Denarius

Use in the book

Its setting is the completion of the numerical description. One, two, three and four have been unfolded within the one natural subject on pp. 53–542. Through resolution, sufficient purification and lawful composition, with Vulcan's help, the Philosophers bring forth their physical Denarius. The distinction between analysis and attainment matters: the first numbers describe what is naturally present, while the Denarius names what the artful work brings forth from it.

Khunrath therefore attaches both efficacy and visible perfection to the number. The Denarius is more-than-perfected, catholic and wonder-working; its most ruddy diadem is called the signature of highest perfection. Number is not a detachable ornament placed upon a chemically complete argument. It participates in the language by which the achieved state is recognized and valued.

The primary margin provides an explicit authority. Khunrath says that Philo in the book on the Decalogue calls ten the number most familiar to God, perfect and comparable to the whole of Wisdom. He then tells his own reader to note the mystery. The appeal links the physical number to divine order without substituting a passage from Philo for the required preparation.

Another marginal sentence gives the movement: from one, all things; all things in and toward one. The manyfold constitution and return to unity therefore frame the Denarius together. The modern note explains that the preceding one, two, three and four sum to ten, and treats the pattern as the Tetractys. The sum elucidates the arrangement, although Khunrath does not expressly spell out the arithmetic. Nothing on the page supplies operational weights, quantities or a ten-step recipe. Its numerical exactness concerns the ordered meaning of the subject and its perfection.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 53The numerical unfolding begins with one catholic crude Mercury.
2. 1599 p. 54Two, three and four are present within the one subject.
3. 1599 p. 55The real physical Denarius is equated with the more-than-perfected Catholic Stone.
4. 1599 p. 55 · margin2Philo’s praise of ten is cited and the reader told to note the mystery.
5. 1599 p. 55 · margin2From one to all and from all toward one frames the numerical movement.

Translation in this edition

“Denarius” is retained, with “ten” as its gloss, because “coin” would be misleading and an unexplained “decade” too abstract. The modern note identifies a section of Philo's Decalogue discussion; the primary margin names the book but gives no section numbers.