Count Michael Maier Doctor of Philosophy and of Medicine Alchemist, Rosicrucian, Mystic 1568-1622

178 Pages·1910·4.76 MB·English

by  J. B. Craven

First Published in 1910
Reprinted 1968
Dawsons of Pall Mall,
16 Pall Mall, London, S.W.l.
SBN 7129 0335 6
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by Photolithography
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COUNT MICHAEL MAIER
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C M M
ount ichael aier
Doctor of Philosophy and of Medicine
Alchemist, Rosicrucian, Mystic
1568»1622
LIFE AND W RITINGS
“ Adamum Mine Lapidem stcum portasse e Paradyso, et quemlibet eum
secum Mibere, in, me, in te, et in quolibet alio ”—ut Morienus ait.
—“ Vku0m Inventdm,” p. 87.
BY
T he R ev. J. B. CRAVEN, D.D.
Rector of St Oiaf's Church, Kirkwall
fdrftwall
WILLIAM PEACE & SON, ALBERT STREET
1910
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
LEEDS
THE MEMOR?
OF
MY FATHER, MY MOTHER, AND MY ONLY BROTHER
ALL LONG SINCE PASSED TO
‘the undiscover’d COUNTRY FROM WHOSE BOURN NO TRAVELLER returns”
BUT WHO ARE NOW IN POSSESSION
OF
“ THE MYSTERIOUS SECRET OF THIS STRANGE EXISTENCE.

CONTENTS
Fiai
Life of Maier................................................................................ 1
References to Maier and his Works.............................. 11
Introduction................................................................................ 13
W O R K S.
Arcana Arcanissima................................................................. 31
De Circulo Physico, Quadrato............................................. 51
Lusus Se r iu s................................................................................. 53
Examen Fucorum Pseudo-Chymicorum.............................. 61
Jocus Severus................................................................................ 64
Silentium Post Clamores....................................................... 65
Symbola Aureæ Mensae duodecim nationum.................... 68
Atalanta Fugiens...................................................................... 85
Tripus Aureus................................................................................ 94
Themis Au r e a ........................................................................... 98
Viatorium ............................................................................................105
Verum Inventum...................................................................... 111
Tractatus de Volucri Arborea....................................................117
Septimana Philosophica....................................................... 132
Civitas Corporis..................................................................................140
Cantilenæ Intellectuales de Phcenice Redivivo . . 146
Ulysses............................................................................................... 156
Colloquium Rhodostauroticum................................... 161
Echo Colloquii Rhodo-Staurotici.....................................161
Christianæ Religionis Summa, Dia z ......................... 163
SciIOLASTERIUM CHRISTIANUM....................................................163
Contributory Works and Works not seen by the
Author, a List of........................................................................164

LIFE OF MICHAEL MAIER.
93 LL authorities agree that Miehael Maier was born at
Rendsburg, in Holstein, about the year 1568. The
date is taken from the inscription on his portrait as
prefixed to his “ Symbola,” “ Atalanta fugiens,” and
“ Septimana Philosophica.” The pieture was painted in
1617, when he was forty-nine years of age.
In one of his dedications to Frederick, Count of
Holstein, he refers to the faet that “ my family is well
known, not only by all the nobility of Holstein, but also
to your highness’ father and grandfather, to whose serviee
mine have always been faithfully attached.” Rendsburg is
a town on the north side of the now famous Baltic Canal,
nineteen miles west of Kiel, with a population of some
15,000. Unfortunately, the Chureh reeords extend only
to the seventeenth eentury, and therefore ean yield us no
information as to the birth of Maier.
On the other hand, a John Meyer or Meyger was a
ehurch official in Rendsburg in 1541—an old Lutheran
clergyman in 1577. Others are found bearing the same
name. There was a Grithoffe Meyer or Meyger, a revenue
offieer in Rendsburg—that is a tax-eollector for the landed
proprietors; also a John Meyer, who was a district official
on the west eoast—a dyke inspector.1
Miehael Maier'himself tells us that he left Holstein in
1608. It was his desire to return to end his days in his
native province, but his almost premature death prevented
1 Information from Herr R. R. von Lilienstern, first Burgomaster of
Rendsburg.