Written in the Stars? Alphabets and Angels in Early Modern Europe

This article reconstructs the early modern growth of interest in Brillenbuchstaben, the mysterious characters commonly found in medieval Jewish kabbalistic manuscripts. It charts the confused process by which these characters were granted authority among learned Christians as alphabets derived from the stars and authored by the angels themselves. It argues that by the mid-seventeenth century, these ideas had become mainstream enough to pose serious threats (in the eyes of at least one respected theologian) to the traditional Christian understanding of angels. It concludes with reflections on the significance of these findings for the history of knowledge in early modern Europe.