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52
Matthias Hafenreffer
Templum Ezechielis
Tübingen, 1613
fol. in 6s: ):( - 3):(6 A-2g6
248×126 mm
I 1.11 Th.Seld.


Set beside that of the Jesuit Villalpando, this Lutheran commentary on Ezekiel raises similar questions but offers very different answers. Hafenreffer, who was Professor of Theology and Chancellor of the University of Tübingen, is more modest in the scope of his project and in his representation of the Temple. Like Villalpando, he is interested in its position, fabric, design, ornament and proportions. He also is led into a consideration of the Hebrew weights and measures, relating them to the standards of Wittenberg. Throughout he mixes geometry with spiritual commentary.

In an ‘Appendix Geometrica’, he says that the prophet has provided sufficient detail to discover the geometrical principles in the design of the Temple, evincing a sublime geometry of harmony and proportion, and in seeking to tease out this geometry, he has been in communication with two famous Protestant mathematicians and astronomers, Michael Maestlin and Johannes Kepler. He does not, however, share the mystical vision nor discover the grand correspondences of Villalpando.


H. Rosenau, Vision of the Temple: the Image of the Temple of Jerusalem in Judaism and Christianity (London, 1979).



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