In the midst of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), as an expression of then prevalent millenarian sentiments, a movement sprang up which can be classified as 'mystical spiritualism'. The most important representative of this movement is the Silesian mystic Jacob Böhme (1575-1624).

Fascinated by the problem of evil, Böhme experienced a spiritual breakthrough in 1600, the record of which was laid down in writing twelve years later under the title Morgenröte im Aufang. It marks the beginning of a voluminous philosophical output, in which Böhme makes use of ideas and terms derived from the Bible, medieval mysticism, Kabbalah, Valentin Weigel (1533-88) and Paracelsus (1493-1541), whose collected works had been published in the years 1589-1591.

Böhme's mystical pantheism and dialectical conception of God - in which good and evil (and all antitheses for that matter) are rooted in one and the same being - soon brought him into conflict with Lutheran orthodoxy. The manuscript of Morgenröte im Aufgang was confiscated by the authorities on 26 July 1613, and its author banned from publishing. His manuscripts, however, continued to circulate in copies made by friends, amongst whom Heinrich Prunius, Hans Rothe, Böhme's patrons Karl and Michael Ender von Sercha, and Johann Sigismund von Sweinichen. The latter managed to have a short work by Böhme to appear during his lifetime - without the author's knowledge - entitled Der Weg zu Christo (1624). There are only two known copies of this treatise, one in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, the other in Harvard.

After Böhme's death one of his followers Abraham von Franckenberg (1593-1652) concerned himself with the publication and dissemination of Böhme's spiritual heritage. In 1631 he published with Veit Heinrichs in Amsterdam part of Böhme's substantial commentary on Genesis, Mysterium Magnum, enlarged with works by Tauler, and a short biography of Böhme called Iosephus redivivus. The German professor Johannes Angelius Werdenhagen, who stayed in the Dutch Republic from 1627 to 1632, edited a Latin translation of Böhme's Vierzig Fragen von der Seele. It was published as Psychologia vera (1632) by Johannes Janssonius in Amsterdam. Two years later he printed Böhme's Morgenröte, under the current Latin title Aurora, printed on the basis of a corrupted copy. (The autograph was to remain in the townhall of Görlitz, where Böhme had lived his entire life, until 1641).

The ready distribution in Germany of the above-mentioned titles - and other Behmenist writings - caused the Lutheran classis in Lübeck to send a protest to their colleagues in Amsterdam. But the Dutch Republic in those days, as is well known, was fairly tolerant. As a corollary to the epoch-making Cartesianism, religious thought was marked by a sense of liberty, and an aversion to dogmatism: individual experience became the measure of all things. This attitude was embodied by J.A. Comenius, Antoinette Bourignon, Anna Maria van Schurman, to name a few. The original source from which the beliefs of the 'reformators' sprang was the philosophy of Jacob Böhme.

This was also the environment of the man who secured the Behmenist heritage for future generations: Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland (1586/87-1648). Nothing is known for certain of his origin. He settled in Amsterdam in 1615, where he soon made a career for himself as a businessman. From 1623 he was active in the civet trade and already the following year he was quoted on the stock exchange. Eventually he acquired a monopoly in this perfume industry and became a man of means.

In addition to his activities in the aforesaid branch, Van Beyerland produced account books, and also published on the fluctuations of the currency.

After a brief marriage to the widow of bookseller Abraham Huybrechtsz, Van Beyerland remarried a woman called Geertrui van de Poel in 1626. He moved to a house in the Warmoesstraat and was appointed elder of the Walloon Church. This church community met in the former Paulusbroeders church on the Oude Zijds Achterburgwal, and in the Westerkerk. Because he was an elder, Van Beyerland was also asked to become a regent of the Walloon orphanage in the Laurierstraat in the years 1641-42.

His social position enabled Van Beyerland to become the motor behind the dissemination of the ideas of Jacob Böhme. In the period 1634-53 he translated almost the entire work of the Silesian mystic, and furthermore published a number of his works in their original language: De signatura rerum (1635), possibly also a reprint of Der Weg zu Christo (1635), and Mysterium magnum (1640), although the latter was published on the basis of an unreliable copy.

Van Beyerland was in touch with persons from Böhme's immediate circle such as Abraham von Franckenberg, Heinrich Prunius and Abraham von Sommerfeld; moreover he was acquainted with Böhme adepts such as J.A. Werdenhagen and Michel le Blon.

After 1637 Van Beyerland came into the possession of the manuscript collection of the brothers Karl and Michael Ender, and four years later he was able to crown his collection with the acquisition of the autograph of Morgenröte im Aufgang, the confiscated manuscript which was still in Görlitz. At the end of his life Van Beyerland owned more than a hundred manuscripts, including some seven autographs and letters.

Van Beyerland's translating activities took off in the years 1634-35 with four small anthologies from the work of Jacob Böhme, in which the element of 'practical theology' dominated. The first translation was entitled Hand-boecxken, or manual. The little book was announced as forthcoming on 18 November 1634 in the Nieuwstijdingen bij Jan van Hilten. In the following two years, Van Beyerland successively published Böhme's second and third work, in an integral translation, respectively Hooge ende diepe gronden van 't drievoudigh leven des menschen: High and deep grounds of the threefold life of man (1636), and Van de drie principien: Of the three principles (1637). It is at this time that - partly as a result of the acquisition of the Ender collection - Van Beyerland's 'text-critical period' began: although he was busy translating texts between 1637 and 1640, he did not publish anything else than a catalogue in which he made mention of the unpublished translations. He compared as many manuscripts as possible to achieve a reliable edition. Eventually he published a flow of works in 1642, in addition to a revised catalogue, printed at the end of Böhme's Clavis ofte sleutel: The Key.

Van Beyerland had all texts printed at his own expense, and took responsibility for part of the distribution. Nevertheless the curious fact remains that in 1643 Abraham von Franckenberg cast doubt on Van Beyerland's integrity, suspecting him of acting out of commercial motives.


Responses to Van Beyerland's Böhme propaganda on the part of the established churches were inevitable. Of the orthodox party a certain David Guilbertus and the well-known Counter-Remonstrant Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) attacked the 'erring spirit' and his apostle. The former even went as far as to visit Van Beyerland in person to convince him that he was putting himself at risk, but he failed in his pious mission and was shown the door. Van Beyerland did not respond to the allegations levelled against him in Guilbertus's diatribe entitled: Christelijke waerschouwing, teghens de gruwelijcke boecken van Jacob Böhmen (1643): a Christian warning against the horrible books of Jacob Böhme. Johannes Theodorus von Tsesch (1595-1649), a Behmenist of Silesian origin and lived in Amsterdam in 1641-44, however came to his defence.

Van Beyerland's translating activities were not confined to the work of Jacob Böhme alone. In 1643 he published the second Corpus Hermeticum translation - the first had appeared in Alkmaar in 1607 - partly as an attempt to combat atheism. In this respect he followed in the footsteps of the Protestant hermetist Philippe de Mornay, who had set himself the same goal in his De la verité de la religion chrétienne (1581), and his Catholic counterpart Francesco Patrizi, the Italian philosopher who with his Nova de universis philosophia (1591) had put Hermes Trismegistus to work for the Counter-Reformation, in an attempt to overthrow the rule of the 'godless' Aristotle.

Strongly influenced by his Böhme translations, Van Beyerland interpreted the texts of Hermes Trismegistus from a Behmenist viewpoint, and effected - especially in his marginal comments - a fusion between the world of thought of Jacob Böhme and that of Hermetism, or rather: he thought he saw a connection with the gnostic inspiration fuelling Böhme's thought.

Van Beyerland's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum came out as Sesthien Boecken van den voor-treffelijcken ouden philosooph Hermes Tris-megistus: Sixteen books of the eminent ancient philosopher Hermes Trismegistus, printed by Nicolaas van Ravesteyn for Ysbrand Rieuwertsz la Burgh, manufacturer of account books. It was published again in 1652 by Rieuwertsz' son Pieter, like his father a manufacturer of account books, and a participant in the civet-trading cartel of the heirs of Van Beyerland.

Van Beyerland's last translation returned to one of the sources feeding the thought of Jacob Böhme: two brief texts by Valentin Weigel, the mystic who preceded Böhme in the adaptation of Paracelsian thought.

A year later, in 1648, the dialecticism of this world and the other comes to an end for Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland. He died and was put to rest in an as yet unknown place outside of Amsterdam.

Van Beyerland's life work was to some extent continued by the diplomat Michel le Blon (1587-1658), who was envoy to Christina, Queen of Sweden. Le Blon maintained relations with Van Beyerland, and after the latter's death with his eldest son Willem. He also corresponded with men in the circle around Böhme, amongst whom Christian Bernhard and Abraham von Franckenberg. Following the latter's instructions, Le Blon revised his copy of the corrupt Mysterium Magnum edition, and received a number of letters by Böhme in 1646 via Von Franckenberg which he published seven years later - together with a new translation of the Gebetbüchlein - under the title: Gulde kleynoot eener aandachtighe ziele: Golden gem of a devout soul.

Le Blon also helped disseminate Böhme's work in England. He was in correspondence with John Sparrow, the lawyer who translated almost the entire work of Böhme into English, partly using Van Beyerland's Dutch translations, partly on the basis of manuscripts in the possession of the heirs, and with the help of German editions in so far as these were already available.

The need for German editions was catered to by the Amsterdam publisher Hendrik Beets (ca 1625-1708), who owed his latinized surname, Betkius, to his spiritual father, the German minister Joachim Betke (1601-1663).

Beets knew Behmenists like Von Franckenberg and Von Tsesch, and planned to publish all works of Böhme in their original language, a lucrative idea in view of the number of German emigrants in the Dutch Republic.

Beets published 27 Böhme editions in the period 1658-78. He was very likely also the man responsible for the Aurora edition of 1656, which was said to be revised on the basis of the autograph in the possession of the heirs A.W. van Beyerland.

In spite of his considerable output, Beets did not manage an edition of the collected works of Böhme. This was to be the initiative of Johann Georg Gichtel (1638-1710), a Behmenist living in Amsterdam.

With the financial aid of an Arnhem mayor, Willem Gozewijn Huygens (1645-1699), Gichtel acquired the manuscript collection in the possession of the heirs A.W. van Beyerland. He bought a printing press and the necessary materials, and put Andries and David van Hoogenhuysen in charge of printing, while he himself acted as editor, publisher, and to a certain extent also as printer. He also took care of (part of) the distribution of the printed works. The first critical edition appeared as Alle theosophische Wercken, in Amsterdam in 1682.

The edition was illustrated with a number of symbolical representations by an anonymous designer, who must have been highly familiar with the contents of Böhme's works. In the past Abraham von Franckenberg has been suggested, who, although he did give visual shape to some elements from the work of Böhme, had died long before 1682; also the engraver Jan Luyken (1649-1712) and persons from the circle around Gichtel himself: Johann Georg Graber whose name is on the title-page of Gichtel's posthumously published Kurtze Eröfnung und Anweisung der dreyen Principien (1723), and Dionysius Andreas Freher, the designer of the illustrations to Böhme's collected works in English.

The unknown designer probably also produced the title engraving to the Theosofische Schrifften (1686) of Bartholomaeus Sclei.

In the wake of Gichtel's edition, the Amsterdam publisher Frederik Vorster planned to bring out a Dutch edition of the collected works. The project was stopped for unknown reasons and never got beyond the first part of Alle de theosoophsche of godwijze werken (1686).

This part contains the translation of Böhme's first work, Aurora, traditionally attributed to Jan Luyken, the poet-engraver who was greatly familiar with Böhme's thought, a familiarity which is especially in evidence in the prose commentary to his collection of emblems Jezus en de ziel (1678).

It may have been that the market for a Dutch-language edition of Böhme was limited: the educated circles read Böhme in German, so that a translation of the complete works did not actually fill a need. This may also explain why one Mysterium Magnum translation was not printed until 1700, and another translation, by Johannes Boot from 1677, remained unpublished.

The German edition of the collected works was in need of a reprint in 1715. It appeared as Theosophia revelata in Hamburg, revised after the late Georg Gichtel's own copy.

In the meantime after the death of Huygens (1699) the manuscripts from the Van Beyerland collection had come into the possession of Huygens' friends Allart de Raedt and Johannes Goethals. The couple took the collection with them to Utrecht where De Raedt died in 1716. Goethals then moved to Haarlem, where he died twelve years later.

When his estate was auctioned in 1728 the manuscripts were saved from dispersal by Böhme adepts. The Haarlem publisher Isaac Enschedé and his son Johannes played a role of major importance here. In 1717 Enschedé published a translation of De signatura rerum.

The manuscripts were taken to Leiden, and used by Gichtel's 'heir apparent' Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld (1659-1731) for the definitive edition of the collected work, which appeared in 1730.

Abroad the Böhme canon was being established with rather more difficulty. In England the edition of the Works - with the remarkable illustrations by Dionysius Andreas Freher - was left unfinished on financial grounds; in France an edition of the collected works never even got off the ground: in that country the daybreak only came under the inspired encouragement of the mystic Louis Claude de Saint Martin (1743-1803).

What happened to the manuscripts brought together with such great care by Van Beyerland? Initially they were to be found in Leiden, in the possession of Ueberfeld and his circle. These German emigrants returned to their country of origin in the middle of the eighteenth century. There the collection in the end came under the devoted care of a small group of Behmenists, 'die Stillen im Lande', the quiet folks in the country, in Linz on the Rhine. The bibliographer Werner Buddecke described the collection, then still intact, in 1934, before it was to become dispersed in the turmoil of the war. A large part went to Wroclaw (Breslau) in Poland; the autographs however, remained in Germany through coincidence, and are now in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.

This text is a translation of the author's revised preface in: F. van Lamoen, Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland. Jacob Böhme en het Nederlandse hermetisme in de 17e eeuw. Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, 1986.


Select Bibliography

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