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. 36

bestendigen grundfesten der Natur / anderer gestalt gewis sein / auch solches entweder in thesi & affirmativa gründlich darthun vnd erweisen / oder aber in antithesi & negativa krefftiglich refutiren können; Cum scire sit rem per causas scire: Et, teste Aristotele, ^a soli illi doceant, qui per causas & principia certa docent. Nihil enim, Platone attestante, est ortum sub SOLE, cuius causa legitima non præcessit. Sciens, igitur, est ille, & propterea felix, terq; quaterq; felix, qui rerum scit cognoscere causas. Sonsten ists nur blosses wehnen / vnd bleiben grundlose vergebliche gedancken; Gleubet man euch auch disfals also viel / als den Nugis von Amadis aus Franckreich.

Ich hab mein tag in vielen vnterschiedlichen Materijs Chymicè gearbeitet; Ich habe von manchen

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 36

out of the abiding foundations of Nature; and must be able either thoroughly to set forth and demonstrate it in thesi & affirmativa, or else forcibly to refute the contrary in antithesi & negativa. Cum scire sit rem per causas scire: Et, teste Aristotele,^a soli illi doceant, qui per causas & principia certa docent. Nihil enim, Platone attestante, est ortum sub SOLE, cuius causa legitima non præcessit. Sciens, igitur, est ille, & propterea felix, terq; quaterq; felix, qui rerum scit cognoscere causas. Otherwise it is mere supposing, and remains groundless, futile thinking. In this matter people will believe you about as much as the Trifles of Amadis out of France.

I have in my day worked Chymically in many different Materials; I have obtained from many

79.‘Since to know is to know a thing through its causes: and, on Aristotle’s testimony, only those teach who teach through causes and certain principles. For nothing, as Plato attests, has arisen under the SUN whose lawful cause did not go before it. He therefore is knowing, and on that account happy, thrice and four times happy, who can recognize the causes of things.’ Marginal glosses: (keyed to a) ‘In the Proem of the Metaphysics’; ‘Let the cause then be given.’ — The last clause turns Virgil, Georgics ii. 490, felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, and the terque quaterque felix is Virgilian too (Aeneid i. 94). What Khunrath has done is to make a demand of method out of a line of poetry: not that knowing causes is blessedness, but that without them there is no knowledge at all.

80.Marginal gloss: ‘Yes — even if you did demonstrate the right thing. Neither guessing nor supposing is admitted. Knowing is what counts here. With a sufficient WHY, one shall and must resolve oneself.’ — Amadis de Gaula, the chivalric romance, hugely popular in German translation by the 1590s and a byword for entertaining invention. The comparison is dismissive: your claims are a romance.

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