[Daniel Mögling], Speculum sophicum Rhodostauroticum. [Frankfurt], s.n., 1618

The physician, mathematician and astronomer Daniel Mögling was one of the most determined champions of the ideas of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. In his Speculum, he repeatedly refers to Thomas a Kempis’ Imitatio Christi as a major source for Rosicrucian thought. Mögling did not believe in or defend the actual existence of the Brotherhood, but adhered to what he saw as its theosophical and pansophist principles, which each individual could follow independently of the established churches. The four engravings in the Speculum offer an ‘orbis pictus’ of the Rosicrucian movement and were to provide lasting inspiration for later Rosicrucian iconography.