Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians; An Exact Reproduction of the Original But With the German Text and Terms Literally Translated
Chicago, IL: The Aries Press, 1935. First Edition Thus. Hard Cover. Elephant Folio (18 inches x 12 inches). (xii) + 58pp. Black cloth, title in gilt across upper boards. A handsome edition with magnificent, intricate alchemical, hermetic, Rosicrucian, and Qabalistic diagrams, charts, symbols etc. reproduced in black and white over 40 pages. This is the first complete English language translation of the first two parts of 'Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, aus dem 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert' (also titled 'Die Lehren der Rosenkreuzer, aus dem 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert') published in Altona (Germany) in three parts, in 1785, 1788, and the third without date. 'Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer,' comprised several seventeenth century Rosicrucian works which originally circulated in manuscript form. According to the Introduction to the present volume a part of the text of the 'Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer' was published in Franz Hartmann's 'Cosmology' in 1888 ('Cosmology, Or Cabala. Universal Science. Alchemy. Containing The Mysteries Of The Universe Regarding God Nature Man. The Macrocosm and Microcosm, Eternity and Time Explained According To The Religion Of Christ, By Means Of The Secret Symbols Of The Rosicrucians Of The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries…') but "only 19 pages [of the Hartmann edition] are translation, representing about 5 of the Altona book." The 'Popular Edition' of the work here described was preceded by a 'Coloured Edition' and an 'Edition Deluxe' which reproduced the illustrations in color. The cloth of the binding has a strange look and texture to it - we strongly suspect that someone has painted it in black paint - avoiding the lettering and for the most part the design on the front cover, presumably to cover some significant discoloration to the binding. The boards are still quite rubbed, there is a loss of color to the rose-cross design on the upper board, and the rear board is heavily bumped at the top and bottom corners. There is some browning, reminiscent of an old "tide-mark" at the gutters of the endpapers, but this does not affect the preliminaries or text, which are clean, tight and unmarked aside from some gentle wrinkling to the first few leaves, a little light thumbing and an old gift note on the front free endpaper. Although solid, the binding must obviously rate as barely Good due to what has been done to it, but internally the volume is about VG. We are therefore selling it "as is" - as a reading copy (lacks the scarce dustjacket). Item #59478
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