… he has turned the heads of the sect that had formed around him to such a degree that they came to consider his vices as virtues and enveloped his godlessness in a kind of religious cult and adoration.
(Constantijn Huygens)
(Constantijn Huygens)
Brian Howell, one of the most brilliant authors of his generation, displays an intense fascination with the ancestral methods of shadow play, the reproduction and projection of reality — in a word, cinema before cinema. In his novel The Curious Case of Jan Torrentius, this obsession is melded with many singular aspects of European society in the sixteenth century.
In 1619, on the cusp of The Thirty Years War, the world-wide movement known as The Rosy Cross is approaching its goal of replacing the established religion of Europe. Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, are set to become the leaders of this movement, but face strong resistance from both Catholic, Protestant, and national powers. The libertine painter Torrentius, who has become known to Frederick and Elizabeth as the inventor of a device that has military and mystical applications, finds himself pursued on both sides of the religious divide as a result of the clues he has left in one particularly mysterious painting, known to today’s public as Still Life with a Bridle, and his only extant work. By 1629, Torrentius is languishing in prison. Once fêted in the highest social and artistic circles of Hague society for his unusual ability to depict real objects with uncommon accuracy, he is now suspected of belonging to, if not being the head of, a secret society known as the Rosy Cross, having been found guilty of atheism, blasphemy, and heresy. Are his intentions good or is he a threat to civilised society? The story of his pursuit and persecution is told by five voices: diplomat and polymath Constantijn Huygens; inventor and ‘artificer’ Cornelis Drebbel; ambassador and royal agent Dudley Carleton; Elizabeth of Bohemia; and the poet and preacher John Donne. Torrentius’s own contribution is found many years later when Huygens’s famous son, the physicist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens, brings all these accounts together.
The Curious Case of Jan Torrentius, hardcover edition limited to 100 copies, 120 x 250 mm (or 4.7 × 9.6 in.), already available for shipment from here (via PayPal), in 15 days, it would be available at our partner Ziesings as well.
In 1619, on the cusp of The Thirty Years War, the world-wide movement known as The Rosy Cross is approaching its goal of replacing the established religion of Europe. Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, are set to become the leaders of this movement, but face strong resistance from both Catholic, Protestant, and national powers. The libertine painter Torrentius, who has become known to Frederick and Elizabeth as the inventor of a device that has military and mystical applications, finds himself pursued on both sides of the religious divide as a result of the clues he has left in one particularly mysterious painting, known to today’s public as Still Life with a Bridle, and his only extant work. By 1629, Torrentius is languishing in prison. Once fêted in the highest social and artistic circles of Hague society for his unusual ability to depict real objects with uncommon accuracy, he is now suspected of belonging to, if not being the head of, a secret society known as the Rosy Cross, having been found guilty of atheism, blasphemy, and heresy. Are his intentions good or is he a threat to civilised society? The story of his pursuit and persecution is told by five voices: diplomat and polymath Constantijn Huygens; inventor and ‘artificer’ Cornelis Drebbel; ambassador and royal agent Dudley Carleton; Elizabeth of Bohemia; and the poet and preacher John Donne. Torrentius’s own contribution is found many years later when Huygens’s famous son, the physicist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens, brings all these accounts together.
The Curious Case of Jan Torrentius, hardcover edition limited to 100 copies, 120 x 250 mm (or 4.7 × 9.6 in.), already available for shipment from here (via PayPal), in 15 days, it would be available at our partner Ziesings as well.
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The Curious Case of Jan Torrentius + Mail expenses for all the world (USD 55.00)
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The opinion of our readers
Golden Age of Clairvoyance
"Well I have received the books today and I had certain high expectations and I must say such high expectations were well exceeded. The selectivity of the authors as I may have mentioned before (both individually and in combination) and translations are impeccable. The book design is exquisite and enhances the holistic reading experience (by way of comparison, on first seeing the books I had the same sense of elation when I had received my first Sylph Edition Cahiers a few years ago)."
(Andrew Condous)
(Andrew Condous)
"The books look really nice - I'm especially liking the full-color images inside. Very good design."
(Damian Murphy)
(Damian Murphy)
"The chapbooks are beautiful. Well done! Equally engaging for the eye and mind."
(Rachel Kinbar)
(Rachel Kinbar)
"The initial print-run of all three is, of course, low, so any interested readers should make a quick decision; because I do hope Raphus continue on their path of intriguing little translations of the recovered uncanny and esoteric."
(Mark Andresen at Pan Review)
(Mark Andresen at Pan Review)
The great weird and fantastic connoisseur, Des Lewis, made an insightful review of Black Mirror, the second chapbook in the series, available in this link.
Spiritual Meaning of the Massacres
"Many thanks for sending me a copy of The Mendicant. It really looks rather good – a bit like one of the books you read about in short stories that start off ‘Beware if you read these words... too late!"
(Stephen Cashmore)
(Stephen Cashmore)
"It's a marvelous production, and it's great that you have resurrected the remarkable title piece. I also enjoyed the pamphlet (...). Long may Raphus Press reign!"
(Chris Mikul)
(Chris Mikul)
"I am absolutely delighted with them [The Mendicant of the Books and The Sacred Abysmal Perspective]! They are both true examples of true and original creative philosophical ingenuity, originality and also design. They are fantastickal chapbooks and it is an equal delight to have been able to contribute and to assist in other ways. Although I saw the proofed editions when you e-mailed them to me, now that they are in my hands, they veritably glow and crackle and weep with their malign embers.
I shall take myself off on a sacred journey this weekend, like the early priests going to Tibet, and will immerse myself in the deep folds and ravines these chapbooks open up."
(Jonathan Wood)
I shall take myself off on a sacred journey this weekend, like the early priests going to Tibet, and will immerse myself in the deep folds and ravines these chapbooks open up."
(Jonathan Wood)
