{{Short description|Latin word}} '''Ludibrium''' is a word derived from [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|ludus}} (plural {{lang|la|[[ludi]]}}), meaning a plaything or a trivial [[game]]. In Latin {{lang|la|ludibrium}} denotes an object of fun, and at the same time, of scorn and derision, and it also denotes a capricious game itself: e.g., {{lang|la|ludibria ventis}} ([[Virgil]]), "the playthings of the winds", {{lang|la|ludibrium pelagis}} ([[Lucretius]]), "the plaything of the waves"; {{lang|la|Ludibrio me adhuc habuisti}} ([[Plautus]]), "Until now you have been toying with me."
The term "ludibrium" was used frequently by [[Johann Valentin Andreae]] (1587–1654) in phrases like "the ludibrium of the fictitious Rosicrucian Fraternity" when describing the [[Rosicrucianism|Rosicrucian Order]], most notably in his ''[[Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz]]'', published anonymously in 1616, of which Andreae subsequently claimed to be the author and which has been taken seriously, as virtually a third of the [[Rosicrucian Manifestos]].<ref>Frances Amelia Yates, ''The Rosicrucian Enlightenment'' (Taylor & Francis) 1999:50.</ref> However, in his ''Peregrini in Patria errores'' (1618) Andreae compares the world to an amphitheatre where no one is seen in their true light.
Paul Arnold translated Andreae's usage as ''[[farce]]'',<ref>Arnold, ''Histoire des Rose-Croix'' (Paris) 1935:50</ref> but this conception has been contested by [[Frances Yates]], who took Rosicrucianism seriously and who suggested that Andreae's use of the term implied more nearly some sort of "[[Divine Comedy]]", a dramatic allegory played in the political domain during the tumult which preceded the [[Thirty Years' War]] in [[Germany]].
[[Robert Anton Wilson]] has suggested that the [[Priory of Sion]] is a modern ludibrium:
<blockquote>The Priory of Sion fascinates me, because it has all the appearances of being a real conspiracy, and yet if you look at the elements another way, it looks like a very complicated practical joke by a bunch of intellectual French aristocrats. And half of the time I believe it really is a practical joke by a bunch of intellectual French aristocrats. And then part of the time I think it is a real conspiracy.<ref>[http://rawilsonfans.com/dangermedia-innerview/ ''Innerview'': Robert Anton Wilson, in interview] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130629094321/http://rawilsonfans.com/dangermedia-innerview/ |date=2013-06-29 }}; Robert Anton Wilson, [http://www.rawilsonfans.com/articles/mary.htm "Mary Mary Quite Contrary"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105230221/http://www.rawilsonfans.com/articles/mary.htm |date=2007-11-05 }}</ref></blockquote>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
[[Category:Latin words and phrases]]