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. 44

gantzen grossen gebeudes der materialischen WELD / zusampt aller materialischen dingen darinnen sey. Für eins.

Zum andern / das man EIN NATVRLICH DING / auch nach lehre des Philosophischen spruchs / vbi Natura desinit, ibi Ars incipit, / wo die NATVR auff höret / da fenget die Kunst an / darzu Menschen-Handt oder Kunsthülffe zuuor noch niemals gekommen / (welches DING / obs schon die gantze Welt vor jhren Augen hat / auch kennet / vnd darzu mit seinem eigenen Nahmen / den es offentlich vnd in gemein hat / weis zu neñen / dannoch gleichwol / dieweil jhrer Augen / Sinne vnd Verstand gleich wie derer Jünger so mit Christo nach Emaus giengen das sie IHSVM nicht kandten / von GOTT also gehalten vnd regieret werden / das sie

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

p. 44

whole great edifice of the material WORLD may be, together with all material things therein. For one.

For another, that ONE NATURAL THING — also according to the teaching of the Philosophical saying, vbi Natura desinit, ibi Ars incipit, where NATURE leaves off, there Art begins — to which Man’s Hand or the help of Art has never yet come. (Which THING — although the whole World has it before its Eyes, and knows it, and moreover can call it by its own proper Name, which it publicly and commonly has — yet nevertheless, because their Eyes, Senses and Understanding are so held and governed by GOD, just as were those of the Disciples who went with Christ toward Emmaus, so that they did not know JESUS, they

92.Marginal gloss: ‘1. What the MATERIA PRIMA is.’ — Genesis i–ii is being offered as evidence in a chymical argument, which is the reverse of the usual direction: not scripture illustrated from nature, but the first matter established from scripture.

93.Marginal glosses: ‘2. Of what sort and of what quality’; ‘This ONE thing excludes all the rest. And thus are excluded all things artificially prepared — all, every, each and the whole of them.’ — The exclusion is total and is the point: anything that has already passed through a human operation is disqualified as the subject, however promising. vbi Natura desinit, ibi Ars incipit is the standard tag of the art–nature debate, and Khunrath gives his own German for it, as always.

94.Marginal glosses: ‘O Blindness!’; Luke xxiv. 16, but their eyes were holden, that they should not know him. — This is the treatise’s central claim about concealment and should not be passed over: the thing is not hidden. It is in plain sight, it is known, and it even has a public and common name that everyone can say. What is withheld is recognition — the erkennen distinguished from kennen since p. 12 — and Khunrath says plainly that it is withheld by God, not by the Philosophers’ secrecy. The Emmaus text makes the point exactly: the disciples were looking straight at 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