Mirror of the intellect (State University of New York Press)

Fons Vitae is dedicated to preserving in print for future generations the extraordinarily important work of Titus Burckhardt, who devoted his life to the exposition of Universal Truth, that wisdom "uncreate" in the realm of metaphysics, cosmology, and sacred art. In addition to Burckhardt's Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Letters of a Sufi Master, and Moorish Culture in Spain, Fons Vitae is honored to add to the series Sacred Art, East and West, Mystical Astrology according to lbn 'Arabi, and Mirror of the Intellect.An eminent Swiss metaphysician and scholar of oriental languages, Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) devoted his life to the timeless and universal wisdom present in Sufism, Vedanta, Taoism, Platonism, and the other great esoteric and sapiential traditions. Though an art historian like his great uncle, the renowned Jacob Burckhardt, his main interest was the spiritual use and meaning to be found in Eastern and Western art and architecture, and the expression of the sacred in the lives of saints.This is a virtually complete collection of Burckhardt's essays, originally published throughout his long life in a variety of German and French journals. Their range is tremendous -- from sacred cosmology and modern science through Christianity and Islam to symbolism and mythology. The chief virtue of the collection is precisely its comprehensiveness; both quantitatively and qualitatively it is extremely rich.