From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPreparation is the second of the Art’s two secrets, following recognition of the matter.
- In KhunrathPage 8 makes the order explicit: nothing can be prepared before one knows what to prepare.
- In this edition“Due” means the right preparation for the proper matter, not a debt or deadline.
- A reading distinctionThe book is more explicit about the necessity and order of preparation than about its executable details.
Meaning
Preparation is the second of the Art’s two secrets, following recognition of the matter. It is neither dispensable labour nor something whose complete method follows automatically from knowing the subject. Khunrath’s book defends the priority of the first secret while acknowledging what remains to be learned in the second.
Use in the book
Page 8 makes the order explicit: nothing can be prepared before one knows what to prepare. Pages 14–152 nevertheless warn that a right beginning does not remove every hindrance. Diligent work, prayer and patient expectation of counsel remain necessary.
The operation lists provide real content without a reproducible recipe. Page 46 divides preparation into fore-work and after-work; page 98 describes the universal matter’s regeneration; page 160 refutes claims for raw matter by recalling the substantial preparations demanded by the Philosophers. The lists identify relations and kinds of work while omitting practical quantities and conditions.
Pages 105–108234 isolate recognition and true resolution as neglected foundations amid many process-books. Pages 162–1632 then separate Khunrath’s philosophical certainty from a claim that his own preparation is complete. He would retain recognition even if he never finished, and speaks of what is still lacking in preparation as a hoped-for gift alongside continuing labour.
Preparation consequently links understanding and practice without making them interchangeable. Its unfinished state can coexist with claimed knowledge of the matter, but the raw subject cannot simply be credited with all the completed Stone’s effects.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 8Due preparation is the second secret, dependent upon knowing the matter.
- 1599 p. 14A right beginning leaves possible hindrances and further work.
- 1599 p. 46The two divisions of preparation are stated.
- 1599 p. 106True resolution and purification form a foundational practical requirement.
- 1599 p. 160The many operations refute the claim of transmuting raw matter.
- 1599 p. 163Khunrath acknowledges what remains lacking in his own preparation.
Translation in this edition
“Due” means the right preparation for the proper matter, not a debt or deadline. The conditional claim on page 162 should not be inflated into a documented assertion that Khunrath never completed the Stone at any point in his life.
Source note
The book is more explicit about the necessity and order of preparation than about its executable details. Calling it either a complete recipe or wholly without process obscures that distinction.