Quotes:Andreae, Johann Valentin

Zirkoff, Boris

Andreae (Andreäs or Andreä), Johann Valentin. German theologian and writer, b. at Herrenberg, Württ., Aug. 17, 1586; d. at Adelsberg, June 27, 1654. After completing academic courses at Tübingen, travelled for some years as tutor in noble families. Became, 1614, deacon at Vaihingen, Württ., where he labored zealously for six years as preacher and writer. Superintendent at Calw, 1620-39. When city was sacked, 1634, he lost his library and barely escaped alive; worked tirelessly as physician, minister, grave-digger. Removed, 1639, to Stuttgardt, as court preacher, with seat in the Consistorium; active in the reorganization of Church system and schools after the ruin of the Thirty Years’ war. His life was based on practical Christian ethics, and he mourned the frivolous learning and the pedantry of his times. Adopted wit and satire as his weapons, and planned to combat with these the idols of the day in literature and religion. Prolific writer who is said to have written about one hundred works. The best known are: Menippus, 1618, directed against orthodoxy and worldly folly; Alethea Exul, against abuses in mystical thought; Die Christenburg, 1612, an epic allegory dealing with the struggles and ultimate triumph of the Christian soul; Turbo, 1616, a satire on pedantry; Reipublicae christianopolitanae descriptio, 1619, an account of an ideal Christian State, similar to Campanella’s City of the Sun; Theophilus, 1622 (publ. in 1649), which expresses his ideas on the public regulation of private morals, and contains a dissertation on the education of the young; this work entitles him to serious consideration as predecessor of the renowned Pestalozzi.

418 Andreae was an outstanding linguist, perfecting himself in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian and English; he was a profound student of mathematics, having studied with Maslin, the teacher of Kepler. In 1614, he published a series of lectures on mathematics. Having been for some years Spiritual Counsel of the Landgrave of Hesse, he became later Prelate of Adelberg, and Almoner of the Duke of Württemberg, and died respected by all men.

Andreae’s Autobiography was publ. in German by D. C. Seybold, 1799, and in the original Latin by F. H. Rheinwald, Berlin, 1849.

Consult the following sources: Hassbach, Andreä und sein Zeitalter, Berlin, 1819; A. Landenberger. J. V. Andreä, Barman, 1886; P. Wurm, J. V. Andreä, Calw, 1887.

No attempt is being made here to deal with the controversial evidence concerning Andreae’s role in the launching of the early Rosicrucian movement.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 8, pp. 417-418