From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTransmutation is the claimed change of lower metals into the upper, silver or gold.
- In KhunrathKhunrath gives transmutation a real but subordinate place within the Art.
- In this editionKeep transmutatoriè distinct from ordinary dyeing and from the application called projection.
- A reading distinctionThe work can be described as transmuting during philosophical fermentation on page 101, where silver and gold are exalted, and as transmutation into upper metals in projection.
Meaning
Transmutation is the claimed change of lower metals into the upper, silver or gold. The defining contrast is with outward colouring, recovery of precious metal already present, and completion of an immature metallic state. Page 102 makes the strong claim that the communication concerns form and being, in the root. This is a historical doctrine of substantial change, not a result validated by the lexicon.
Use in the book
Khunrath gives transmutation a real but subordinate place within the Art. The special Stones are described as transmuting tinctures on page 96; the universal Stone’s subsequent metallic applications are explained on pages 100–103234. Neither account allows the transmuting power to be inferred from an ordinary metal’s perfection. More-than-perfection and the appropriate relation to the catholic ground must precede it.
The exclusions on page 105 are unusually clear. Separating silver or gold from minerals and metals brings out something already there; it is not transmutation. Fixing embryonic silver or gold is only ripening. Both can be useful and profitable without belonging to the kind of transformation discussed in the book. The apparent acquisition of valuable metal therefore does not settle the nature of the work.
The salt controversy adds a visible but misleading analogue. Materials that stain wood or skin may tinge in the everyday sense of colouring while falling far short of the tinctorial salts claimed to change lower metals into upper ones. Colour is an effect; it does not demonstrate the required change of kind.
Finally, the act’s philosophical importance is contested. Pages 150–16723456789101112131415161718 reject the idea that only a person who makes gold can possess something certain in the Art. Khunrath distinguishes wisdom from the money-seeker’s interest and defends recognition before completed preparation. His hierarchy does not turn transmutation into a mere allegory: it remains an asserted operation with specific prerequisites. It does, however, prevent that operation from exhausting the purpose or the meaning of alchemy.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 96The special silver and gold Stones are described as transmuting tinctures.
- 1599 p. 102The proposed change reaches form and being at the root.
- 1599 p. 105Separation and ripening are expressly excluded from transmutation.
- 1599 p. 126Staining or colouring is distinguished from metallic tinctorial transformation.
- 1599 p. 159Raw unprepared matter is denied the power of lasting transmutation.
- 1599 p. 167Theosophical and medicinal uses are ranked above the transmutations coveted by the money-seeking world.
Translation in this edition
Keep transmutatoriè distinct from ordinary dyeing and from the application called projection. “Upper” and “lower” report the author’s hierarchy of metals. They should not be recast as modern chemical categories or evidence that his account of changing one kind into another has been experimentally established.
Source note
The work can be described as transmuting during philosophical fermentation on page 101, where silver and gold are exalted, and as transmutation into upper metals in projection. The local object and endpoint matter; the word need not denote an identical relation in every occurrence.