Acta Comeniana 34

The volume Acta Comeniana 34 includes several studies on history of philosophy, intellectual communication and history of Comenius Studies. Simon Burton (University of Edinburgh) in his paper  „Encyclopaedic Mirrors of the Soul: Comenius, Pinder and the Transformation of Cusan Optics“, analyses an influence of Pinder’s Cusan compilation on Comenius’s works. Placing Comenius’ reading of Pinder in the wider context of the Neo-Platonic metaphysics of light this paper investigates his reception of optical metaphors of knowledge (eye, mirror, glasses etc) considering the Speculum as a prototype for the Panaugia and Pansophia. An article by Marcela Slavíková (Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences) „Vir non vulgari eloquentia: Joachim Hübner’s Elegance of Expression“ explores nine extensive Latin letters by Joachim Hübner addressed to Jan Amos Comenius and focuses on his sophisticated style. Lyke de Vries (Radboud University in Nijmegen) in her essay „An Early Modern Proto-Feminist Story? The Innovative Programme of A Utopian Sorority” discusses a story about an intellectual sorority (1620) which depicts the fictional women’s society in opposition to the Rosicrucian one. Nicolette Mout (University of Leiden) gives an overview of Dutch commemorations of Comenius in her richly documented study “Honouring Comenius in the Netherlands: The Scholarly Commemorations of 1892, 1970, and 1992”. Ulrich Schäfer (Frankfurt am Main) discusses two autograph inscriptions of Comenius in his bibliographic essay “Neu entdeckte Autographen in zwei Exemplaren der Opera didactica omnia von Johann Amos Comenius aus dem Jahr 1657”. The volume includes two extensive review articles which discuss a new bilingual edition of Leibniz and Jan Čížek’s monograph on Comenius and Bacon, as well as five reviews.

In English and German.

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