagen. Von Braten und Kochen mit eisern Kasten. Zu redressiren, so krumb gewachsen, darinn er in Tractatu de Microcosmo et Macrocosmo, so teutsch nicht völlig sub tit. Paradoxa übersetzt. Von Drucken mit dem Fuss: mit beiden Händen spinnen. Hechel« (p. 189); »8. August. […] Den Hern. Helmont meine Gedancken gesagt vom geschwinden fortkommen auff Schuhfedern. Von Voiture auf allezeit glatten Boden« (p. 190). Charles Webster: The Great Instauration. Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626-1660, London 1975; Frances Harris and Michael Hunter (eds.): John Evelyn and His Milieu, London 2003. Bennett and Mandelbrote: The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple (n. 3), pp. 43 ff. M. Weinberg: »Die hebräischen Druckereien in Sulzbach (1669-1851). Ihre Geschichte; ihre Drucke; ihr Personal«, in: Sonderabdruck aus dem Jahrbuche der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft, Frankfurt a.M. 1904, pp. 1-186. 70 | Allison P. Coudert had created. Helmont did not write as eloquently and consistently as Robert Boyle about the role of natural philosophers as the true ›priests‹, but his whole life’s work illustrated exactly the same point: the investigation of nature offered the most certain path to an appreciation of the glory, magnificence, and benevolence of God. As the example of Sulzbach shows, esoteric philosophy, scientific experimentation, and practical work dedicated to the improvement of the human condition were entirely compatible in the early modern period. A number of scholars have investigated the patronage of esoteric forms of philosophy at various courts during this time, documenting the way this patronage extended to artisans and craftsmen. Bruce Moran has shown in the case of Hessen-Kassel that Landgraf Moritz (15721632) was a devoted patron of »philosophia hermetica« (the term was actually used at the court) for intensely practical reasons, namely the demonstration and preservation of his power on both a symbolic and practical level. The various strands composing this philosophia hermetica – alchemy, Kabbalah, magic, and Paracelsian natural philosophy – all shared a vision of the cosmos as emanating from a single divine source, with each part reflecting the whole. Moran contends that just such a hierarchical and orderly world view supported princely claims to authority and control. Moritz’s patronage of hermetic science also had the practical aim of bolstering court finances through the anticipated discovery and manufacture of marketable commodities. Pamela Smith’s investigation of the career of J.J. Becher at the court of Leopold I in late seventeenth-century Vienna emphasizes this link between esoteric science, particularly alchemy, and commerce.35 For alchemy involved far more than the search for the philosopher’s stone and goal of transmuting base metal into gold. Paracelsus and his followers, for example, were more interested in the production of medicines than gold, and alchemists routinely investigated all kinds of chemical manufacturing processes in the hope of creating a bonanza of wealth for their patrons and themselves. Dresden porcelain was, for example, the discovery of the court alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (c. 1682-1719), and it helped enormously to improve the finances of the ruling prince. Smith describes the varied and extensive commercial schemes proposed by Becher. These included wool, silk, chemical, and porcelain manufacturing, weaving, wine and glass making, and a pharmaceutical plant. In addition to these, Becher proposed to establish a repository for the collection of recipes and descriptions of artisanal processes, which would also include laboratories for testing inventions. Such an institution had much in common with Bacon’s Salomon’s House, Theophraste Renaudot’s Bureau of Address, and similar schemes for scientific and commercial institutions and ventures proposed by members of the circle that developed around Samuel Hartlib.36 It is no wonder, then, that Smith subtitles her book on Becher The Business of Alchemy.37 35 36 37 Pamela H. Smith: The Business of Alchemy. Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire, Princeton 1994. Howard M. Solomon: Public Welfare, Science, and Propaganda in Seventeenth Century France, Princeton 1972. Cf. Charles Webster: The Great Instauration (n. 32). In Ingenious Pursuits. Buildidng the Scientific Revolution (Boston 1999), Lisa Jardine emphasizes The »Kabbala denudata« as an Esoteric Encyclopedia | 71 Van Helmont and Rosenroth’s contemporaries, together with modern scholars, frequently point to the affinity between radical sectarianism, Hermeticism, and Paracelsian-Helmontian science.38 To this list we may also add the Lurianic Kabbalah. However different in particulars, these various philosophies all shared a belief in perfectionism – in man’s inherently divine nature and in his ability to restore the earth to its prelapsarian state. Given these affinities, it is not surprising that Helmont and Rosenroth were involved with the group of pansophists associated with Samuel Hartlib, John Dury, and Jon Amos Comenius. Hartlib was at the center of an international circle of theologians, teachers, natural philosophers, alchemists, inventors, husbandmen, craftsmen, and artisans, many of whom had relocated from Germany to different parts of Europe as a result of the Thirty Years’ War. The interests of these men were indeed pansophic inasmuch as their expertise ranged from improvements in agriculture and technology to plans for scientific institutions, pleas for religious tolerance and ecumenical dialogue, and attempts to create universal languages. Their projects and activities were fueled by the millenarian conviction that Christ’s second coming could be hastened through human effort. By restoring the Garden of Eden, by repairing the ruins of Babel, and by creating museums and Academies modeled on Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple, the members of Hartlib’s circle believed they could regain Adam’s forfeited knowledge and restore the world to its original harmonious relationship with God. Their overriding aim was to contribute to the common good.39 In this sense, but without employing kabbalistic terminology, they were engaging in the same process of tikkun that Helmont and Rosenroth pursued.40 What I have emphasized in this essay is how practical and in many ways downto-earth – quite literally – an esoteric encyclopedia like the Kabbala denudata can be. Rosenroth and Helmont were decidedly not interested in how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, and however abstruse their discussions about the intricacies of kabbalistic thought were, their interest in it was dedicated to improving the human condition as well as the state of the natural world. This was the driving force behind both Rosenroth’s and Helmont’s manifold activities. As Helmont’s good friend Henry More wrote in a letter to his dear friend Anne Conway, just thinking about Helmont’s good qualities as they parted after a long visit brought tears to his eyes. More wrote: »He has a hearte so good, so kind, so officious, so plaine and simple, and so desirous of the publick good that [this …] 38 39 40 this theme as well, stressing growing consumer demands as an important factor in stimulating the scientific revolution. See, for example, Piyo M. Rattansi: »The Helmontian-Galenist Controvery in Restoration England«, Ambix 12 (1964), pp. 1-23; idem: »Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution«, Ambix 11 (1963), pp. 24-32. G.H. Turnbull: Hartlib, Dury and Comenius, Liverpool 1947; Mark Greengrass, Michael Leslie, and Timothy Raylor (eds.): Samuel Hartlib and Universal Reformation, Cambridge 1994. But it must be said that while esoteric philosophy could promote a radical agenda, as in the case of Sulzbach and the Hartlib circle, it could just as easily serve authoritarian ends, as in HessenKassel and the court of Leopold I. This fact makes it difficult to correlate particular political outlooks with specific esoteric philosophies. 72 | Allison P. Coudert putt me into such a passion of joy and benignity, that I could not for my life keep my eyes from letting down teares.« It took a can of Norden ale and a glass of Canary wine to calm More down, and he excused himself by saying quite wittily that, as a chemist, van Helmont could draw moisture from flint.41 The same profound concern for the public good motivated Rosenroth as he labored to edit and publish the Kabbala denudata in whatever time he could spare from his many political responsibilities, literary activities, and scientific inquiries. In the minds of Rosenroth and Helmont, as in the minds of many of their contemporaries, there was no separation between their religious beliefs, intellectual pursuits, and active political lives. Ancient esoteric texts could and did provide the blueprint for an ideal future, one in which mankind would for the first and only time since the fall experience the harmony, peace, and brotherhood that God had originally envisioned for them. And this would come about through human effort and human ingenuity. 41 Marjorie H. Nicolson: The Conway Letters, New Haven 1930, p. 329.