Jacob Böhmes Veröffentlichungsstrategien in der Handschriftenkultur seiner Zeit

Abstract

Jacob Böhme’s Aurora was famously “publicised” or “published” in manuscript without his authorisation, due to which he ran into trouble in 1613. This event took place within an existing scribal culture that determined the manner in which Böhme’s works circulated in manuscript and provided him with the strategies he employed to manage this process. Using Böhme’s correspondence and other sources, this article describes that scribal culture with its practices and conventions. Even Böhme’s printed Weg zu Christo followed the same patterns as a scribal publication produced by other means. The theosopher’s autograph manuscripts experienced very different treatment from what one might expect today: not only were they subject to correction and emendation, which Böhme explicitly expected of his copyists, they were also distributed piecemeal, suffering wear and tear in the process.