Leseprobe

127 B öhme’s R e ce pti on SAGAN/Z˙AGAN´ (town in Silesia, today in Poland) Sagan was home to one of Böhme’s chief copyists, the toll collector Christian Bernhard (d. 1649), who made contact with Böhme through Balthasar Walther in late 1619. Another supporter in Sagan was Abraham Bernhard (1583–1654), brother of Christian, who was rector of the local Latin School, and who had first encountered Böhme’s works while teaching at the Gymnasium Schönaichianum in Beuthen an der Oder. In 1627 Böhme’s son Tobias, an apprentice shoemaker, dwelled in Sagan after having served in the Danish army fighting in Silesia. It was here that he converted to Catholicism at the behest of the local Jesuits. [LP] 3 Jacob Böhme, Drey Principien ( Three Principles ), Title page of Christian Bernhard’s handwritten copy, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka we Wrocławiu, AKC. 1975/255 4 Portrait of Christoph Kotter, 1665, Copperplate engraving and etching, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Inv. no. I 7300.1 SPROT TAU/SZPROTAWA (town in Silesia, today in Poland) Böhme had several readers and supporters in Sprottau.The jurist GottfriedGloger von Schwanbach copied and collected Böhme’s manuscripts, as well as those of Valentin Weigel, the Rosicrucians, Paracelsus, and others, including the lay prophet Christoph Kotter (1585–1647). From 1616 onwards, Kotter experienced a series of angelic visions that were disseminated in print and manuscript. Kotter attended Böhme on his deathbed in November 1624, and along with the Görlitz physician Tobias Kober (d. 1625) helped to reconcile Böhme with the Lutheran faith before his death. A further contact in Sprottau was the physician Adam Brux (1572–1639), who studied medicine in Basel before serving as per- sonal physician to the Dukes of Anhalt. After Böhme’s death, Brux continued to seek patronage and support from other members of Böhme’s net- works. [LP]