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Anonymous

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

The White Philosophical Phoenix

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Candida Phoenix PhilosophicaPart II — Chapter 7: Other Waters and Philosophical Earth

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Facing Pages · Branch 259 of 411

Part II — Chapter 7: Other Waters and Philosophical Earth

Book Mode

German & Latin

171–172

Sonsten was mehrberührter Artista von der operation im freyen Feuer meldet / das kan ebenmässig anders nicht / als von dem modo fermentationis Bas. clav. 12. davon obgedacht / verstanden: Wie dann das comburite æs nostrum alhier viel anders / weder durch Gewaltsamkeit des Feuers muß verrichtet werden; Ohngeachtet sonder das Feuer unser Magisterium nicht zu verfertigen. Welches zwar im übrigen ein Werck der Weiber / hingegen wiederumb ein Labor Herculeus genennet wird. Und wie beedes abermahl in seinem Philosophischen Verstand waar; Also ist auch hiehero gehörig / daß die Philosophi den jenigen / der das Summum Arcanum erlangt hat / einen Equitem Aurei Velleris heissen / weil das feste Band der Natur (ut loquuntur) so hart und beschwerlich auffzulösen.

171–172

Candida Phoenix Philosophica: Part II — Chapter 7: Other Waters and Philosophical Earth

171–172

What the practitioner says about operating in an open fire can likewise refer only to the method of fermentation in Basilius’s twelfth key, mentioned above. Here “burn our brass” must be accomplished very differently from working by the violence of fire, although our magistery cannot be completed without fire. Elsewhere it is called women’s work, yet also a labour of Hercules. Both are true in their philosophical sense. The philosophers also call whoever has attained the supreme secret a knight of the Golden Fleece, because nature’s firm bond, as they call it, is so difficult and laborious to dissolve.

171–172

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.