From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordCommunication of properties is the reciprocal sharing of the idioms of two natures in the inseparable union of catholic matter with silver or gold.
- In KhunrathAt p. 97 the phrase explains why the impregnated and specified matter remains and works silverly or goldenly.
- In this editionThe modern apparatus names the technical theological expression communicatio idiomatum.
- A reading distinctionThe expression hinc inde is important: it indicates reciprocity, not only a one-way transfer of metallic character into an otherwise unchanged carrier.
Meaning
Communication of properties is the reciprocal sharing of the idioms of two natures in the inseparable union of catholic matter with silver or gold. Khunrath's Latin makes the relation mutual: the properties of both natures are communicated on either side.
Use in the book
At p. 97 the phrase explains why the impregnated and specified matter remains and works silverly or goldenly. It accompanies the explicit term hypostatic union. The passage therefore presents more than neighbouring ingredients that act separately: the union persists, and its material action has the character of the joined kind.
The terms are familiar from theological accounts of Christ's two natures, as the modern annotation explains. Here, however, the immediate referents are the united materials within the specified work. The reader should retain the daring transfer of vocabulary without substituting the theological persons for the materials actually named.
A related claim appears at p. 101 after the universal Stone is united by fermentation with specially prepared matter. That union is indissoluble and acts according to the property and kind of the joined matter. The later passage reinforces the importance of durable shared action, though it does not repeat the full idiomata formula. The distinction between these settings preserves the two routes while showing their related account of union.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 97Both natures’ idioms are reciprocally communicated in the hypostatic union.
- 1599 p. 101A later indissoluble union acts according to the property and kind of the joined matter.
Translation in this edition
The modern apparatus names the technical theological expression communicatio idiomatum. Khunrath's attested wording is the inflected phrase listed above; the conventional nominative phrase is supplied only as a lookup alias.
Source note
The expression hinc inde is important: it indicates reciprocity, not only a one-way transfer of metallic character into an otherwise unchanged carrier.