Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Name: Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Author: Heinrich Khunrath

The 1599 German text with a new English translation, introduction, glossary, and notes.

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Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica PhilosophorumMagnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Printed Page 139

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Early New High German Page · Branch 146 of 215

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Early New High German

p. 139

tete / als eben offt vnnd viel wol angedeutete MAGNESIAM CATHOLICAM; Derowegen so verwerffe vnnd lasse ich auch billich alle andere materias, tanquam Pseudo-Magnesias, fahren / vnd verharre standhafftig bey dieser alleine / weil eins das andere / nach Gottes wunderbaren vnerforschlichē Willen / also wunderbarlich erkleret vnd bezeuget.

O jhr Weißheitliebenden suchet auch Naturgemes-Alchymisch in der Göttlichen Schrifft des grossen Weldtbuchs; dann die Naturkündigen Theosophi meinen / Sie haben zeugnis des ewigen vnd Artzney des zeitlichen Lebens darinnen; vnd MAGNESIA CATHOLICA / im grossen Weldbuch der Natur / ists / die von CHRISTO Naturlich vnnd Vniversaliter zeuget: Vnnd jhr wollet zu derselben nicht kom-

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 139

forth, as does the oft and much well-intimated MAGNESIA CATHOLICA. Therefore I also justly reject and let go all other materias, as Pseudo-Magnesias, and abide steadfastly by this one alone; because the one so wonderfully declares and attests the other, according to God’s wonderful and unsearchable Will.

O ye Lovers of Wisdom, search ye also in a Nature-conforming and alchemical way in the Divine Writing of the great World-book; for the Nature-knowing Theosophers hold that they have therein the testimony of the eternal and the Medicine of the temporal Life; and MAGNESIA CATHOLICA, in the great World-book of Nature, is she who testifies of CHRIST Naturally and Vniuersally. And ye would not come to that same—

199.Marginal gloss, continued from p. 138: ‘… bore in itself the type and likeness of that other in such wise and in such measure, that in it the similar likeness of these two, or the Likeness-wise similitude, could so consist.’ — Contrafectisch is from Konterfei, contrafactum, a portrait, and carries none of the modern English sense of ‘counterfeit’; see the note to p. 56. ehnlich for ähnlich is Khunrath’s regular spelling.

200.Marginal gloss: ‘John v. verse 39, in a symbolic sense.’ — John v. 39, Search the scriptures … they are they which testify of me. The gloss decides the verb in the body: zeugen is rendered ‘beget’ everywhere else in this edition (see the note to p. 63), but von … zeugen with the dative is testimonial, and the text Khunrath cites is the locus classicus for scripture bearing witness. He applies it to the second book, the book of Nature. — in Symbolico intellectu is the qualification that keeps the claim short of literal identification, and it is his, not the editor’s. — The 1599 sets Vniversaliter here with a pointed v and Vniuersaliter at p. 144 with a round u; both stand.

About This Reading Edition

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum argues that alchemy has one universal subject, that this subject cannot be extracted from the metals, and that nothing in the work can begin without recognizing it. This complete reader begins with the supplied seven-part introduction and orientation, then presents every printed page of the 1599 German treatise opposite its new English translation.

Historical Text and Translation

The German reading text is a fresh diplomatic transcription from 600 dpi images of the Magdeburg copy printed by Johann Bötcher in 1599. It preserves Khunrath’s capitalization, word division, authorial marginal keys, glosses, errata, and three unnumbered closing pages: the errata leaf, owl emblem, and colophon.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared the new English translation, introduction, notes, glossary, collation, and editorial apparatus. The translation follows Khunrath directly, retaining his technical vocabulary, changes of register, repetitions, rhetorical questions, and distinctions between German, Latin, and coined terms.

Rights

Heinrich Khunrath’s 1599 German work is in the public domain. The 2026 English translation, introduction, notes, glossary, editorial arrangement, and related matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.

supplied-bilingual-editionSupplied complete German–English scholarly edition