Abstract

The first English translation of Novalis’s unfinished notes for a universal science, Das Allgemeine Brouillon. Composed of more than 1,100 notebook entries, this is the German romantic poet-philosopher's largest theoretical work. In it, Novalis reflects on numerous aspects of human culture, including philosophy, poetry, the natural sciences, the fine arts, mathematics, mineralogy, history, and religion, and brings them all together into a "Romantic Encyclopaedia”, or what he calls a “Scientific Bible”. Novalis, Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon. Edited, Translated and Introduced by David W. Wood, published by SUNY Press (State University of New York Press), Albany/N.Y., 2007, xxx + 290 pp.