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Anonymous

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

The White Philosophical Phoenix

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Candida Phoenix PhilosophicaPart II — Chapter 1: Nature

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English Page · Branch 116 of 411

Part II — Chapter 1: Nature

Book Mode

German & Latin

82–83

Gestaltsam die gemeinen Alchymisten und Laboranten sich noch auff den heutigen Tag understehen mehrangeregtes Semen Metallorum, und die Tincturam Physicam in offtterwehnten Metallen und Mineralien / ja so gar in den Animalien / und Vegetabilien / also die starcke in den schwachen / und die Krafft in den ohnmächtigen zu suchen; Ohngeachtet Comes Bernhardus Trevisanus vor mehr / als ein hundert Jahren / sich uns selbsten zum Exempel dargestellt / und mit seiner eigenen Erfahrung bezeuget / daß Er in all solchen particularien viel / viel Jahr mit Auffwend- und Verzehrung eines guten Theils seiner Herrschafft und darüber erlittener Verachtung von seinen Freunden / vergeblich gearbeitet / biß Er endlich / und zwar in seinem hohen Alter / durch Undersuchung der Philosophischen Bücher / zur Erkanntnuß seines Irrthumbs gelangt.

82–83

Candida Phoenix Philosophica: Part II — Chapter 1: Nature

82–83

Even today ordinary alchemists and laboratory workers undertake to seek that seed of metals and the physical tincture in the metals and minerals so often mentioned, and even in animals and plants—seeking strength in the weak and power in the powerless. Yet more than a hundred years ago Count Bernard of Treviso offered himself as an example, testifying from his own experience that he had worked fruitlessly for many, many years upon such particulars, spending and consuming a considerable part of his estate and incurring his friends’ contempt, until at last, in old age, study of the philosophical books brought him to recognize his error.

82–83

About This Reading Edition

An anonymous Hermetic treatise of 1680, presented in its original German and Latin with a new English translation, 279 explanatory notes, the historical phoenix frontispiece, an introduction, reading guide, outline, glossary, bibliography, and original registers.

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Candida Phoenix philosophica. Frankfurt am Main: Christian Hermsdorff, 1680. The chosen witness is the Wellcome Library copy digitized as b32993456; German and Latin, with French, Greek, and Hebrew passages retained.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The 1680 source is identified as public domain by the Wellcome/Internet Archive record. The supplied 2026 transcription, English translation, introduction, notes, reading guide, outline, glossary, bibliography, and editorial arrangement are published with the site owner’s authorization. The frontispiece is retained from the supplied edition and credited to its historical witness.