[Occultisme;Alchimie] Swendenborg/Pernety - Du Ciel et de...

SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL. Heaven and its Wonders, and Hell, according to what has been seen and heard by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from Latin by A. J. P. [Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety]. Volume Two. Berlin: Decker [Paris], 1782. 8vo. Full contemporary marbled calf, spine with raised bands ornamented with floral tools and gilded compartments, title and volume labels in morocco. Original edition of the first complete French translation by the celebrated former Benedictine, alchemist, and occultist Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety (founder of the Illuminés d’Avignon) of Emanuel Swedenborg’s esoteric masterwork (De Cœlo et ejus Mirabilibus et de Inferno, 1758). This volume (Volume II) contains sections of singular conceptual rarity: * The Swedenborgian cosmology: the chapters devoted to the “Planetary Lands” in which Swedenborg describes his ecstatic journeys and his conversations with the spiritual inhabitants of the planets of the solar system (Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, the Moon). * The immortality of the soul: the treatise “On the Resurrection of the Dead, & their Entry into Eternal Life” (p. 445 et seq.), explaining that man does not die but simply “leaves his earthly envelope.” * Alchemical and occult bibliography: the precious “List of Known Manuscripts, Unprinted, of Swedenborg” drawn up by Dom Pernety for initiates. Contemporary binding in full marbled calf in beautiful condition; bright spine with well gilded compartments, bindings and corners very slightly rubbed but very solid. Interior in fine condition for its age, with fresh paper, very sharp typography, no major foxing. The title page is missing, the rest is complete. A precious volume from the late 18th-century esoteric circle. Before writing this work on his visions of the inhabitants of Saturn and the angels of Heaven, Emanuel Swedenborg was a scientist of rigorous precision: a mining engineer for the Swedish crown, physicist, mathematician, and inventor. In 1745, while dining in a London tavern, Swedenborg asserted that he had a divine vision commanding him to cease his scientific work and explore the world of spirits. The great philosopher Immanuel Kant, initially very skeptical, personally investigated Swedenborg after a famous event: in 1759, while he was in Gothenburg (more than 400 km from Stockholm), Swedenborg described with clockwork precision the great fire ravaging Stockholm at that very moment, predicting the exact hour at which the fire was stopped in front of his own house! This book was secretly translated by Dom Pernety, who soon afterwards founded the Masonic and alchemical lodge of the Illuminés d’Avignon, of which this volume formed the sacred text. Good copy of this rare esoteric work.

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