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 151

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Early New High German

p. 151

gen du auch in diese Weld gesetzet bist) reichlich zu erlernen / vnnd GOTT dafür zu dancken / loben vnd zu preisen / dem Silber vnnd dem Goldmachen weit fürziehen. Est, certè, MAGNESIA horum omnium agnoscendi & cognoscendi ratio pulcherrima. Rectè igitur ipsa Physice quodammodo Theologiæ pars, quæq; illi subseruit, est appellata à viris doctis. Paulus etiam τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ex rebus his creatis & conspicuis haberi docet. Vnde & Tertullianus sæpe scripsit, DEVM ex Mundi huius òpificio cognosci; ex Verbi autem sui prædicatione recognosci.

Sprichstu / wz wehre mir MAGNESIA nütze / wann ich dadurch nicht stracks solte können Silber vnd Gold machen? Setzen^† doch die Philosophi sehr viel in jre Schrifften / von Verwandlung der vnte-

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 151

thou too art set into this World) are richly to be learned, and GOD to be thanked, lauded and praised for them — far preferable to the making of Silver and of Gold. MAGNESIA is, assuredly, the fairest means of acknowledging and of knowing all these things. Rightly, therefore, has Physics itself been called by learned men, in a manner, a part of Theology, and one that serves it. Paul also teaches that what may be known of God is had out of these created and visible things. Whence Tertullian too has often written, that GOD is known out of the fabric of this World, but re-known out of the preaching of his Word.

Sayest thou: of what use were MAGNESIA to me, if I could not straightway make Silver and Gold by it? Why, the Philosophers do set^† very much in their writings touching the transmutation of the lower

212.Marginal gloss: ‘The knowledge of Biblical and of Macrocosmic THEOLOGY is joined together. Doctors of both Theologies — that is, of theologies Divinely written and delivered in each of these two ways.’ — The 1599 sets vttroq; with a doubled t for vtroque; the sorts are clear and the word is printed as found. The claim is that one may be a Doctor of both theologies at once, because God wrote and delivered both books. — τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ is Romans i. 19, that which may be known of God; the 1599 sets it with the usual sixteenth-century Greek contractions, the ου of both τοῦ and Θεοῦ as a ligature under the circumflex. — The Tertullian is a paraphrase, not a quotation: the distinction between knowing God from his works and re-knowing him from his Word runs through the Apologeticum and Adversus Marcionem, but no one sentence of his answers to this Latin, and Khunrath’s sæpe scripsit does not claim one. — ^†The verb is blotted past recovery. The sorts give a Fraktur capital S, then four clusters of which the third carries a descender. Setzen is adopted because in jre Schrifften is accusative and wants a verb of putting. Sagen is excluded by the ink, the second cluster being too tall for an a; Sehen fits the ink but not the case.

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