Kleine Handbibel und Einführung

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
also:
Kleine Hand- und Denk-Bibel


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. First printed in 1605 in Lich (near Gießen and Marburg), edited by Johann Thölde and dedicated to Count Gottfried von Oettingen. One manuscript in Freiburg im Breisgau (attributed to Jacob Böhme).

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. No information about different versions.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style. A collection of quotations from the Bible.

Relationship to other texts. Strangely enough, in some of the later editions of the Kleine Handbibel is appended the alchemical Zehnte Buch der Archidoxen (§ ‎4.25), which was put into circulation by Adam Haslmayr.

Authenticity, authorship. According to Sudhoff it is “devoid of the faintest trace of Paracelsian spirit […] Apart from the chapter headings and some short headings […] the whole book consists solely of passages from the Old and New Testament. It is spurious without any doubt.” Gause points out that a closer look at the Biblical quotations reveal an author influenced by both Paracelsus and Weigel with a profound knowledge of the Bible, and with an approach similar to that which can be observed in the circles of Johann Arndt. According to Gilly, the text was published in 1605 by Thölde to defend Paracelsus against the widespread accusations of atheism. According to Peuckert, Thölde seems to be the author, which is most probably not true.

Time of writing. According to Gause not written before 1584.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Freiburg i.Br., Universitätsbibliothek: Hs. 1301; 325 fols.

First printed:

  • 1605 (Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi à Bombast, in Hohenheim […] Kleine Handt-Bibel vnd Einführung, ed. Johann Thölde (Lich: Wolfgang Ketzel, 1605); VD17 39:151845N; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 464–465 n° 268)
  • 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)
III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 464–465, 696 n° 16; CP 3: 984–997 n° 153, 998–1002 n° 154

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 380, 483, 491.

Peuckert, Rosenkreutz (1973), 229.

Gilly, Paracelsus in der BPH (1993), 14, 18, 60–61.

Ute Gause, “Theophrasti Paracelsi Kleine Handbibel. Ein Beitrag zur Wirkungsgeschichte Valentin Weigels im 17. Jahrhundert,” Nova Acta Paracelsica, N.F. 19 (2005), 85–104.