302
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vra. OCT. is, 1913.
Ccelestia,' the former from a copy made by
C. F. Nordenskiold.
Commencing his adult life as a poor student in the University of Tubingen, John Frederick Emanuel (or Immanuel) Tafel became later Regius Professor of Philo- sophy in that institution, and chief librarian of the Royal Library in that city. A con- ference took place in 1820 at Stuttgart between him and J. A. Tulk, one of the results of which was the issue, in the following year, of an advertisement announcing the forthcoming publication of a translation into German of the theological works of Sweden- borg and, if desired, of a reprint of the Latin originals. The work was begun shortly after this public announcement, but was hindered throughout the years 1826-9 by the action of the King of Wiirtemberg, taking the form of an embargo which was not removed until 25 March, 1829. From that time until his death in 1863 Dr. Tafel continued to edit, to translate, and (finan- cially helped by friends in England and America) to publish the writings of Sweden- boj-g.
During the first twenty years the work was chiefly confined to the two branches named in the preliminary advertisement of 1821. but in the year 1840 Dr. Tafel reported to the Swedenborg Society as ready for delivery ' Itinerarium Swedenborgii, sectio prima,' and announced the impending ap- pearance of portions of ' Diarium Spirituale ' and ' Adversaria.' These manuscripts were in later years wholly reproduced in type, together with some minor works, as were in 1859-63 the first three volumes (A-Dama) of ' Index Biblicus,' which was completed (upon greatly condensed lines) by Dr. Achatius Kahl, Dean of Lund, in 1868. Judged from the standard furnished by present-day book production, Dr. Tafel's volumes leave much to be desired, but they are quite equal in format to their literary contemporaries, and the correctness of their text has never been seriously questioned. Upon his death the whole stock of his Latin editions was acquired by means of a fund collected in England and America for the purpose, and the books divided between the two countries. A large part of the trans- atlantic portion was, however, destroyed in the great Boston fire of November, 1872.
To the " first editions " of Swedenborg' s works issued by Dr. Tafel between 1840 and 1863 were added several from other sources. In 1840 the Swedenborg Society published ' Canones Novae Ecclesise,' ' De Domino et de Athanasii Symbolo,' and * Doctrina de
Charitate.' The Swedenborg Association,,
founded by members of the Swedenborg"
Society on 17 April, 1845 and re-absorbed
by the older body in 1863 included among
its publications several of Swedenborg's
posthumous manuscripts upon philosophical
subjects. In 1859 G. E. Klemming, who-
later became Librarian-in-Chief of the
Royal Library at Stockholm, published
privately, in an edition of 99 copies, an MS.
to which he supplied the title ' Swedenborgs
Drommar, 1744.'
Prof. Rudolph Leonard Tafel, nephew of Dr. Tafel, was recommended as his successor at the annual session of the General Con- vention of the New Jerusalem in America in 1866. It was not, however, until 1868 that Dr. Tafel (the second) was able to proceed to Europe, reaching Stockholm in September, and proceeding thence, via Den- mark and Germany, to London, where he arrived in January, 1869. To the Sweden- borg Society he communicated an account of his three months' work in a pamphlet entitled ' Results of an Investigation into the Manuscripts of Swedenborg,' but finan- cial considerations prevented that body from giving effect to his suggestions at that time. Dr. Tafel's proposed work was warmly commended at the annual session of the English General Conference of the New Church in 1868, and at the similar gathering a year later steps were taken to provide the requisite fluids. So successful were these proceedings that to the session of the Con- ference in the following year 1870 the completion of the contemplated work was fully reported. Adopting the process of photo -lithography then in its early days, but holding the field for facsimile reproduc- tions Dr. Tafel had completed ten folio volumes, ' Em. Swedenborgii Autographa Editio Photo-lithographica,' containing a grand total of 3,860 pages. He had also, in co-operation with Herr Miillensiefen, produced a photo -lithographic facsimile of Swedenborg's own copy of Schmidius's Latin translation of the Bible, garnished with the seer's marginal notes. Of the ten folio volumes, 110 (since reduced by various accidents to a bare 100) copies had been produced at the joint expense of the American Convention and the English Conference, and had been equally divided between those corporations. Arrangements were at once made to present to public libraries in Eng- land and upon the Continent those sets which had not already been bespoken by indi- vidual subscribers, and so liberally has that policy been followed that at the present
