Coelum Terrae

About This Edition

Coelum Terrae is Thomas Vaughan’s account of the first matter of nature, the medicine believed to arise from it, and the conditions under which transformation becomes possible. He published it under the name Eugenius Philalethes in 1650. Its Latin title can be understood as Heaven of Earth; the English title announced in the original volume is The Magician’s Heavenly Chaos. The discourse itself was written in English. This Diotimos edition offers a complete modern English reading, with newly translated foreign passages, beside the historical wording.

The selected work is the added discourse in Magia Adamica, printed in London by T. W. for H. Blunden in 1650. It begins on printed page 78 with Vaughan’s announcement that he has finished arguing for the antiquity of magic and will now discuss the art itself. The reading continues through the prose conclusion and FINIS on page 138, the address to the book on pages 139–140, the concluding praise of God and Amen, and the printed corrections relevant to Coelum Terrae. Magia Adamica’s preceding argument and its own preliminary matter are separate host material, outside this edition’s stated scope. The opening backward reference is retained and explained rather than rewritten as a new beginning.

The source combines the EEBO Text Creation Partnership transcription of the 1650 British Library witness with the surviving pages of the Getty Research Institute’s 1650 copy. The Getty copy is imperfect as a whole and lacks the leaf containing page 78; it supplies a separate first-edition witness for the remainder of the selected discourse. Source locators identify the actual witness used. Arthur Edward Waite’s 1888 collected reprint is a later comparison, with its own editorial choices, and does not govern this reading.

The study material distinguishes Vaughan’s propositions, the authorities he quotes, and Diotimos interpretation. References to a universal medicine, transmutation, divine influence and incorruptibility report historical claims. Spiritual and material interpretations are explored where the language supports them; neither is imposed as the exclusive meaning of every passage. No common chemical substance is silently substituted for the unnamed first matter.

The historical text and the TCP transcription are public-domain source material; TCP identifies its Phase I transcription as available under CC0. The modern reading, new translations and supporting essays, glossary, contextual lexicon, guides and index are separately identified editorial contributions for Diotimos Editions. Full source credits and links appear in the bibliography. This is a textual reading edition, with stable historical page references, rather than a photographic facsimile.