The alphabet of nature / / F.M. van Helmont ; translated with an introduction and annotations by Allison P. Coudert & Taylor Corse.

• Superior document: Aries book series ; v. 3
• Author: Helmont, Franciscus Mercurius van, 1614-1699.
• TeilnehmendeR: Coudert, Allison, 1941-; Corse, Taylor, 1951-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2007.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Aries book series ; v. 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xlvi, 213 pages) :; illustrations
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Alphabeti vere naturalis Hebraici brevissima delineatio.; Preliminary Material /; Alphabeti Vere Naturalis Hebraici — A Short Sketch Of The Truly Natural Hebrew Alphabet /; Images /; Bibliography /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-208) and index.
• ISBN: 1282396811; 9786612396816; 9047419987
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: F.M. van Helmont ; translated with an introduction and annotations by Allison P. Coudert & Taylor Corse.

F. M van Helmont’s Alphabet of Nature was one of many books published about language in the early modern period. The “language debate,” as it has come to be called, was a topic of compelling interest to major figures such as Reuchlin, Rabelais, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Postel, Boehme, Kircher, Hobbes, Descartes, Comenius, Spinoza, Locke, Boyle, Newton, and Leibniz. At issue were profound questions about whether language is natural or artificial, ordained by God or created by man. The answers given entailed a web of consequences that could lead to arrest, imprisonment, even execution. It is therefore not surprising that van Helmont wrote his book while imprisoned in the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition.