Abstract

Jan Luyken (1649-1712) was an etcher and poet. He became widely known for his De Duytse Lier (The Dutch Lyre, 1671), a collection of lyrical, sensual poems that is still read today. At the age of 26, he had a profound religious experience that moved him toward a more contemplative life. He joined the Mennonite Church and produced devotional emblem books with some Bohmist motifs. Luyken’s drawings, etchings and poems were collected in the 19th century by the Mennonite banker Christiaan Pieter van Eeghen (1880-1889). His collection is now held by the Amsterdam Museum. Dr Isabella H. van Eeghen (1913-1996), a great-grandchild of the collector, was a book historian who worked as an archivist at the Amsterdam City Archive. She was fascinated by Luyken’s life and was convinced that he had Bohmist sympathies, without, however, being able to find any proof more conclusive than certain references to Bohme’s works in Luyken’s poetry. Based on the surviving correspondence between Johann Georg Gichtel and Johann Wilhelm Uberfeld and their Bohmist group, the “Angelic Brethren”, this article for the first time sheds light on the actual relationship between Luyken and Gichtel’s followers in Leiden and explains why his involvement with the brethren was only short-lived.