View source for Brief an eine geistliche Person / Practica des verkehrten Mondes

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<b>Printing History, Manuscripts.</b> First printed in 1604, edited by I.P.S.M.S. Quoted by Johann Bringer in his 1613 printed collection (second half only); quotation reproduced by [Daniel Mögling] in his <i>Prodromus Rhodo-stauroticus Parergi Philosophici</i> (no place [Prague?], 1620), 6. Three manuscripts.

<b>Editions.</b> Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

<b>Relationship between different versions.</b> In the Wolfenbüttel manuscript the first half of the text is missing. The recipient of the letter is variously named “a good friend” (1604 ed.), “a cleric,” “a cleric called Georgius Staierus” and often dated 1534. The alternative title used by Sudhoff and Kühlmann-Telle, “Practica of the reversed moon”, is only found at the end of the second half.

<b>Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.</b> Written in the first person.

<b>Relationship to other texts.</b>

<b>Authenticity, authorship.</b>

<b>Time of writing.</b> Allegedly written in 1534. Probably written in the 1570s, because some manuscripts (Wolfenbüttel, Kassel) have the notice “copied from the autograph of Theophrastus in 1579.”

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<b>Manuscripts:</b>
* Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek: Mscr.Dresd.N.54, f. 18r–18v
* Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek: Mscr.Dresd.N.159, f. 29v
* Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 72, f. 36r–36v
* Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek: Cod. Guelf. 9 Noviss. 2°, f. 5r

<b>First printed:</b>
* <b>1604</b> (in: I.P.S.M.S., ed., <i>Alchimia vera, Das ist: Der wahren vnd von Gott hochbenedeyten/ Natur gemessen Edlen Kunst Alchimia wahre beschreibung</i> (no place, 1604), 58–60; VD17 12:132982U; Sudhoff, <i>Bibliographia Paracelsica</i>, 453–454 n° 265)
* <b>1613</b> (in: <i>Occulta philosophia Von den verborgenen Philosophischen Geheimnussen der heimlichen Goldblumen</i> (Frankfurt a.M.: Johann Bringer, 1613), 51–52; VD17 39:122887Y; cf. Sudhoff, <i>Bibliographia Paracelsica</i>, 501)

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<b>Essential bibliography:</b> Sudhoff, <i>Bibliographia Paracelsica</i>, 501, 504, 696 n° 15; CP 3: 231.

<b>Further bibliographical references:</b>

Joachim Telle, “Paracelsus in pseudoparacelsischen Briefen”, in <i>Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte</i> 27 (2004), 149–160; reprinted in <i>Nova Acta Paracelsica</i> N.F. 20 (2006/07), pp. 147–164, esp. 161 n. 53

Broszinski, <i>Manuscripta chemica in quarto</i> (2011), 321

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