Original Manuscripts–The Reproduction of Swedenborg’s Manuscripts 1866 – 2016

Our purpose is to provide translations of the Heavenly Doctrine revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ through Emanuel Swedenborg. Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation is a non-profit corporation, incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania, USA. As stated in its articles of incorporation, the Foundation’s activities are limited to: ". . . the production, publication and distribution of translations which are accurate, consistent and faithful to the original language of the Heavenly Doctrine (also known as the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg) and also the Old and New Testaments in light of the Heavenly Doctrine, and booklets and indices consisting of excerpts from the Sacred Scripture and the Heavenly Doctrine."

When Jo. Fr. Immanuel Tafel died in 1863, he was still in the process of publishing Swedenborg’s works in Latin. This included new editions of works that Swedenborg himself had published a hundred years before, and which were becoming increasingly harder to purchase. But, in some ways more importantly, he was also putting into print manuscripts that he had from borrowed from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) in Stockholm – manuscripts that Swedenborg himself had not published.

Tafel’s publications had been done partly at his own expense and partly with support from the Swedenborg Society and the General Convention of the New Jerusalem. As he had not, at the time of his death, completed the publication of the manuscripts, there was discussion between these bodies as to how to proceed. The Swedenborg Society was doubtful about the economics of continuing to print Latin editions, given the limited market there seemed to be for these. The General Convention then, in 1866, appointed a committee to explore the possibility of facsimile reprints of the manuscripts.

In the summer of 1868, Rudolph Tafel, the nephew of Immanuel, was dispatched from America to investigate the manuscripts in Sweden and the options for their publication. In September of that year, the chairman of the Convention Committee, the Rev. William H. Benade, reported that it had been decided to use the new process of photolithography to reproduce the manuscripts. These works were among the first to be copied in this way, and certainly constituted the largest project undertaken, up to that time, using this technology.

Now, 150 years later, the manuscripts are again being scanned and reproduced by the best technology available. Stokes Imaging Inc. (the brainchild of John R. Stokes) has created the most sophisticated digital imaging system yet built. The first major project that this system is being used for (apart from some testing at the Library of Congress) is the creation of a digital archive of Swedenborg’s manuscripts.

In 2005, UNESCO made its first designations of Memory of the World treasures in Sweden. Two were so identified: the Astrid Lindgren archive and the manuscripts of Emanuel Swedenborg. The manuscripts were given to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) by Swedenborg’s heirs shortly after his death and that institution has been the steward of the manuscripts to this day. They are presently housed in the Center for History of Science, which is currently headed by Dr. Karl Grandin.

The Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation undertook, in 2013, the financial support of a project to create high-resolution scans of the whole collection of Swedenborg’s manuscripts and printed works held by the RSAS. This has been a cooperative effort, with the HDPF providing funding for the imaging equipment and salaries for staffing, with Dr. Grandin graciously finding staff to do the scanning and supervising the work.

In addition to providing much sharper images of Swedenborg’s manuscripts, this project will make them much more available to readers and translators around the world.