Michelspacher, Stefan

Michelspacher, Stefan, Cabala Speculum Artis et Maturae, in Alchymia.. . e Germanico Latnio (sic) versa a strenuo sapientiae culture (Augsburg Andreas Erffurt 1654). 

Some Paracelsian alchemists, especially Heinrich Khun rath (ca. 1560-1605) and Stefan Michelspacher (active ca. 1615-23), were objects of persecution on the part of hoth Lutheran and Catholic authorities. Khunrath was an alchemist from Saxony, the heartland of the Reformation, but his theological stance was characteristic of the second generation of Protestants who felt that Luther s work had been left incomplete and that another religious reform was essential. In Khunrath s ideas this would take the form of a Lutheranism that could accommodate an autonomous personal piety. To express their Lutheran piety intellectually the alchemists employed the terms of Paracelsian theosophy, while they found an emotive outlet in the mystical experience of the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. They felt themselves to be inspired (literally breathed ) by the Spirit, a force that they identified with alchemical pneuma. Khunrath called himself an enthusiast, hlled with the presence of the divine. 

In this context, see also Urszula Szulakowska, The Apocalyptic Eucharist and Religious Dissidence in Stefan Michelspacher s CabalaP Aries. Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 3 (2003) 200—23. 

Stefan Michelspacher, Opera das ist Grundliche doch Kitrze Anzeigimg Wie Nothwendig die Lobliche Kunst der Geometriae sive inn der Perspectiv (Augshurg David Francke 1616). 

The Apocalyptic Eucharist and Religious Dissidence in Stefan Michelspacher s... 

Christ in the Fountain of Life, Stefan Michelspacher, Cabala Spiegel der Kunst und Natur (Augsburg David Francke, 1616), fourth engraving. With the permission of the British Library,... 

Title-page, Stefan Michelspacher s Pinax Microcosmographicus (Augsburg no publisher, 1615). 

Extensive commentary from 4 previously unpublished plates from Stefan Michelspacher s Cabala, Spiegel de Kunst undNatur in Alchymia (1616)... 

Szulakowska, Urszula. The apocalyptic eucharist and religious dissidence in Stefan Michelspacher s Cabala Spiegel der Kunst und Natur, in Alchymia (1616). Aries 3, no. 2 (2003) 200-223. 

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