Colloquium Ferdinandi Regis cum Theophrasto Paracelsi

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
also:
Ein Gespräch des Königs Ferdinand mit Paracelsus


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. One manuscript, written in Czech. A German translation was published by Georg Sticker in 1941. It is, however, deficient, according to Tschinkel.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. Only one known version.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.

Relationship to other texts.

Authenticity, authorship. The question whether the dialogue is fictitious or based on historical facts is controversial. Tschinkel supports the latter and dates the encounter between Paracelsus and King Ferdinand ca. 1540. Fellmeth deems the encounter rather unlikely.

Time of writing. According to Tschinkel the author uses information gathered in 1580 and later. The Colloquium was probably written in the late 1580s or in the 1590s.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek: Cod. 11133, f. 11v–16v

First printed: not printed

III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 187, 780 n° II/19.

Further bibliographical references:

Georg Sticker, Ein Gespräch des Königs Ferdinand mit Paracelsus (Halle/Saale, 1941).

Ildefons Betschart, “Ein neugefundenes Paracelsus-Porträt,” Nova Acta Paracelsica, 8 (1957), 126–127.

Otto Nowotny, “De auro potabili,” in Lavoslav Glesinger, Der Humanist Andreas Dudith im Kreise der Antiparacelsisten (Vienna, 1967) (Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung, 7), 12–23, on 19–20.

Augustin Tschinkel, “Paracelsus bei König Ferdinand I.,” in Sepp Domandl, ed., Paracelsus. Werk und Wirkung. Festgabe für Kurt Goldammer zum 60. Geburtstag (Vienna, 1975) (Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung, 13), 335–344.

Ulrich Fellmeth, “Im Reich und außerhalb – Wirkungsstätten und Reiserouten des Paracelsus,” in Paracelsus und das Reich (Salzburg, 2007) (Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung, 40), 28–44, on 40.

Johannes Lang, “Der sagenhafte Paracelsus,” in Paracelsus gestern und heute (Salzburg, 2012) (Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung, 44), 68–91, on 83.

Jaroslava Hausenblasová and Ivo Purš, “Simon Thadeas Budek and his Contacts at the Court of Rudolf II”, in Ivo Purš and Vladimír Karpenko, eds., Alchemy and Rudolf II: Exploring the Secrets of Nature in Central Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries (Prague, 2016), 607–624, on 616.

Ivo Purš, “The Habsburgs on the Bohemian Throne and Their Interest in Alchemy and the Occult Sciences”, in Alchemy and Rudolf II, op. cit., 93–127, on 104–105.