Hiël in England 1657-1810

Abstract

[Hiel's fortunes in England are marked by delay and discontinuity. The first published translation of any work of his came out in the late 1650s, over seventy years after his writings had started to appear on the continent. Hardly any reader of this translation seems to have realized that Hiel was the author and, although translations of other works, also done in the 1650s, were circulating in manuscript, Hiel was only truly recognised in England towards the middle of the eighteenth century. This was owing to the German translation of his complete works published in Amsterdam between 1687 and 1690, and read in the circle gravitating round the great nonjuror William Law. From then on Hiel was regarded by a number of Englishmen with an interest in mysticism as a precursor of Boehme and was translated by disciples of Law, editions appearing in 1781 and 1810. He was read by Methodists and Swedenborgians and, shortlived though the English interest in him was, it sheds light on the late reception of mysticism in England and on the influence of continental Pietism., Hiel's fortunes in England are marked by delay and discontinuity. The first published translation of any work of his came out in the late 1650s, over seventy years after his writings had started to appear on the continent. Hardly any reader of this translation seems to have realized that Hiel was the author and, although translations of other works, also done in the 1650s, were circulating in manuscript, Hiel was only truly recognised in England towards the middle of the eighteenth century. This was owing to the German translation of his complete works published in Amsterdam between 1687 and 1690, and read in the circle gravitating round the great nonjuror William Law. From then on Hiel was regarded by a number of Englishmen with an interest in mysticism as a precursor of Boehme and was translated by disciples of Law, editions appearing in 1781 and 1810. He was read by Methodists and Swedenborgians and, shortlived though the English interest in him was, it sheds light on the late reception of mysticism in England and on the influence of continental Pietism.]