De la Nouvelle Jérusalem et de sa doctrine céleste ; d'après ce qu'on entendu au ciel. Précédé d'une breve dissertation touchant le nouveau ciel et la nouvelle terre

The rare French first edition, following the first published in London, in Latin, in 1758.
Contemporary full blonde calf binding, marbled and glazed, smooth spine decorated with grotesque ornaments, red morocco title label, upper joint cracked at head for 8 cm, lower joint cracked at head and foot.
Although this work is the most famous by its author, due to its title which several churches have taken as their symbolic name, it is not the first of its kind and is actually a condensed version of the Arcana Coelestia, but whereas the Arcana is an exegesis of Genesis, The New Jerusalem is one of verses from the Apocalypse of Saint John, in which Swedenborg, as in his other works, delivers an ultra-rational vision of metaphysics and spirituality. A renowned scientist, Swedenborg experienced a mystical crisis at the age of 55. God spoke to him and allowed him to communicate with angels: "I am the Lord, Creator and Redeemer; I have chosen you to make known to men the inner and spiritual meaning of the Holy Scriptures. I will dictate to you everything you must write." The author would thus experience several visions which he transcribed in his books. Swedenborg did not break at all with the doctrines of Luther from which he came, but he founded the relationship with God on love, and he gave great importance to angels who are the foundation of the existence of good and evil, and to the soul which is an emanation of divinity. He was quickly considered a universal genius, as evidenced by the considerable influence he had, notably in France on the writers of the Romantic generation, Balzac, who quotes him abundantly and who drew from him nourishment for his theory of desire, Baudelaire, Cazotte and elsewhere in William Blake, Jung... and even in Japan, in the book: The Buddha of the North.
Bookplate. Ernest Chausson stamp. Great composer and autodidact, who died at 40 and left imperishable works particularly in the field of chamber music, in the wake of a French Wagnerism, imbued with profound sorrow and melancholy.