January 2021: 54 years of publications
Archè was officially born in 1967 with the publication of the first four alchemical texts of the Bibliotheca Hermetica (two in Italian and two in French), welcomed by Mircea Eliade (review on History of Religions), by Henry Corbin, by Julius Evola and by the magazine Florentine Conoscenza Religiosa. Over the years, the foundation of new important series and new editorial initiatives will follow.
Thus, in 1972, the first reprint of the very rare monumental work in five volumes by Gabriele Rossetti Il mistero dell'Amor Platonico derived from Antichi Misteris (London, 1840) and, in 1974, the first reprint of the equally rare work by Louis Charbonneau- Lassay Le Bestiaire du Christ (Bruges 1940).
Some of the new series include contemporary authors.
For example, the ethnomusicologist Marius Schneider, of whom Archè published in 1976 the first Italian and French edition of his famous work (Pietre che cantano and Le Chant des pierres, respectively).
Others like Titus Burckhardt, who deals with both Christian esotericism and symbolism (Alchimie, Chartres, Siena, city of the Virgin) as well as Islamic ones. François Secret (Les Kabbalistes chrétiens de la Renaissance, new revised and augmented edition), thanks to which Archè was able to publish two unpublished works by Paul Vulliaud, his "initiator", and the reprint of other works that have become unobtainable.
So we can say of René Le Forestier's complete work (including three unpublished) on occultist Freemasonry, edited by Antoine Faivre.
This eminent scholar animated at Archè the series (12 issues from 1993 to 2008) of the "Cahiers du Groupe d'Études Spirituelles Comparées" (successors of the "Cahiers de l'Université de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem" founded by Henry Corbin) and the international magazine ARIES - Association pour la Recherche et l'Information sur l'Ésotérisme (two issues and a special issue in 1998-1999).
And again Xavier Accart, André Benzimra, Jean Canteins, AK Coomaraswamy, Alexandre de Dánann, Guido De Giorgio (almost all unpublished texts), Julius Evola, Stéphane François, Gaston Georgel, Jean Haudry, Gilles Le Pape, Yves Marquet, Sylvain Matton, Pierre Ponsoye, Arturo Reghini, Jean Marquès Rivière, Frithjof Schuon, Jacques Thomas, Jean Varenne, Dominique Viseux, Thierry Zarcone.
The case of René Guénon deserves special attention; by this author Professor Alessandro Grossato found an important unpublished work for Archè: Psychologie, which was published, for mere conscience, with the caption “(attribution)” in 2001; later the heirs of Guénon have confirmed not only the paternity but have produced the autographed text. He also collected the writings published by the Catholic magazine Regnabit by Guénon Archè.
By the American author of Central European origin Arthur Mandel, Archè publishes the History of Jacob Frank and the Frankist movement, which echoes the work of Gershom Scholem: in Italian translation in 1984 with the main title Il Messia Militant, and in French translation in 1989 (on the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution) greatly enriched with documents. A letter from Bruno Bettelheim to the author attests the appreciation and interest in the book which opened unexplored horizons to him.
1977 saw the reprint of another "monument" taken from long oblivion published in 1870: the Histoire et théorie du symbolisme religieux avant et depuis le Christianisme de abbé Auber in 4 volumes, and 1982 the first reprint of the Documents of Love by Francesco da Barberino, also in 4 volumes.
In 1991, edited by Jean-François Maillard, another work of great commitment was published: it is the important unpublished work by the Renaissance Christian kabbalist Giorgio Veneto: L'Elegante Poema & commento sopra il Poema
A particular place belongs to the work of Angelo De Gubernatis, with the Mythologie des Plantes ou Les légendes du règne végétal (1976) and Mythologie zoologique ou Les légendes animales (1987), both in two volumes.
After a first edition in Italian in three volumes, in 2002 the famous work by Fabre d’Olivet La lingua ebraica restituita comes out in a weighty single volume.
Among the most recent production, four even more ponderous works, Setareh Houman's Philosophia Perennis (622 pages) and Scolastique et Alchimie, a 912-page summa on the subject by Sylvain Matton; Les œuvres alchimiques attribuées à Arnaud de Villeneuve (736 pages) by Antoine Calvet; Pseudo Democrito Scritti alchemici con il commentario di Sinesio,, edited by Matteo Martelli (544 pages), Les oeuvres complètes de Robert Fludd, the latter being part of the series "Textes et Travaux de Chrysopoeia" which currently consists of about twenty volumes, published in co-edition with the “Société d'Étude de l'Histoire de l'Alchimie” de Paris, directed by Sylvain Matton, as well as the magazine Chrysopoeia (seven important volumes (from 1987 to 2003).
Sylvain Matton (SÉHA) also directs the "Anecdota" series, dedicated to the publication at Archè of unpublished texts (12 volumes from 2001 to 2018), of which three texts by Henri Bergson, discovered by Sylvain Matton himself, have aroused keen interest in intellectual world and a favorable echo in particular in the columns of the French newspaper Le Monde.
Besides the Chrysopoeia magazine, Archè publishes Charis. Archives de l'Unicorne, 5 volumes, plus 2 non-series dossiers (1988-2003).
Finally, mention should be made of the biannual hermeneutic review La Règle d’Abraham, "mainly devoted to the study of esoteric traditions from the three monotheistic revelations", taken up by Archè since 2001. To date 34 issues.
The catalog of availability includes, to date, over 400 titles.
