Clavis oder Das zehnte Buch der Archidoxen (Lux lucens in tenebris)

also:
Das zehnte Buch der Archidoxen
Liber X. Archidoxorum sive Lux Lucens in Tenebris et Clavis Librorum/
Hauptschlüssel der paracelsischen Arcanen oder Das zehnte Buch der Archidoxen/
Lux in Tenebris Lucens Archidoxorum praecipuorumque medicinalium spagyricorum clavis/
Liber Lux lucens in tenebris/
Decimus liber Archidoxorum Theophrasti secretus

I. Basic information

Printing History, Manuscripts. First edited by Johannes Staricius in 1624. Several manuscripts.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. Only one version known.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.

Relationship to other texts. Not connected in any way to Das zehnte Buch der Archidoxen vom Stein der Weisen (§ ‎4.56) first edited by Friedrich Moller in 1618.

Authenticity, authorship. According to a legend, the manuscript of this text was written in cipher and in Latin by Paracelsus himself, and was later found hidden in a wall in Tyrol. On behalf of archduke Maximilian of Austria the text would have been translated into German by Adam Haslmayr and the translation later revised by Andreas Orthelius of Rudolstadt.

Time of writing. Brought into circulation by Adam Haslmayr ca. 1610 and then by Benedictus Figulus in 1611. Written possibly immediately before.

II. Sources

Manuscripts:

• Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: PH559 [manuscript in a copy of vol. 6 of Huser’s edition]
• Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek: 8 Cod. Ms. hist. nat. 14, f. 1–15 [copied from the 1684 printed edition]
• Gotha, Staatsarchiv: Geheimes Archiv E XI n° 83, f. 1–24
• Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek: Cod. alchim. 555; 30 pages
• Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek: Hs. Bernus 149, f. 2r–34v
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 39, f. 10r–11r [only summaries of the ten chapters; written by Benedictus Figulus]
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 58, f. 125r–134v
• London, Royal Society: Boyle Papers, RB/1/14, f. 166–177 [English?]
• London, Wellcome Library: MS 3563, 530–538 [partly in shorthand]
• Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire: ms. 199, f. 277–298
• Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek: Q 462, f. 63r–81r
• Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek: Cod. Guelf. 94 Blank., f. 1r–9r

First printed:

• 1624 (Clavis, Oder/ Das Zehende Buch der Archidoxen. D: Philippi Theophrati Paracelsi, Bombast von Hohenheim/ etc., ed. Johannes Staricius (Magdeburg: Johann Francke, 1624); VD17 14:628169Z; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 537–538 n° 328)
• 1681 (in: Lapis vegetabilis, Oder Die höchste Artzney (Strasburg: Georg Andreas Dolhopff, 1681); VD17 1:000141S; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 620–622 n° 414)
• 1684 (in: Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi kleine Hand- und Denck-Bibel (Frankfurt a.M.-Leipzig: Andreas Luppius, 1684); VD17 12:103261E; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 623–626 n° 418)

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Widemann, Unausgangene Bücher (Hannover), n° 41; Catalogus Pfeffer (1683), 136

III. Bibliography

Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 537, 696 n° 48; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 779 n° II/1b; CP 3: 1153–1194 n° 166, esp. 1172–1174.

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 432, 465.

Peuckert, Gabalia (1967), 322.

Peuckert, Rosenkreutz (1973), 243, 375.

Helmut Möller, Staricius und sein ‘HeldenSchatz’. Episoden eines Akademikerlebens (Göttingen, 2003), 145–146.

Gilly, Paracelsus in der BPH, 32, 56, 68.

Gilly, Adam Haslmayr (1994), 94, 96, 97, 101–103 n. 7–16.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 193.