Angeli Silesii – Johannis Angeli Silesii Cherubinischer Wandersmann, oder Geistreiche Sinn- und Schlußreime, zur Göttlichen Beschaulichkeit anleitende

Title

Angeli Silesii – Johannis Angeli Silesii Cherubinischer Wandersmann, oder Geistreiche Sinn- und Schlußreime, zur Göttlichen Beschaulichkeit anleitende

Description

Book with witty and closing rhymes on 252 pages with a preface. It is his most famous work, a collection of over 1,600 two-line epigrams (“maxims and concluding rhymes”) intended to lead the reader toward a contemplative, mystical understanding of God. On the one hand, it expresses the unity of God and the soul, inwardness and mystical immersion, the surpassing of reason through intuitive experience of God, the nature of love as the greatest mystical principle, and the dissolution of boundaries of time and the world.

c. 1829

Artist

Silesius (1624-1677)

Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler) (1624–1677) was a Silesian poet, physician, and mystical writer of the Baroque period. He was born in Breslau and raised Lutheran; he studied medicine, philosophy, and theology, and in 1653 he converted to the Catholic faith. He became a priest and later court marshal to the Prince-Bishop of Breslau. His work is strongly shaped by Christian mysticism, especially by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Jakob Böhme. His language is concise, paradoxical, and often aphoristic—iconic for German mysticism.