Swedenborg, Emanuel, originally Swedberg 1688-1772
Swedish mystic, theologian and scientist

He was born in Stockholm, the son of a professor of theology at Uppsala. The family name was Swedberg, but was changed to Swedenborg when they were ennobled in 1719. He studied at Uppsala, travelled widely in Europe, was interested particularly in technology and engineering, and returned to Sweden to be assessor at the Royal Board of Mines (1716-47). He wrote prolifically on technical and mathematical topics - the differential calculus, astronomy, docks, sluices and navigation, followed by a long treatise, Opera Philosophica et Mineralia (1734, 'Philosophical and Logical Works'), a mixture of metallurgy and metaphysical speculation on the creation of the world, and huge works on anatomy and physiology entitled Oeconomia Regni Animalis (1740-41, 'The Economy of the Animal Kingdom') and Regnum Animale (1744-45, 2 vols, 'The Animal Kingdom'). In 1743-44 he had a religious crisis, recorded in his Journal of Dreams, which he interpreted as a direct vision of the spiritual world and which led him to resign his scientific post (1747) to expound his experiences and the mystical doctrines he based on them. He produced some 30 volumes of religious revelations in Latin, the best-known being Arcana Coelestia (8 vols, 1749-56, 'Heavenly Arcana'), De Coelo et eius Mirabilibus et de Inferno (1758, 'On Heaven and Its Wonders and on Hell') and Vera Christiana Religio (1771, 'The Christian Religion'). His followers organized a society in London known as the Church of the New Jerusalem (1787), which proliferated many further branches throughout the world (Swedenborgianism). He influenced William Blake and other writers, including the French Symbolists.

Bibliography: Signe Toksvig, Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic (1948)