Symbolica
Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen

Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen

The Bird as the central motif, with Fire and the Eye in a secondary part. From Amphitheatrum.

Heinrich Khunrath, designer, 1602 to 1609. Engraving.

Licence ouverte, 1609 printing · Web copy 752 by 1117 px · Internet Archive, Bibliotheque interuniversitaire de Sante copy, Paris, leaf 36

What is happening

Heinrich Khunrath, 1609 “Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen.” Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, the motto engraved on the tablet beneath the owl.

Symbolica, 2026 Khunrath's German, put into English here: What use are torches, light or spectacles, if people will not see.

Key · 3 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1The Birdcentral motif as it reads here: Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen
  2. 2Firesecondary motif
  3. 3The Eyesecondary motif

The picture

An owl wearing spectacles between two lit candles and two crossed torches, the motto on a tablet beneath. By eye

Not yet decoded: the motifs are tagged by eye and the readings above are quoted from their sources. The marks on the picture and the sourced notes come with the entry.

Also carrying the Bird

15 works carry it. The 3 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

Fire · the Eye

Each of these is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about each.

In the same series

Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1609

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Bibliotheque interuniversitaire de Sante copy, Paris, leaf 36
Rights
Licence ouverte, 1609 printing
Restoration
None. A 752 by 1117 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1609
Artist
Heinrich Khunrath, physician and theosopher of Leipzig, about 1560 to 1605, who designed the plates of the Amphitheatrum and wrote their captions; the Oratory and Laboratory was engraved by Paullus van der Doort
Titled here
Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen, from Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, Hanau 1609
Checked
the Internet Archive item metadata for both copies, 4 September 2026: Khunrath as author, Hanau, G. Antonius, 1609; the Paris copy under Licence ouverte and the Wellcome copy under the Public Domain Mark. The plate captions were read off the page images and are quoted only as far as they could be read. Not seen in the hand.
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One symbol a week, decoded.

This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “Was helffen Fackeln, Licht oder Brilln, so die Leut nicht sehen wollen”, Heinrich Khunrath, designer, 1602 to 1609. thesymbolica.com/work/was-helffen-fackeln-licht-oder-brilln-so-die-leut-nicht-sehen-wollen/