Leseprobe

173 T h e L i b r a r y o f J o h ann S c h e f f l e r Although Jacob Bohme is often thought of as a prophet or genius, writing alone in his study, in fact, he was part of a network of people with similar inter­ ests. His home town of Gorlitz/Zgorzelec, today on the border between Germany and Poland, was a crossroads, where intellectuals gathered to discuss the natural science of the time and the ideas of a range of religious reformers – not only from the mainstreamconfessions of Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, but also religious minorities such as the Schwenkfelder and individual prophetic preach­ ers and writers. Furthermore, the surrounding areas where Bohme spent most of his life – Lusatia and Silesia – were a melting pot of ethnicities and lan­ guages. Germans, Poles, Slavs, Moravians, Bohemians and others lived here and this is reflected in the place names. Towns often carry both German and Polish names, or sometimes the names are in the Slavic Sorbian language. Bohme’s web of contacts consisted of diverse people from across this area, including prophets, physicians, alchemists, devotional writers, and noble patrons who sent him money, books and gifts. In this period, writings were often distributed as manuscripts instead of as printed books, and in Bohme’s networks, scribes made handwritten copies of his texts which they shared with one another. Only a few short years after Böhme’s death, his writings reached the Netherlands and England. His work was translated into multiple languages and he went on to become one of the most influential authors of the Early Modern period. His thought echoes today in the work of modern artists, writers and philosophers. Yet without Böhme’s earliest con­ tacts, none of this could have happened. His texts were long banned in German-speaking areas, but Böhme’s first readers, most of whom hailed from Lusatia and Silesia, preserved his writings. They kept them alive in handwritten copies that they circulated in underground networks. Later they played impor­ tant roles in getting his writings printed. This section presents some of the places and people in Böhme’s early networks who were most important for keeping his legacy alive. L e i g h T. I . Pe nman i n c o l l ab o r a t i o n w i t h Lu c i n d a Ma r t i n JACOB BÖHME ’S EAR LY CONTACT S