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. 35

cke / oder sonsten dergleichen Eins / MAGNESIA der Philosophen vnd Meine / entweder sein / oder nicht sein solle? Sprechen sie / Wir habens also gehöret; Item / Er hat je damit vmbgangen / vnd darinnē gearbeitet; oder / es hat jhme dieser / oder jener / einen Handgriff darinnē gezeigt: vnd wissen ferner nichts gründliches / auff einen oder den andern weg / dauon richtigen bescheid zu geben. Da stehen sie dann / wie die beschornen Narren / quorum dicta facilitate eâdem possunt negari, qua ab illis fuêre affirmata. Lieben Leute / es ist damit nicht gnug / das jhr nur schlecht vnd bloß saget / jhr wisset es. Nein / nicht also; Sondern jhr müsset / sol man anders euch auch recht glauben geben / Ewers fürgegebenen wissens / aus gnugsamen warhafftigen vnwidersprechlichen Rationibus, vnd

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 35

or some other such single thing, should either be, or not be, the MAGNESIA of the Philosophers and Mine? They say: We have heard it so. Likewise: He did once deal with it and work in it; or, this one or that one showed him a manipulation in it. And they know nothing further that is well-grounded, by the one road or the other, whereby to give a right account of it. There they stand then, like shorn Fools, quorum dicta facilitate eâdem possunt negari, qua ab illis fuêre affirmata.

Dear People, it is not enough for that, that you merely say, baldly and barely, that you know it. No, not so. Rather you must — if anyone is to give you proper credence — make your alleged knowledge certain in another fashion, out of sufficient, truthful, incontrovertible Reasons and

77.‘whose sayings can be denied with the same ease with which they were asserted by them.’ The maxim is a commonplace of the schools and Khunrath uses it exactly: an assertion offered without grounds can be refused without grounds. — beschorne Narren, shorn fools: the fool of the period was shaved or tonsured, and the phrase means both ‘fools’ and ‘men who have been fleeced’.

78.Marginal gloss: ‘O Father of Lights, forgive them, that they so blaspheme thee in thy mysteries, for they know not what they do!’ (1599: lastern) — Luke xxiii. 34 with the Father of Lights of James i. 17 (already glossed at p. 5) put in place of the vocative. Khunrath applies the words from the cross to men who scoff at the Art, which is as strong a claim for it as anything in the treatise, and he makes it in the margin rather than in the text.

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