Hardly anything in Amsterdam still reminds us of the greatest philosopher of the Netherlands, Spinoza (1632-1677). The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica honours him with a special day in the context of ‘Amsterdam World Book Capital’.
Did the philosopher try to bring his old father back to life?
Did Spinoza, who as a philosopher was strongly opposed to any form of superstition and abracadabra, engage in magical rituals when he was young? According to a neglected anecdote in the volume of essays on Spinoza to come out next week, it may very well have been the case.
The anecdote comes from the German scientist Johann Christoph Sturm, who met Spinoza several times in 1661. Sturm related that Spinoza’s father possessed a kabbalistic manuscript full of magical conjurations, including an instruction how to bring back to life the dead. Shortly after his father died, Spinoza allegedly conducted the experiment with the aid of this book, after which, sorely disappointed, he turned his back on Judaism.
A very interesting new anecdote, says Cis van Heertum, who put together the exhibition on Spinoza which is on show in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica as of next week. ‘It is certainly sensational, especially for Spinozists. It is certain that the German professor and Spinoza met. But Spinoza’s name was often tarred. And to accuse him of such necromantic practices is of course a supreme form of defamation.’
Spinoza is commonly regarded as the most important philosopher of the Netherlands. He was born on the island of Vlooienburg in Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter in 1632, near the place where the Stopera now stands. To his contemporaries, his ideas were extremely radical. He was banned from the Jewish community when he was seventeen, although the precise reason has never been solved. The most plausible suggestion is that Spinoza was cast out because of his controversial ideas. According to Spinoza’s biographer Steven Nadler, this is suggested by the literal text of the herem, the ban now kept in the Amsterdam city archive. ‘The phrasing of the ban is extremely harsh, as were the consequences. He was cast out from one moment to the next. Everyone was forced to remain at a distance of at least four yards, and even his own family was not allowed to have anything to do with him.’
When it became clear that Spinoza was one of the ‘icons’ of Amsterdam World Book Capital 2008, the Bibliotheca Hermetica Philosophica wanted to contribute. ‘The library collects many works of ‘contrary’ writers and thinkers’, says Van Heertum; ‘Our collection of seventeenth-century Spinoza editions, for instance, is quite considerable.’
Every so often Spinoza is rediscovered. A biography appeared not long after his death, he received a statue in The Hague in the nineteenth century, and in the 1960s French marxists published materialist readings of Spinoza. A few years ago, Spinoza was proclaimed the pivotal figure of the Radical Enlightenment by the eminent British Princeton historian Jonathan Israel.
The philosopher also has many admirers in his own country. The Vereniging Het Spinozahuis, a close partner in the preparations for the exhibition, now has some 1100 members. Amsterdam, too, has its own recently established Spinoza circle, devoted to founding a Spinoza monument, preferably in the area of present Waterlooplein. It would be an appropriate gesture of the city of Amsterdam, Van Heertum thinks, as virtually nothing has remained to remind us of the philosopher: ‘His message is still a vital one, which deserves a wide audience.’
167 heretical sects in Amsterdam in 1670
‘The city of Amsterdam as a model of relative toleration’
Amsterdam was known as a haven of great toleration in Spinoza’s days, but did the city really earn this reputation? Spinoza at any rate thought so. He wrote in 1670: ‘In this flourishing state, a city of the highest renown, men of every race and sect live in complete harmony.’
That Amsterdam was a melting pot of widely various religious denominations is an established fact. A British visitor to Amsterdam in 1670 counted no less than 167 ‘heretical’ sects. But the authorities by no means opened the doors to anyone risking persecution in his native country for his religious beliefs. When the Portuguese Jews who were exiled from their own native soil, amongst whom were Spinoza’s parents and grand-parents, settled in ‘Mokum’ – after the Hebrew maqom, place – they were initially not allowed to practise their religion in public. The printers and publishers who dared distribute the works of religious innovators or controversial philosophers like Spinoza generally resorted to fictitious names.
Only one book by Spinoza was published under his own name during his lifetime. ‘Amsterdam was a model of relative toleration’, says Cis van Heertum, ‘but there certainly existed repressive censorship. Anything was possible here, as long as it didn’t happen in public.’
That Spinoza was not arrested because of his ideas, as for instance his Amsterdam friend and fellow traveller Adriaen Koerbagh, who actually died in prison for his beliefs, was because any form of fanaticism was alien to him, says Van Heertum. ‘Koerbagh was extremely outspoken and defiant. Spinoza was definitely not militant. Tolerance and respect for the ideas of others were prime considerations for him. What he strongly opposed was the influence of religious authorities. He was an ardent advocate of the separation between church and state. This too, makes his philosophy of highly topical interest.’
This is a revised translation of an article by Henk Schutten which appeared in Het Parool, 21 June 2008.
