PISTORIUS (DE NIDA), JOHANNES°

PISTORIUS (DE NIDA), JOHANNES° (1546–1608), German scholar. Pistorius was physician and adviser to the margrave of Baden-Durlach, whom he induced to support the Protestants; he himself later reverted to Catholicism, however, and entered the priesthood in 1591. He is mainly remembered for his Artis Cabbalisticae, hoc est reconditae theologiae et philosophiae Scriptorum Tomus I (Basle, 1587), a compendium of Christian mystical literature (including johannes reuchlin 's De Arte Cabalistica and Archangelus de Burgonuovo's commentaries on the "Conclusions" of Giovanni pico della mirandola ) which also contained a translation of judah abrabanel 's Dialoghi di Amore. A second volume, planned to contain major Jewish kabbalistic works, never appeared, probably as a result of Catholic objections to some of the material in the published compendium. The Artis Cabbalisticae was consulted by many later authors and is the most likely source of milton 's knowledge of the Kabbalah. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Secret, Les Kabbalistes chrétiens de la Renaissance (1964), 79–80; D. Hirst, Hidden Riches… (1964), index. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: H.-J. Guenther, Die Reformation und ihre Kinder (1994). (Godfrey Edmond Silverman)