1602 JOHN DEE Hieroglyphic Monad * ALCHEMY Rosicrucian

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[History of Science - Chemistry and Medicine - Middle Ages & Renaissance] [Occult Sciences & Esoterica - Alchemy, Hermeticism] [Rosicrucian Fraternity] [Magickal Alphabets - Enochian, Transitus Fluvii] [John Dee - Monas Hieroglyphica] [Giovanni Agostino Pantheo - Voarchadumia] [George Ripley] [Roger Bacon] [Albertus Magnus] [Pico della Mirandola] Printed in Oberursel [Germany] by Cornelius Sutor for Lazarus Zetzner, 1602. First Collected Edition! Volume 2 only. Text in Latin (with some words and passages in Greek and Hebrew). Edited by Lazarus Zetzner. Illustrated with woodcut diagrams in text, and woodcut magickal alphabets. VERY RARE FIRST EDITION of the Second Volume of the celebrated Theatrum Chemicum , initially published in Oberursel in 1602 in three volumes, and later (over the period 1613-1661)expanded to six volumes. This edition was put on the Index of Forbidden Books ( Index Librorum Prohibitorum ) beginning from 1709 to as late as the end of 19th century, i.e. effectively banned by the Roman Catholic Church (see J.de Bujanda, Index librorum prohibitorum: 1600-1966 , p. 874). The Volume II offered here contains numerous important and influential medieval and Renaissance alchemical works, including the enigmatic masterpiece of the English Renaissance Occultism - MONAS HIEROGLYPHICA ("The Hieroglyphic Monad") written by the famous Elizabethan magus John Dee, first published in 1564. This extremely influential treatise, profusely illustrated with esoteric diagrams, is considered "Dee's most celebrated yet most inaccessible work" (Suster). The text of "The Hieroglyphic Monad" is here printed with the original Dedicatory Preface addressed to Maximilian II , a member of the House of Habsburg, king of Bohemia, Germany, Hungary and Croatia, and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 (the year the Monas was published) until his death. He was the father of Rudolf II of Austria. " John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad remains one of the most enigmatic works in the history of western Hermeticism. [...] Composed by Dee in 12 days, the Monad was clearly accompanied by an oral teaching, and in his later writing Dee reminds the Court of his providing part of that instruction to Queen Elizabeth and perhaps, King Maximilian. Dee himself called the Monad a magic parable, and for many years there was certainly a group of initiates that understood it well. Frances Yates has argued that the "more secret philosophy" behind the Rosicrucian manifestos "was the philosophy of John Dee, as summed up in his Monas Hieroglyphica." The Chymical Wedding of 1616 (...) displays the Monad glyph prominently next to the first poem. " (T. Burns & J. A. Moore: "The Hieroglyphic Monad of John Dee," Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition , II, no.13) Also included are the Ars et Theoria Transmutationis Metallicae and the VOARCHADUMIA by Giovanni Agostino Pantheo. The Voarchadumia, first printed in Venice in 1530 is an extremely curious alchemico-kabbalistic treatise which contains, among other things, two magickal alphabets: one attributed by the author to Enoch (which is believed to be AN INSPIRATION FOR JOHN DEE'S 'ENOCHIAN ALPHABET'!), and the so-called TRANSITUS FLUVII (which has recently become quite notorious after having been depicted in the movie "The Blair Witch Project"). The volumes also contain alchemical works by George Ripley, Roger Bacon, Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Albertus Magnus and others. The Theatrum Chemicum remains THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF WORKS ON THE SUBJECT OF ALCHEMY EVER PUBLISHED IN THE WESTERN WORLD. "The [entire] collection contains well over 100 alchemical tracts, including reprints of contemporary authors and printed versions of unpublished medieval manuscripts, some of which are now lost". (Neville) The Theatrum chemicum is a fascinating compilation of alchemical treatises, essays, poems, notes, commentaries and other writings from innumerable sources of various epochs - from antiquity to the 17... read more

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