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

Prologue: Bio-Bibliography & Introduction to Khunrath’s Images

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 In this richly illustrated monograph, Forshaw analyses occult symbolism, with previously unpublished material, offering insight into Khunrath’s insistence on the necessary combination of alchemy, magic, and cabala in ‘Oratory and Laboratory’.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-69139-1
Publication:
25 Nov 2024
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-68168-2
Publication:
06 Dec 2024
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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.
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
Scholars and students of early modern intellectual and cultural history, the complex relations between occult philosophy, religion, science, and medicine, as manifested in Khunrath’s idiosyncratic interplay of text and image.
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