Vom höchsten Gut und seligen heiligen Leben

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
also:
Super Nosce te ipsum


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. Not printed. One manuscript.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. Only one version known.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style. Written in the first person, directly addressing the reader. Divided into a preface and eight “paragraphs” (chapters).

Relationship to other texts. Refers to “our archidoxic and philosophical christian writings.”

Authenticity, authorship. Found in a manuscript with three texts, the first (Theophrastiae cabalisticae isagoge) and third (Summum bonum) attributed by Gilly to Adam Haslmayr. Not authentic, according to Sudhoff. Widemann’s Verzeichnisse list a German text “Philosophia Paracelsica christiana de fundamento sapientiae aeternae et inventione artium christianum vera super Nosce teipsum” written by Adam Haslmayr in 1625, but divided into ten chapters (“In .X. Text abgetaildtt a°. 1625”).

Time of writing. Probably written in the 1610s or 1620s.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek: Q 286/20, f. 5v–13r

First printed: not printed

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: cf. Widemann, Verzeichnisse (Kassel), n° IX, 69

III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 636–638, 796 n° III/131.