Jacob Böhme: Band I,4: Vierzig Fragen von der Seele (1620)

In 1620, Jacob Böhme wrote the fourth of his treatises. It contains answers to 40 questions sent to him by the physician and traveller to the Orient, Balthasar Walther, on the nature of the human soul, its origin and its survival after death. Böhme’s detailed treatise on this subject was so highly regarded that it was one of his first printed works to be translated into Latin in 1632. At the request of cardinals, the translation even found its way to Rome, where it was the only one of Böhme’s writings to be placed on the Index. The concept of the ›Ungrund‹, which is directly linked to Böhme’s philosophy, appears for the first time in the ›Vierzig Fragen‹. In addition, they are the only one of Böhme’s writings to contain an illustration of his world design, the ›Philosophische Kugel‹, drawn by him. The original text has not been preserved. The edition is based on two early copies.