Von Bereitung des gebenedeiten philosophischen Steins
Printing History, Manuscripts. First published by Ps.-Huser in 1603. Four manuscripts (not attributed to Paracelsus, but to Caspar Hartung vom Hoff). One manuscript with a related text.
Editions. Edited by Ps.-Huser in Opera Bücher vnd Schrifften (1603), 2: 686–691. Not edited by Sudhoff.
Relationship between different versions. The Kassel manuscript preserves (under the title “Nun facht an das recht puch jn disser kunst”) a different but connected text illustrated with seven carefully executed pen drawings referred to as “figur” in the text. This last fact is especially interesting since according to the title in Figulus’ 1608 edition Von Bereitung is equipped “mit schönen Figuren” and “Figuren” are also mentioned in the preface of Von Bereitung although there are no illustrations present. Further study required.
Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.
Relationship to other texts. Part of Von Bereitung are two texts that have been of interest to historians: (1) the so-called Tägliches Gebet (§ 10.15) of Paracelsus, a short 11-line prayer; (2) the “oldest German translation of the Tabula Smaragdina,” discovered by Julius Ruska in the 1616 Ps.-Huser edition of Paracelsus’s Opera Bücher vnd Schrifften, and therefore attributed by Ruska to Paracelsus. It is, however, part of Von Bereitung.
Authenticity, authorship. Von Bereitung is connected with the name of Caspar Hartung vom Hoff auß der Gastein (i.e. Hofgastein/Austria). Ps.-Huser’s edition of 1603 has “ex Manuscripto exemplari D. Caspari vom Hoff” in the heading (table of contents, fol. (:) 4r), while the editions of 1604 and 1608 name “Caspar Hartung vom Hoff” as author. The Leiden and Wien manuscripts originally did not name any author: in both cases “Caspar Hartung vom Hoff” was added at a later time. The London manuscript has “Casparus Hartung von Hoff,” but whether this is a later addition or not has yet to be determined. The Kassel manuscript is anonymous.
Caspar Hartung is known to historians of alchemy as the owner or writer (which of these we do not know) of two compilations of alchemical texts and recipes: the so-called Kunstbüchlein, a manuscript now in Kassel, and the so-called Vademecum, a manuscript now in New Haven.
The Kunstbüchlein has a dedication from Caspar Hartung to Wilhelm Gunzhofer/Guntzkofler, Probst (provost) in Kraig, dated 1549. The Vademecum is dated 1557. Both the Kunstbüchlein and the Vademecum seem to contain no original texts written by Caspar Hartung. Therefore it is best to follow Huser who believed that the text was taken “from a manuscript from the possession of Caspar [Hartung] vom Hoff.”
Time of writing. Possibly written in the 1550s. Attributed to Paracelsus only in Ps.-Huser’s edition (1603).
Manuscripts:
- Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek: Voss. Chym. Q.17, f. 53r–65v
- London, Wellcome Library: MS 524, f. 98–122
- Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek: Cod. 11428, f. 157–163
- olim Johann Georg Binz, bookseller in Vienna (1791); current location unknown
related text
- Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 72, f. 276ra–278rb
First printed: not printed before Ps.-Huser (1603)
- 1603 (in: Paracelsus, Opera Bücher vnd Schrifften, ed. Ps.-Huser (1603); VD17 12:168390P)
- 1604 (in: Avrei Velleris, Oder Der Guldin Schatz: vnd Kunstkammern Tomi Secvndi Tractatvs I. Philosophischer vnd Spagirischer Geschrifften/ Alter vnnd Newer Philosophorvm, Medicorvm vnd Spagyrorvm (Basel: J. Exertier, 1604); VD17 14:646496L)
- 1608 (in: Thesaurinella Olympica aurea tripartita. Das ist: Ein himmlisch güldenes Schatzkämmerlein, ed. Benedictus Figulus (Frankfurt a.M.: Wolfgang Richter for Nicolaus Stein, 1608); VD17 3:302600E; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 477–479 n° 280)
Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Binz (1791), on 92
Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 445; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 776; CP 1: 450.
Further bibliographical references:
Julius Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur (Heidelberg, 1926), 207–208.
Karl Sudhoff, “Hat wirklich Paracelsus die Tabula Smaragdina ins Deutsche übersetzt?,” Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, 26 (1927), 163.
Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 319–320, 472.
Peuckert, Rosenkreutz (1973), 84.
Das ‘Kunstbüchlein’ des Alchemisten Caspar Hartung vom Hoff. In Abbildung und Transkription herausgegeben und erläutert von Bernhard Haage (Göppingen, 1975).
Boeren, Codices Vossiani Chymici (1975), 143.
Joachim Telle, “Das ‘Kunstbüchlein’ des Alchemisten Caspar Hartung vom Hoff,” Review of Bernhard Haage, ed., Das ‘Kunstbüchlein’ des Alchemisten Caspar Hartung vom Hoff, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Pharmazie, 28/4 (1976), 29–30.
Herwig Buntz, Review of Bernhard Haage, ed., Das ‘Kunstbüchlein’ des Alchemisten Caspar Hartung vom Hoff, in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 96 (1977), 138–140.
Wolfgang Hirth, Review of Bernhard Haage, ed., Das ‘Kunstbüchlein’ des Alchemisten Caspar Hartung vom Hoff, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 99 (1977), 158–159.
Joachim Telle, Sol und Luna. Literar- und alchemiegeschichtliche Studien zu einem altdeutschen Bildgedicht (Hürtgenwald, 1980), 109, 126–127.
