The life and works of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) have often been obscured behind a haze of Iurid myths and legends. This book looks again at her notorious abdication of 1654, seeing it against the background of her reputation as a "libertine", a heterodox religious thinker. Her subsequent conversion to Catholicism is therefore understood as a consequence of messianic and millenarian expectations during those turbulent years, and her bizarre attempt in 1657 to become the ruler of Naples is revealed to be the political wing of a comprehensive religious and intellectual philosophy.
Author(s): Susanna Akerman
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1991
Language: English
Pages: 339
City: Leiden
QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND HER CIRCLE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART I THE PROBLEM
CHAPTER ONE THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTINA'S ABDICATION
Abdication:
Conversion
CHAPTER TWO DOUBTS AND IRRELIGIOUS SCEPTICISM
A Problematic Catholicism
On Reading Queen Christina—the "e-Silentio Proofs
Christina and Irreligious Scepticism
CHAPTER THREE CHRISTINA AND DESCARTES: DISASSEMBLING A MYTH
The Meeting
The Correspondence
Ernst Cassirer's Claims
The Search after Truth
The Two Characters
PART II CHRISTINA'S PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER FOUR GASSENDI,ATOMS AND THE WORLD SOUL OF EPICUREANS
Leibniz' view on Christina's doctrine of the World Soul
CHAPTER FIVE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY
Friedrich Menius and Spiritual Atomism
Georg Stiernhielm, Johannes Bureus, and the Gothic Kabbalah
PART III THE SWEDISH-BALTIC BACKGROUND
CHAPTER SIX CHRISTINA MINERVA AND THE ANCIENT MODEL OF LEARNING
The Stockholm Academy
Theological Linguistics: Taxonomy, Relativism, Nationalism
Christina Alexandra, Linguistics, and the Goths
CHAPTER SEVEN NEO-STOIC PAN-PROTESTANTS AND THE MONARCHY
The Messenius Plot and Bengt Skytte
Bengt Skytte, Comenius, and "Sophopolis
Negotiations for Church Unity and the Reform of Schools
Heinrich Hein,the Baltic Antilia, and the Rosicrucians
CHAPTER EIGHT THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE AMARANTHE
Comenius and the Bohemian War
PART IV MILLENARIANISM AND POLITICS
CHAPTER NINE THE ABDICATION: ALTERING THE SACRED DESTINY
The Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the Sign of the Lion
Charles Gustavus and the Millenarian Hopes
Theatrum Cometicum
CHAPTER TEN CHRISTINA AND THE JEWS
Hebraism
Jewish Bankers
Philo-Semitic Intervention
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE MESSIANIC DRAMA: THE YEAR 1655
Isaac La Peyrère, Antonio Vierra, Menasseh ben Israel
Christina's Grand Plan in Flanders, 1655
CHAPTER TWELVE CHRISTINA IN ROME—ANTIQUITY AND THE MILITANT CHURCH
The Refutation of Scepticism in Christina's Academy, 1656
The Paris Academy and the Crown of Naples
CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE POLISH ELECTION—THE LAST WASA THRONE
Christina in Hamburg
Stanislaus Lubieniecki, Spy and Socinian
The Argument for the Polish Throne, 1667
CHAPTER FOURTEEN LEIBNIZ, MARANA, AND THE TURKISH MIRROR
The Turkish Spy
CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE ROMAN ACADEMIES: PROVIDENTIALISM AND SCIENCE
Christina Alexandra as "Basilissa" of the Arcadia
Certitude, Archeology, and Monumentalism
PART V CONSEQUENCES OF WORLD SOUL PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER SIXTEEN ALCHEMY, THE WORLD SOUL, AND THE HERETICS OF ROME
Counter-Reform Rosicrucians?—A Problem for the History of Rome
Christina's Alchemical Manuscripts
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHRISTINA AND MOLINOS' QUIETISM
FINALE AFTER IMAGES
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHRISTINA ALEXANDRA: WOMAN, RULER, AND THE LOST DOMINION
APPENDIX I CHRISTINA'S WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS
APPENDIX II THE LIBERTINE PAMPHLETS
MANUSCRIPTS AND RARE SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
