| Description | Manuscript volume on paper of the visions of Christoph Kotter. Described as a 'Mystisches Manuskript', comprising declarations of mystical experiences made before the civic and ecclesiastical authorities of the town of Sprottau. In chronological order, with the first entry dated 11 June 1616 and the last 6th October 1624. With 20 pen drawings of visions to accompany the text. Possibly unfinished, as the drawings are only present in the first portion of the book but spaces have been left throughout the rest of the manuscript, perhaps for further drawings.
The Czech philosopher John Amos Comenius translated and published the prophecies of Kotter in Czech and Latin. This German version differs from Comenius' Latin version of the text in that it gives fuller circumstantial detail, but it lacks the appendices of further visions included by Comenius. In Comenius' collected works "Lux in Tenebris" he notes the existence of a German exemplar which was 'full of errors'. It is not known what relation this manuscript bears to any of the texts known to Comenius.
With a cutting from an auction catalogue (in German) pated to the inside front cover, and two loose folios of notes about the text (in English). |
| AdminHistory | Christoph Kotter (or Kryštof Kötter, Kutter) was a Czech protestant visionary, probably born near Görlitz in 1585. He claimed to have a series of visions during the Thirty Years' War and prophesised the return of the deposed Friedrich V of Bohemia. A tanner by trade, he lived in Sprottau in modern day Poland, but in 1627 was charged with treason for his prophecies in support of Friedrich V and exiled from the region. He died in poverty in Upper Lusatia in 1647. |
| CustodialHistory | Bookplate bearing the intials C W C V N. |