De antimonio

also:
De virtutibus antimonii
Tractatus de oleo stibii seu antimonii / Von der Tinctur oder Oleo Stibii/
Von der Tinctur Antimonii

I. Basic information

Printing History, Manuscripts. First edited by Jonas Kitzkatz in 1583 (this text is different from all other manuscript and printed versions). Several manuscripts.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. Attributed to Roger Bacon in some manuscripts and in a 1604 edition by Johann Thoelde.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.

Relationship to other texts. According to van Gijsen De antimonio is connected to chapter 14 of the Aurora philosophorum (§ ‎4.5). There is, however, no direct consistency with the latter whatsoever. The relationship between De antimonio and an assumed treatise of Isaac Hollandus on antimony is equally unclear. – Whether there is any connection with authentic Paracelsian texts on antimony is yet to be established.

Authenticity, authorship. De antimonio is an anonymous text, variously attributed to Paracelsus or Roger Bacon. None of them is the author.

Time of writing. Possibly written in the 1560s.

II. Sources

Manuscripts:

anonymous

• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 19, f. 92r–100v
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 72, f. 245v–252v

attributed to Roger Bacon

• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 2° Ms. chem. 3, f. 192v–198r
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 60[5,2, f. 173r–181v
• Kopenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek: GKS 1724 kvart
• Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek: Voss. Chym. Q.17, 188v–196v

First printed:

• 1583 (in: De antimonio tractatus Philippi Theophrati Paracelsi ab Hohenheim, ed. Jonas Kitzkatz (Hof: Matthäus Pfeilschmidt, 1583); not in VD16; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 340–341 n° 195) [attributed to Paracelsus]
• 1604 (in: TriumphWagen Antimonii, Fratris Basilii Valentini, ed. Johann Thoelde (Leipzig: Jacob Popporeich for Jacob Apel, 1604); VD17 12:111147B; not in Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica) [attributed to Roger Bacon]
• 1608 (in: Heinrich Khunrath, De igne magorum philosophorumque secreto externo & visibili, ed. Benedictus Figulus (Strasburg: Lazarus Zetzner, 1608); VD17 23:716355P; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 489–490 n° 286)

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Libri Theophrasti (Dresden), f. 6rb; Thomasius (1699), 140; Binz (1791), 153

III. Bibliography

Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 340–341, 695 n° 10; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 186; CP 3: 985, 1005, 1066.

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 427–428.

Boeren, Codices Vossiani Chymici (1975), 145.

Annelies van Gijsen, “Isaac Hollandus Revisited,” in Miguel López Pérez, Didier Kahn and Mar Rey Bueno, eds., Chymia: Science and Nature in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010), 310–330, on 317.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 61, 250, 323.