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Anonymous

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

The White Philosophical Phoenix

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Candida Phoenix PhilosophicaPart II — Chapter 6: Rainwater as a Subject

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Facing Pages · Branch 215 of 411

Part II — Chapter 6: Rainwater as a Subject

Book Mode

German & Latin

143–144

Wie dann ein ebenmässiger Irrthum / da man das Gold in seine primam materiam und Semen (ut loquuntur) und alsdann in eine neue und bessere Form zu bringen vermeynt / quia semper firmum manet: quod non detur regressus in natura. Zumahl auch solche reductio (so wohln auch die regeneratio) nicht anders / dann per corruptionem & putrefactionem, durch die Tödt- und Zunichtmachung (welches alles bey den Philosophis eins ist) zu verrichten; Ubi pertinet illud: Corruptio unius est generatio alterius; Dargegen aber das Gold keiner corruption noch putrefaction underworffen. test. non solum Nuysemanno, & Authore Astronomiæ inferior. sed etiam ipsa experientia.

143–144

Candida Phoenix Philosophica: Part II — Chapter 6: Rainwater as a Subject

143–144

It is an equal error to suppose that gold can be brought into its first matter and seed, as they call it, and then into a new and better form. For this rule always stands firm: there is no return in nature. Such reduction, like regeneration, can be accomplished only through corruption and putrefaction, through killing and annihilation—all of which mean the same thing among the philosophers. Here applies the saying: “The corruption of one thing is the generation of another.” Yet gold is subject to neither corruption nor putrefaction, as not only Nuysement and the author of Inferior Astronomy but experience itself testify.

143–144

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.