Translating German Mysticism: The Construction of a European Idea

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Anne Eusterschulte, since 7/2022
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461562574

The project argues that early modern English translations of German mystical literature are a key example of how early modernity was shaped by the practice of translation. Works by authors like Paracelsus (1493-1541), Sebastian Franck (1499-1542), Valentin Weigel (1533-1588), and Jacob Böhme (1575-1624) were translated and published within overlapping networks in early modern England, a remarkably fertile receiving culture. The English translations of German mystical literature produced the sense of a tradition presented to a new readership: they connected ideas from the Continent with native approaches, while creating a new language. Böhme’s philosophical speculation on creation and human renovation was diffused underground in Germany due to accusations of heresy, yet almost all his work appeared in English by 1661. The success of these early translations even generated a new persona: an English Böhme, or Behmen. The historical context of the translations has recently attracted scholarly interest. Yet, a study of these English texts in relation to their German (and occasionally Latin) originals has never been conducted before. This project aims at a full philosophical and cultural revaluation of these translations by analysing how ideas were adapted and reimagined in translation. It has three objectives. 1) I will present with brief descriptions the corpus of German primary sources translated into English, building on a preliminary list made during a short-term post within the SPP 2130. The material will be presented on the project website and stored long-term in a repository at the Library of TU Braunschweig. 2) I will analyse the translation strategies for rendering mystical vocabulary in a new language and its impact on philosophical transfer. I propose a monograph on the key case of Böhme. This will for the first time connect the development of Böhme’s philosophical terminology in German with its influential transformation in English, focusing on his natural-theological terminology, theory of human language, and visual schemes. 3) I will bring to light the relationship between translation and the use of images as a medium for expressing philosophical ideas cross-culturally. I will focus on the manuscript work of Dionysius Andreas Freher (1649-1728), a German émigré in London who diffused and critically interpreted German mysticism via treatises in German and English and a large body of images. I will edit Freher’s An Explication of Three Very Different Tables, a text with an intricate series of pop-up images designed to mediate Böhmes’s philosophy. Only the images were ever published: I will reunite the images with the treatise for the first time. The project advances the state of the art within the SPP 2130 by adding a new focus on early modern philosophy. In examining both renowned figures (e.g. Böhme), and lesser-known ones (e.g. Freher), the project will put philosophy on the map of translation theories developed by this SPP.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2130: Cultures of Translation in Early Modern Times
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Dr. Cecilia Muratori, until 6/2022