Brief an einen Gönner und Freund (Vom Wunderstein)

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
also:
Von dem Wunderstein


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. Not printed before Telle (1993). Two manuscripts.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff. Critical edition of both versions (but not the practica) by Joachim Telle in 1993.

Relationship between different versions. The text exists in two versions, in prose and in verse, each found in one single manuscript. The Weimar manuscript has the prose version, a text called Von dem Wunderstein. The Kassel manuscript has a rhymed version. Telle seems to conclude that the rhymed version is an adaption of the prose text.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style. The prose version is written in the form of a letter to “his good patron and friend.” The recipient is directly addressed in the first and in the last paragraph. In the Weimar manuscript the text is followed by a practica. In the Kassel manuscript the verses are followed by two paragraphs of a practical text that is, however, incomplete (missing folios in the manuscript).

Relationship to other texts.

Authenticity, authorship.

Time of writing. Further study required.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek: Q 456, 361–367 [letter and practica]
  • Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 86, f. 77v–80v [verses]

First printed: not printed before Telle (1993)

III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 226–228, 780 n° II/21; CP 3: 231, 319, 718.

Further bibliographical references:

Joachim Telle, “Das pseudoparacelsische Adler/Löwe-Sinnbild unter deutschen Lehrdichtern,” in Joachim Telle, Buchsignete und Alchemie im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert. Studien zur frühneuzeitlichen Sinnbildkunst (Hürtgenwald, 2004), 95–119, on 96. – Reprinted with additions in Telle, Alchemie und Poesie (2013), 897–922.

Joachim Telle, “‘Von der Wahrheit der alchemischen Kunst’. Der pseudoparacelsische Brieftraktat ‘Vom Wunderstein’ in einer frühneuzeitlichen Versfassung,” in Peter Dilg and Hartmut Rudolph, eds., Resultate und Desiderate der Paracelsus-Forschung (Stuttgart, 1993), 57–78. – Reprinted in Telle, Alchemie und Poesie (2013), 865–888.

Telle, “Paracelsus in pseudoparacelsischen Briefen” (2006–2007), 159 n. 48.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 362.