From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSal ammoniac is named among the salts used in metallic preparation and, when rightly prepared, among the reviving salts.
- In KhunrathPage 68 lists the material alongside common salt, sea-salt and nitre, under a broad division between bodily and spiritual salts used in preparation.
- In this editionThe article’s familiar English headword serves retrieval; the exact historical forms remain in the form list.
- A reading distinctionThe form “Sal Armoniac” in the English translation should not be confused with a new philosophical salt distinct from the Sal Armeniaci of the corrected source gloss.
Meaning
Sal ammoniac is named among the salts used in metallic preparation and, when rightly prepared, among the reviving salts. The supplied translation uses the historical English form Sal Armoniac. The primary corrected margin’s Sal Armeniaci should remain available for lookup without forcing its spelling into a different local meaning.
Use in the book
Page 68 lists the material alongside common salt, sea-salt and nitre, under a broad division between bodily and spiritual salts used in preparation. Nothing in that enumeration makes it the catholic salt sought later in the book. Page 128 explicitly locates that salt in the Philosophers’ sea identified as Magnesia.
The margin on page 69 gives the more specific statement: rightly prepared tartar salt and sal ammoniac are good reviving salts. The qualifying phrase is important. The note makes a claim about a prepared aid in a local metallic context, not about every sample sold under the common name.
The errata repair a particularly consequential misprint in that gloss, changing the solar-looking Sol to Sal. Without the correction, a reader might construct a false association with gold or the Sun. The primary correction instead preserves the parallel between two salt names.
As with the other catalogue materials, conceded activity is not the same as universality. The next body page denies that the associated preparations are first matter. The term’s value in the lexicon is its precise local use and textual correction, not its ability to decode the universal subject.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 68The salt appears among several materials used in preparing metals.
- 1599 p. 69 · marginRight preparation qualifies its designation as a reviving salt.
- ErrataThe authorial correction replaces Sol with Sal in the margin.
- 1599 p. 128The distinct catholic sea-salt is located in Magnesia.
Translation in this edition
The article’s familiar English headword serves retrieval; the exact historical forms remain in the form list. The Sal/Sol correction is authorially directed rather than a conjectural modern expansion, and must not be ignored for a supposed solar pun.
Source note
The form “Sal Armoniac” in the English translation should not be confused with a new philosophical salt distinct from the Sal Armeniaci of the corrected source gloss.