On the motif of the world in Comenius’ works Labyrinth of the World and Unum necessarium I.

Abstract

On the motif of the world in Comenius’ works Labyrinth of the World and Unum necessarium I. – This paper compares Comenius’ conception of the world in Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart (1623) and Unum necessarium (1668). This comparison is intended to contribute to the understanding of the shift in Comenius’ reflection on the world; the path to this goal includes a generalization of the artistic account of the world in The Labyrinth of the World, an identification of the main underpinnings of the conception of the world in both works, a relation of the development of Comenius’s understanding of the world to the moral principle of memento mori and medieval culture of dying ars moriendi and to the idea of universal improvement that Comenius develops in the decades following the composition of The Labyrinth of the World, and finally a comparison of the main features of the two images of the world. The study also includes an interpretation of The Labyrinth of the World as a theodicy.