Adam von Bodenstein and Theoph.

Meaning

Adam von Bodenstein is a named target of the Way of Truth’s polemic, not an independently established example of alchemical fraud. The narrator concedes that he was a physician and a capable ‘sophist’: preparations produced through ordinary fire could serve medicine. He nevertheless denies that such work constitutes true alchemy or knowledge of Nature’s secrets. This concession matters because medical usefulness is not the criterion of truth used here.

The printed abbreviation Theoph. occurs in the allegation that books were made under another authority’s appearance; the English expands this to Theophrastus’s authority. The passage neither supplies a full bibliographical identification nor proves particular books spurious. Its professed restraint towards an absent person sits uneasily beside its severe verdict and its claim to protect inexperienced readers.