From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAvicenna is invoked both as a transmitter of a disputed Aristotle saying and as a witness to the truth found by returning to natural principles.
- In KhunrathOn page 94 Khunrath reasons that the reduction dictum must belong in Aristotle because Avicenna would not otherwise have cited it.
- In this editionThe supplied note discusses an Avicennian work transmitted with Aristotle.
- A reading distinctionThe familiar name does not, by itself, authenticate every alchemical saying circulated under it.
Meaning
Avicenna is invoked both as a transmitter of a disputed Aristotle saying and as a witness to the truth found by returning to natural principles.
Use in the book
On page 94 Khunrath reasons that the reduction dictum must belong in Aristotle because Avicenna would not otherwise have cited it. Avicenna's credit thus props up an attribution that the current Aristotle text does not confirm. Page 110 gives him a different task: rejection of the dead, misleading letter in favour of natural principles. The cited return to principles is followed by Khunrath's letter–Spirit summary.
The second use qualifies the first by context, though Khunrath does not explicitly stage them as a conflict. Avicenna is valuable because he directs understanding toward Nature, not simply because his name can close a dispute. Neither passage titles the particular Avicennian writing from which the wording is taken.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 94Avicenna mediates the disputed Aristotelian reduction dictum.
- 1599 p. 110Avicenna is cited for recognizing the Art’s truth after returning to natural principles.
Translation in this edition
The supplied note discusses an Avicennian work transmitted with Aristotle. That bibliographical clarification is apparatus and should not be confused with a title supplied by Khunrath on these pages.
Source note
The familiar name does not, by itself, authenticate every alchemical saying circulated under it.