Opera Omnia 19/I

This volume brings readers the first part of the most important and extensive of Comenius’ works, De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica (General Consultation on the Rectification of Human Affairs). It is a critical edition of this text, which was preserved primarily in manuscript form and lay undiscovered until the 1930s; the edition includes philological and practical commentaries, prefaces for the editions of the individual works, and other accessory materials for scholars. The introduction describes the basic ideas of this work, the history of its creation, and its fate after its writing. The volume also contains the three introductory works of the General Consultation. A dedication to the Lights of Europe is followed here by the Panegersia (A General Arousing; the work’s first part)—a proposal to call a general consultation—and the Panaugia (A General Illumination; the work’s second part), a systematic exposition on the metaphysics of light.