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Anonymous

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

The White Philosophical Phoenix

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Candida Phoenix PhilosophicaPart I — Theorem VII

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Facing Pages · Branch 45 of 411

Part I — Theorem VII

Book Mode

German & Latin

29–30

Nachdem nun diß Orts gesagt und gefragt werden möchte: Wie erstlich dieses zu verstehen / daß vorhero gemeldet worden / Es sey keine Natur / die etwas würcke / und dannoch offtberührter Spiritus alhier die causa efficiens der universal Medicin geheissen: Anbey auch / was gestalt die Philosophi ihn materiam universalem nennen / erwehnt: Ingleichem angedeutet werde / wie er in seiner nuda & simplici spirituali forma nicht zu bekommen / sondern auß denen sichtigen Creaturen / darein ihn der Allerhöchste nach seiner unerforschlichen Weißheit eingeschlossen / zu extrahiren &c. Da man zumahl aller sichtig- und begreifflichen Creaturen gedencke; Hingegen aber oben / daß zu præparirung einer universal Medicin auch ein Subjectum catholicum gehöre / statuirt / und alle andere / als die Particularia darvon außgeschlossen worden.

29–30

Candida Phoenix Philosophica: Part I — Theorem VII

29–30

At this point one might ask, first, how we should understand the statement that no nature acts, when this same spirit is nevertheless called the efficient cause of the universal medicine. It has also been said that the philosophers call it universal matter, and that it cannot be obtained in its bare and simple spiritual form but must be extracted from the visible creatures in which the Most High has enclosed it in his inscrutable wisdom. All visible and tangible creatures are mentioned; yet above it was maintained that preparing a universal medicine requires a catholic subject, and all other things, as particulars, were excluded.

29–30

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.