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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Early New High German

p. 29

scheidentlich darvon judiciren: auch bedencken jr wisset noch nicht alles; vnd mit dem Weisen Socrate, bis in ewre grube / zu lernen habet. Nec, si quid nescis, reliquis id scire negatum esse. Die grosse Weld ist ein Göttlich Wünderbuch der Natur / so von keinem Menschē aus studiret kan werden: Ein filius doctrinæ lesset sich Philosophisch weisen / vnd bedencket sich eines bessern. Wil man hiermit nicht zu frieden sein / So spreche Ich / plus esse credendum turbæ dextrè Philosophantium & Physico-Chymicè laborantium veraci, quàm aut manipulo sinistrè loquentium, aut multitudini ignorantium fallaci. Wil sich darin ein grober Püffelskopff gar nicht weisen lassen / so muste einer viel zuthun haben / der alle Narren solte klug machen: Vnnd ist eine gewisse vnfeilbare anzei-

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 29

-ge of it discerningly: and to consider that you do not yet know everything, and that with the Wise Socrates you have to go on learning until you are in your grave. Nec, si quid nescis, reliquis id scire negatum esse. The great World is a Divine Wonder-book of Nature, which can be studied out to the end by no Man. A son of doctrine lets himself be Philosophically instructed, and thinks better of it. If a man will not be content with this, then I say: plus esse credendum turbæ dextrè Philosophantium & Physico-Chymicè laborantium veraci, quàm aut manipulo sinistrè loquentium, aut multitudini ignorantium fallaci. But if a coarse Buffalo-head will not be instructed in it at all, then a man would have much to do who set out to make all Fools wise; and it is a certain, unfailing to-

63.‘Nor, if you do not know a thing, is the knowing of it therefore denied to everyone else.’ The sentence is the hinge of the admonition, and it is the one argument in the treatise that does not depend on authority, experience, or scripture: ignorance is not evidence.

64.Wünderbuch der Natur — the book of Nature is a commonplace, but Khunrath’s addition is not: the book is one no reader ever finishes. It answers the Socrates of the preceding sentence and prepares the filius doctrinæ.

65.‘That more credit is to be given to the truthful crowd of those who philosophize rightly and labour in a physico-chymical way, than either to the handful who speak perversely or to the deceitful multitude of the ignorant.’ dextrè and sinistrè — to the right hand and to the left — are set against each other and are not merely ‘rightly’ and ‘wrongly’; the English keeps the pairing as far as it will go.

66.Püffelskopff, buffalo-head. He has moved down the register again — from Socrates and a Latin sentence to a barnyard insult in three lines — and the English moves with him.

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