Johann Valentin Andreae: Gesammelte Schriften / Band 13: Turris Babel sive judic

This volume contains Andreaes swansong to the Rosicrucian movement. In the 25 trialogues Turris Babel (The Tower of Babel, 1619) this is done rather half-heartedly; Andreae wants to get rid of natural theology and alchemy, but he continues to advocate the idea of a pious elite to reform politics and theology, which he formulated in his small writings on Christian reform (vol. 6). The Tractat (actually more of an essay) on the Harmfulness of Curiosity and the False Pursuit of Singularity (De curiositatis pernicie syntagma. Ad singularitatis studiosos, 1620) is also a reckoning with the Rosicrucian furor. In addition, Andreae describes pseudo-scientific hocus-pocus, false prophets, sanctimonious sectarians, aristocratic art connoisseurs and youthful non-conformism in psychologically refined and satirically pointed portraits as varieties of 'curiosity', the seductive power of which he knows from his own experience.