Fama Fraternitatis

The first of the three early-seventeenth-century Rosicrucian manifestos, published anonymously in Kassel in 1614. The full title is Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis — "Report of the Fraternity of the Rose Cross." The text describes the legendary German philosopher Christian Rosenkreuz and his founding of a secret brotherhood dedicated to the spiritual and material reform of Europe. The historicity of both Rosenkreuz and the original brotherhood is rejected by mainstream scholarship; the manifestos are generally attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae and his Tübingen circle.