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 154

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Early New High German

p. 154

Geldes - Talenti oder Pfundes halben / Ob vnd Wie jhr GOtt / Ewern Geld vnd anderer hülffen bedürfftigen Nechsten / vnd euch selbst sambt den ewrigen / dauon CHRISTLICH gedienet; das quod tibi vis fieri, alteri feceris, damit recht practicirt; vnd gnug - verantwortlich Haußgehalten habet. Wehe / als dann / euch Mammons Dienern.

Ein Philosophus heist vnd ist ein Weißheitliebender / nit nur ein Silber oder Goldliebender; Darumb seind seine Arbeiten fürnemlich gerichtet zum Erkentnis der wahren Weißheit / auch aus dem Buch der Natur: diese selbe suchet er zu forderst durch fewer kunst / das andere alles (darbey der Transmutatio Metallorum auch gehöret) wird jhme dann / nach dem willen Gottes / wol zu fallen. Lies meine Schrifften / verstehe

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 154

of Money — of the Talent or Pound — Whether and How ye have therewith served GOD, your Neighbour who stands in need of your Money and other help, and yourselves together with your own, CHRISTIANLY; have rightly practised that what thou wouldst have done to thee, that do thou to another; and have kept house answerably enough. Woe, then, to you, Mammon’s servants.

A Philosopher is called, and is, a Lover of Wisdom, not only a lover of Silver or of Gold. His Labours are therefore directed chiefly to the Recognition of true Wisdom, and out of the Book of Nature too: this same he seeks first of all by the art of fire; and all the rest (whereto the Transmutation of Metals also belongs) will then fall to him well enough, according to the will of God. Read my Writings, understand

215.Marginal glosses: ‘Christianly, I say.’; ‘Fire is GOD’S ordinary Professor of Physics in the University of the World: it expounds the Book of Nature right surely.’ — The second gloss is the sentence the Introduction of this edition takes for Khunrath’s account of how the book of nature is read, and it stands here, not at p. 155. ^†The 1599 sets Muudana; Khunrath’s errata on the unnumbered leaf following p. 187 give Mundana, für Muudana, in marg. Corrected and marked. — quod tibi vis fieri, alteri feceris is the Golden Rule in its positive form (Matthew vii. 12); the commoner scholastic form is the negative quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris, and Khunrath chooses the positive. — The doublet Talenti oder Pfundes points to two parables at once: the Talentum is the talent of Matthew xxv, where Luther has Zentner, and the Pfund is the mina of Luke xix. 13, where Luther has Pfund. The steward’s reckoning of p. 153 is still running through both.

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