Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Pseudo-Magnesia

pseudo-magnesia, retained. The counterfeit matter the opponents put in Magnesia’s place. Khunrath uses it from p. 43 onward — Pseudo-Magnesiam pro genuina — and presses it hardest at pp. 175–176, where the argument is not that their work is badly done but that it cannot be done at all: what is not in the cask cannot be drawn from it. pp. 43, 139, 175–179.

Putrefactio

putrefaction, retained. The rotting that must precede regeneration, and the one operation Khunrath insists cannot be counterfeited: the Fimus Philosophorum is for a putredo talis quæ mater est corruptionis, the mother of the corruption out of which a new generation arises, and the margin of p. 119 assigns the cause — the first matter, and nothing else, works the true putrefaction in this Work. pp. 83, 98, 119 m.

Rationes seminariae

seminal reasons. The formative principles by which the Soul of the World specifies a matter toward silver or gold. At pp. 48 and 76–77 they are expressly speciales aut specificæ: it is the Soul of the World that is catholic, and the special Reasons that specify the universal first matter, not the reverse. pp. 21, 48, 76–77.

RVACH HHVCHMAH-EL

Retained. The Spirit of the Wisdom of God, by whose Theosophical assistance Khunrath says he has spoken. It opens the treatise at p. 9, spelt HHOCHMAH, stands again at p. 37 in the most personal passage in the book, and closes it at p. 187, spelt HHVCHMAH; all three stand as printed. pp. 9, 37, 187.

SAL Maris Catholicon

the catholic salt of the sea, retained. Khunrath’s answer to the adage In sale sint labores tui: the salt the Philosophers mean is found in that Catholic Ocean or Sea of theirs which is Magnesia. The adage is not denied but located. p. 128.

SAL metallorum

the salt of the metals, retained. The adage SAL METALLORVM est LAPIS philosophorum, which Khunrath does not deny but re-reads: among Nature-knowing Philosophers it bears far another sense than the unlearned give it, and their calcined and reverberated salts are excellent medicines and no transmuting tincture at all. pp. 125 (and m), 127.

Salia resuscitatiua

reviving salts: salts that bring a slain metal back to life. The word is deliberate and belongs with the death-and-rebirth language of the treatise. p. 69 m.

Saturnus sapientum

the saturn of the wise, retained. Not common lead, and Khunrath glosses it against that reading twice — the second gloss exists only to stop the reader collapsing the two. pp. 52 (and m), 81 m.

Sawrteig / fermentum

sourdough, leaven. The figure of Matthew xvi. 6 and 1 Corinthians v. 6–7, turned against the pseudo-chymists: Cauete vobis à fermento Pseudo-Chymicorum. Khunrath gives his own German for his own Latin, as he habitually does. In this sense only; for the Stone as fermentum Vniuersale see that entry. pp. 79 m, 178 m.