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 31

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Early New High German

p. 31

geschicht) je nicht vergebens von GOTT an vnd vns fürgestellet / noch verechtlich in windt zu schlagen vnd zuvernichten.

In Meinem buch de Veritate, Antiquitate & Præstantia LAPIDIS Philosophorum, ac ALCHYMIAE, soll hieuon / mit beystande Gottlicher hülffe / ausfürlicher vnd vbergnugsamer beweiß / zu seiner zeit / dargethan werden.

GOTT sey Lob vnd Danck darvor gesagt / das Er / auch noch heutiges tages die seinigen / (ob schon sehr: sehr: wenige / dannoch derer etliche / vnter welchen Ich / ohne vergebenen Rhum / der kleineste bin; wie hefftig auch dem alten Beelzebubischen lester Teuffel / vnd desselben mir mißgünstigen Sudlerischen vnnd Hudlerischen / auch VnHamlischen schmechhummeln / sambt ihren anklebenden

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 31

-lows) — set before us by GOD not at all in vain, nor to be contemptuously struck into the wind and brought to nothing.

In My book de Veritate, Antiquitate & Præstantia LAPIDIS Philosophorum, ac ALCHYMIAE, this shall, with the assistance of Divine help, be set forth in its own time with fuller and more than sufficient proof.

GOD be praised and thanked for it, that He, even in these present days, has His own — though very, very few, yet some of them, among whom I, without idle boasting, am the least; however violently it may vex the old Beelzebubian slander-Devil, and his Botching and Bungling and VnHamlisch^* slander-hornets that bear me ill will, together with their cleaving

70.‘On the Truth, Antiquity and Excellence of the Stone of the Philosophers, and of Alchymia’ — announced here and at other points in the treatise; no copy is known, and it is doubtful whether it was ever printed. Marginal gloss: ‘There the ὅτι ἐστί, that there is a Stone of the Philosophers, will be further and sufficiently proved.’ The Greek is Aristotle’s distinction between the that and the what: Khunrath promises to prove only that the Stone exists, and the Greek is his way of saying that the other question is not being answered.

71.The swarm returns: the Hummelschwarm of p. 24 becomes schmechhummeln here and Schmeißfliegen, blow-flies, on p. 32. Beelzebub is the lord of the flies, and Khunrath keeps the one image running across three pages of abuse; a translation that varied the insect would lose the thread. Sudler is one who works filthily, Hudler one who works carelessly — botcher and bungler. mir mißgünstigen, ill-disposed towards me, takes the dative mir; both words were misread at first as a single form mitgnassigen, which is no word. ^*VnHamlischen, with the medial capital as printed, is not a recorded form and is left unread; the two specks over the a may be an umlaut or may be dirt.

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