Études suivies de l’édition par Mariel Mazzocco des annotations d’Angelus Silesius à la Pro theologia mystica clavis. Mystica 13. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2019. Pp. 398. Pb, €55.00.

The Jesuit Maximilianus Sandaeus (Max van der Sandt, 1578–1656), who was born in Amsterdam but worked primarily in German-speaking lands, teaching theology and exegesis, and who represented his province at the Eighth General Congregation that elected Vincenzo Carafa as general superior in 1646, wrote an impressive oeuvre. Nevertheless, his work has not been subjected to extensive research. The present book brings together eight contributions on this remarkable specialist of the mystical tradition.

As the title indicates, the contributions in this book do not only concern Sandaeus’s study of mysticism, but also his studies of symbolism. The latter is treated in the first article, by Ralph Dekoninck, Grégory Ems, and Agnes Guiderdoni, on Sandaeus’s analysis of the symbol as such. In the second article, Anne-Élisabeth Spica discusses Sandaeus’s Orationes mariales. This is followed by a contribution in which Aline Smeesters treats Sandaeus’s argumentation in the preambles to the Pro theologia mystica clavis, in which the Scholastic tradition is not disregarded in favor of the mystical, but rather presents the specific and unusual mystical use of language as the most precise and efficient language, and that the specific language of mystical authors must consequently by understood correctly—hence the need for the lexicon. This is made clear by reference to the entry on deificatio. Smeesters concludes that “Sandaeus’s approach in the Clavis converges with the major contemporary tendencies of the Society of Jesus in terms of spirituality: to him it is a question of thinking through the initiatory journey of the soul, of which the keywords are “annihilation,” “deification,” “passivity” and “stripping,” without denying the place of the human or that of images (be they material or mental) any more than those of good works” (110–11). This is evidently the precise legacy of John of Ruusbroec, whom Sandaeus’s defends extensively, as Smeesters demonstrates in the chapter. The next chapter (by Clément Duyck) likewise discusses the Clavis, and particularly how Sandaeus associates the spiritual excessus of the mystical tradition with the linguistic excessus in poetry. Anne-Françoise Morel then treats Sandaeus’s Architectura christiana. The next article, by Patrick Goujon and Pierre-Antoine Fabre, discusses two shorter treatises by Sandaeus, the Jubilum seculare ob artifices evangelicos Societatis Jesu and the Jubilum Societatis Jesu seculare ob theologiam mysticam, both published in the jubilee year 1640, and contrasts them with the well-known Imago primi seculi Societatis Jesu.

Finally, Jacques Le Brun discusses the presence of the “Rheno-Flemish mystics” in two books by Sandaeus: his 1627 Theologia mystica and the Clavis, published in 1640. The “big three,” as Henri Bremond called them, namely Ruusbroec, Tauler, and Herp, are only mentioned in a few brief quotations in the Theologia mystica, but always on crucial points. By contrast, the Clavis contains an abundance of quotations from these authors. Nevertheless, as Le Brun notes, Sandaeus was very careful to defend these authors in the Clavis. This was necessary given that the only version of Herp that was permitted publication in 1586 had been “purged” by the Roman censors, and that the general superior of the Society of Jesus Everard Mercurian had banned the reading of mystical authors in 1575, and one of his successors, Muzio Vitelleschi, had emphasized the dangers of reading mystical works. Sandaeus played an important role in these developments, as Le Brun notes: “What constitutes the strength and dangerous audacity of these Rheno-Flemish works was transmitted to the readers of the Theologia mystica and the Pro theologia mystica clavis by Sandaeus, the best example being that of Angelus Silesius, who bases himself on Sandaeus and re-Germanizes the mystical concepts and vocabulary” (203). Incidentally, Albert Deblaere, S.J. made the latter point more than fifty years ago, writing that “contemporary writers (and readers) would have been spared sterile discussions and commentaries full of superfluous conceptual twists if they had only briefly consulted the Clavis” (Review of the reprint of Sandaeus’ Clavis, in Bijdragen 25 [1964]: 314, with further analysis concerning Sandaeus’s treatment of essentialis and superessentialis).

The final article by Mariel Mazzocco makes the transition to the second part of the book. Indeed, an exceptionally important contribution of the present book is the edition and translation of Angelus Silesius’s annotations on Sandaeus’s Pro theologia mystica clavis. Angelus Silesius (c.1624–77) is the pseudonym of Johann Scheffler, who was born in Breslau (Wrocław in Silesia, hence his pseudonym) and was raised Lutheran. He studied medicine, later converted to Catholicism and became a Franciscan. He was ordained in 1661. He spent the last years of his life in the Matthiasstift, a monastery and hospital for the poor, attached to the Church of Saint Matthew in Breslau. He is well-known not only on account of his important poetic work—his Heilige Seelenlust and Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann, which is a highpoint of German baroque poetry—but also as a specialist of the mystical tradition. His personal annotations to Sandaeus’s Clavis are a clear testament to this.

When the Prussian state confiscated the property of the clergy in 1810, Silesius’s copy of the Clavis was deposited in the university library in Breslau. It was only in 1926 that the German Jesuit Karl Richstätter rediscovered these annotations, and Jean Orcibal went to study them ten years later. But they were never published. The present book has redressed that lacuna superlatively. Mariel Mazzocco edited the hand-written annotations and has provided occasional explanatory notes. She has traced the editions of the texts that Silesius used to the best extent possible, and has translated all of the annotations, which were written in Latin, into French. The edition cross-references all of the relevant entries in the Clavis, so the reader can easily refer back to Sandaeus’s original text. Silesius annotated seventy-three entries in the Clavis, adding additional quotations.

These quotations are exceptionally interesting because the vast majority (approximately half) are taken from the work of John of Ruusbroec. Silesius also makes copious references to the Evangelical Pearl and Hendrik Herp, as well as to Bernard of Clairvaux, Tauler, and Benedict of Canfield. We likewise find quotations from patristic authors (Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine, Origen, etc.), medieval authors (Petrus Lombard, Dionysius the Carthusian, Thomas Gallus, Bridget of Sweden, Gertrude of Helfta, Bonaventura, Savonarola, Richard van Saint-Victor, Jan van Leeuwen, Thomas à Kempis, etc.), and contemporaneous authors (John of the Cross, Luis de Granada, Álvarez de Paz, Justus Lipsius, Tomás de Jesús, Nicolás de Jesús María, Cornelius a Lapide, Balthasar Álvarez, Luis de la Puente, etc.). In some cases, these annotations form veritable dossiers. This is the case for deiformitas, transformo, and unio (and consequently unio–unitas and unitas essentialis). This not only demonstrates that Silesius was exceptionally knowledgeable about the mystical tradition, but also that he clearly understood the theological issues at stake. Just like Sandaeus himself, he sought to uphold and defence the intellectual significance of central mystical themes.

This very useful book concludes with a biographical appendix on Sandaeus’s life and work (359–70) and the obituary issued by the Cologne College in 1656 (371–74). The book includes an index nominum (375–78), but not a bibliographic list of the cited secondary literature, which is unfortunate.

doi:10.1163/22141332-00704008-17