Manuale de lapide philosophico medicinali

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
also:
De lapide philosophico medicinali
Psalterium chymicum


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. First edited from different sources in 1572 by Adam von Bodenstein and Michael Toxites. Printed in 1771 under the title Psalterium chymicum. One manuscript.

Editions. Edited by Huser, 6 (1590): 421–436. Edited by Sudhoff in Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke, I/14: 421–432.

Relationship between different versions. No information about different versions.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.

Relationship to other texts.

Authenticity, authorship. In a note to the reader preceding the text, Huser points out that “many people” consider the Manuale spurious; his own view remains unclear.

Time of writing. Probably written in the late 1560s.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Berlin, Staatsbibliothek: Ms. lat. oct. 182
  • Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár [National Library]: Quart. Germ. 246 [copied from the 1572 printed edition]
  • Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek: Cod. Pal. germ. 295, f. 66r–71v, 73r–79r [copied from the 1572 printed edition]
  • Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 78, f. 48r–65v
  • Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek: Q 462, f. 173r–174v [fragment, with additional text]

First printed:

  • 1572 (in: Metamorphosis. Doctoris Theophrasti von Hohenheim/ der zerstörten gůten künsten vnnd artzney/ restauratoris/ gewaltigs vnnd nutzlichs schreiben, ed. Adam von Bodenstein (no place [Basel: Samuel Apiarius], 1572); VD16 P 694; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 229–231 n° 137)
  • 1572 (in: De Lapide Philosophorum, Drey Tractat/ Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi, ed. Michael Toxites (Strasburg: Nicolaus Wiriot, 1572); VD16 P 488; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 235–237 n° 140; cf. 268–272 n° 158)

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Scripta Theophrasti (Wien); Binz (1791), on 134

III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 394; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 774; Sudhoff, “Vorwort,” in Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke, I/14: XXIV–XXV; CP 1: 599; CP 2: 285–286; CP 3: 50, 708, 788.

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 210–211, 252–253, 256, 259, 465.

Peuckert, Gabalia (1967), 322.

Pagel, “The Paracelsian Elias Artista,” 13.

Achim Aurnhammer, “Zum Hermaphroditen in der Sinnbildkunst der Alchemisten”, in Christoph Meinel, ed., Die Alchemie in der europäischen Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Wiesbaden, 1986), 179–200, on 194.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 342.

Carlos Gilly, 500 лет гнозиса в Европе. гностическая традиция в печатных и рукописных книгах (Amsterdam, 1993), 118 n° 21a.