The Rosicrucian Enlightenment [Hardcover]

Frances Amelia Yates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1972

Available as a single volume or part of the 10 volume set Frances Yeats: Selected Works

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Zestful, stylish, full of suggestive ways forward, Yates's bold reassessment of Rosicrucianism is provoking, exhilarating and indispensable.' - Diarmaid MacCulloch, BBC History Magazine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dame Frances Yates (1899 - 1981). English scholar who brought about the revival of interest in the historical role of the occult sciences, demonstrating their link with the rise of modern science. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul, London and Boston; First Edition edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0710073801
• ISBN-13: 978-0710073808
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,130,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title throw you!, May 28, 2001

By 

Deirdre A. Le Blanc "Artist/Writer" (WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA United States, FORMERLY LOS ANGELES, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: RC Series Bundle: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

This is one of the books featured in the annotated bibliography that I am writing. It is not some occult handbook; rather, it is a concise history of this movement during the 17th century, written by an eminent Renaissance scholar.

If you really want to know what was happening in Great Britain and Europe during this period, what brought about the Rosicrucian Manifesto and Confessio - and why - this is the book to read. Dame Frances Yates' clarity in setting down this underground movement, how these men communicated and disseminated their thoughts and beliefs (which were considered heretical to the church and treasonous to the politics of their day)is an enlightening revelation.

It is to these men, who fought for the freedom from Church strictures to study mathematics, philosophy and science openly, that we should give our thanks today. These are the great minds who held a utopian vision: Johann Valentine Andreae, Giordano Bruno, Elias Ashmole, John Dee, Sir Phillip Sidney, Thomas Vaughan, Francis Bacon, Robert Fludd, Michael Maier, Tommaso Campanella, and others (the only person missing is Sendivogius). These are the alchemists who were responsible for the later advancement into rational science.

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows hermeticism's role in the formation of science, April 7, 1999

By 

Joel Burt, [e-mail] (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: RC Series Bundle: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

Wonderful book. Highly recommended. The book is a history of a very overlooked portion of the role that the so called "occult" has played in the formation of modern science and medicine. It traces with wonderful skill, the foundations of the Royal Society. It shows Bacon was FIRMLY entrenched in the lore of alchemy and hermeticism. Those early scientists were indeed the last of the great alchemists. She goes on to show the link between the "invisible college" and the rise of objective thought that culminated with the Renaissance. In the process she charts the greater part of Pre-Renaissance history! If you have an interest in the esoteric foundations of science, then this is a worthy expenditure of your time.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary Rosicrucians, August 9, 2002

By 

Mark Newbold (Pittsburg, KS United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: RC Series Bundle: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

This book began a revolution in encouraging scholars and laypersons to take the role of Esoteric movements as a legitimate element in the study of Western history. Though there have been recent disputes with some conclusions drawn by Dame Yates in this work, it still remains a pioneering document of historical research. The recent collection of essays by Christopher Bamford, "The Roscicrucian Enlightment Revisited" goes toward validation of much of this work. A seminal book in esoteric studies, highly recommended.