Arcana arcanorum arcanissima
Printing History, Manuscripts. First printed in 1780, not attributed to Paracelsus. Two manuscripts.
Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.
Relationship between different versions. No information about different versions.
Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.
Relationship to other texts.
Authenticity, authorship. Allegedly written by “Theophrastus Junior” in 1546 and later found in the library of the Benedictine Monastery of Erfurt. The author recounts that he found his secrets in a manuscript of Johannes Trithemius called Das allergrößte Geheimniß der gantzen Natur sive Materia Universalissima. Accompanied by a portrait of Paracelsus “in the year of his decease.”
Time of writing. Probably written in the 18th century.
Manuscripts:
- Glasgow, University Library: MS Ferguson 219; 25 fols.
- Überlingen, Leopold Sophien Bibliothek: Ms. 269; 7 fols.
First printed:
- 1780 (“Arcanum Arcanorum Arcanissimum”, in Geheimnisse einiger Philosophen und Adepten, aus der Verlassenschaft eines alten Mannes, Erster Theil (Leipzig: Christian Gottlob Hilscher, 1780), 72–101
Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Dost (1791–1798): 1792, col. 595, n° 6; idem 1797, col. 395, n° 19 & 20; idem 1798, col. 307 n° 15
Essential bibliography: CP 2: 607.
Further bibliographical references:
Telle, Alchemie und Poesie (2013), 467 n. 25, 483.
Franziska Schaudeck, Die alchemische Handschriftensammlung der Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek in Überlingen am Bodensee (Wiesbaden, 2020), 295–296.
