Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (Johan Bure) (1568–1652) was a Swedish antiquarian, polymath and mystic. He was royal librarian, tutor, and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...

 of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Bureus combined his runic

Runology

Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.-History:...

 and esoteric interests in his own runic system, which he called the "Adalruna". He was interested in the Rosicrucian

Rosicrucian

Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society, said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe...

 manifestos. Contemporary mystics such as Jakob Böhme

Jakob Böhme

Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...

 have studied his works.

In 1611 he published the first ABC book in the Swedish language

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

, Svenska ABC boken medh runor

Runa ABC

The Runa ABC of Johannes Bureus was the first Swedish alphabet book and its purpose was to teach the runic alphabet in 17th century Sweden.The runology pioneer Johannes Bureus was a religious Christian, but he also thought that the Christian influence had replaced the runic alphabet with the Latin...

using the runic alphabet

Runic alphabet

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...

 and latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 script. He also wrote a genealogy of Bure family

Bure kinship

The Bure kinship is a Swedish kinship which originates from Skellefteå area, today's Bureå. Lineages go back fairly reliably to the beginning of the 16th century, although they still have also been extended even back to the beginning of the 13th or 12th century, before modern critical approach.The...

, partly using runestones as sources.

Further reading

• Thomas Karlsson: Götisk kabbala och runisk alkemi: Johannes Bureus och den götiska esoterismen. (Dissertation, Stockholm 2009.)

External links

• Article in English with bibliographical references and more links.
• Short article about the Rune Cross.