THE TWO LINKED symbols of the Rose and the Cross character-
istically awaken all kinds of mysterious harmonies in the imagi-
nations of people, even those who do not refer to the Christian
cross. No doubt they correspond to those primordial images
inscribed in universal memory which C. G. Jung has called archetypes; no
doubt they constitute an essential sign of the harmony of opposites, of
totalization, of perfection, endowed with an evocative power comparable
to that of the Pythagorean tetraktys (the magical number 4) or the dynamic
union of Yang and Yin.

But the Rose-Cross also has a history, a precise geographical localization.
It has become concrete in texts-at first in manifestos and a novel, then in
a very large number of pseudepigraphic writings. The object of this study
is first to present the fundamental works, in the hope of resolving the
enigma they pose, then to indicate the possible sources of Rosicrucian
thought, and finally to display its developments up to our own time.

In 1614 there appeared in Kassel, in Hesse, a 147-page collection containing
three texts: Reform of the Universe, Fama Fraternitatis, and Short Reply to
the Esteemed Fraternity of the Rose-Cross, signed by a certain Adam Hasel-
mayer. The first was only a retranslation of Ragguagli di Parnaso, a satirical
work by Traiano Boccalini published in Venice in 1612. It criticized the
vanity of pretentious reform projects in political and social affairs, and its
presence in the collection was probably designed simply to ward off criti-
cism for sedition. Adam Haselmayer's missive proves that the Fama had
already been circulating in Europe since 1610 in manuscript form. Paracelsian

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