De tinctura physicorum

also:
Liber de tinctura physicorum contra sophistas natos post diluvium
Büchlin von der tinctura physica/
Wider die sophisten der mittel alter

I. Basic information

Printing History, Manuscripts. First edited, all from different manuscripts, by Michael Toxites, Johann Albert Wimpinaeus, Pietro Perna (all three in 1570), Georg Phaedro (1571), Adam von Bodenstein (1574). Huser (1590) took his text from yet another manuscript. Gerhard Dorn published a Latin translation as early as 1570. At least seven further manuscripts.

Editions. Edited by Huser, 6 (1590): 363–374. Edited by Sudhoff in Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke, I/14: 391–399.

Relationship between different versions. Only one version known.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.

Relationship to other texts. De tinctura physicorum cites two other pseudo-paracelsian alchemical texts: Thesaurus thesaurorum (§ ‎4.52) and Liber vexationum (§ ‎4.39). Sudhoff was inclined to ascribe all three texts to one single, unknown author; however, this view seems to have no real foundation other than plagiarism of Paracelsus’s wrath in Paragranum in the first two treatises. However, the motif of the ‘red lion’ connects De tinctura physicorum with Thesaurus thesaurorum (§ ‎4.52), Brief an eine geistliche Person / Practica des verkehrten Mondes (§ ‎4.13) and especially Brief an einen Gönner und Freund (Vom Wunderstein) (§ ‎4.14), that also has the motif of the ‘white eagle.’

Authenticity, authorship. De tinctura physicorum is one of the most influential pseudo-Paracelsian alchemical writings. According to Kühlmann-Telle it “contributed significantly to the early modern legend of the successful alchemist Paracelsus. Its author presented it expressly as a response to the ‘defamation’ of Paracelsus as walking ‘beggarly’ through the country, as a ‘vagrant beggar’.”

Time of writing. Probably written in the 1560s.

II. Sources

Manuscripts:

• Wrocław/Breslau, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka: R 2317, 45–72
• Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek: Mscr.Dresd.N.107, f. 147r–156v
• Herdringen, Bibliotheca Fürstenbergiana: Ms. Fü 3550, 121–133
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 16, f. 65r–80v
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 17, f. 159v–168v
• Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 25, f. 210r–220v
• Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek: Cod. 11343 [copy from a printed Huser edition]

First printed:

• 1570 (in: Archidoxa Philippi Theophrasti Bombast, ed. Michael Toxites (Strasburg: Theodosius Rihel, 1570); VD16 P 395; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 187–190 n° 118; cf. Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 235–237 n° 140, 268–272 n° 158)
• 1570 (in: D. Theophrasti Paracelsi von Hohenheim Archidoxa ex Theophrastia, ed. Johann Albert Wimpinaeus (Munich: Adam Berg, 1570); VD16 P 392; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 190–196 n° 119; cf. Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 215–217 n° 129)
• 1570 (Latin, in Archidoxorum Aureolo Ph. Theophrasti Paracelsi de secretis naturae, ed. Gerhard Dorn (Basel: Pietro Perna, 1570); VD16 P 398; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 205–207 n° 123)
• 1570 (D. Theophrasti Paracelsi Büchlin von der Tinctura Physica (Basel: Pietro Perna, 1570); VD16 P 649; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 212–213 n° 127)
• 1571 (in: De spiritibus planetarum sive metallorum Doctoris Theophrati Paracelsi ab Hohenheim libri III, ed. Georg Phaedro (Basel: [Pietro Perna], 1571); VD16 P 567; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 224–226 n° 134)
• 1574 (in: Metamorphosis Theophrasti Paracelsi, ed. Adam von Bodenstein (Basel: Samuel Apiarius for Pietro Perna, 1574); VD16 P 695; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 267–268 n° 157; cf. Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 351–352 n° 204)

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Catalogus Osek (Prague) 1, n° 38; Scripta Theophrasti (Wien)

III. Bibliography

Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 392–393; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 773; Sudhoff, “Vorwort,” in Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke, I/14: XII–XVI; CP 1: 172, 465; CP 2: 30, 318, 319–320, 703, 1009–1010; CP 3: 292, 296–297, 425, 925.

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Pansophie (1956), 210, 252–254, 258–259, 281, 285–287, 458, 459, 493.

Peuckert, Gabalia (1967), 161.

Peuckert, Rosenkreutz (1973), 358.

Pagel, “The Paracelsian Elias Artista,” 8, 12, 16.

Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke and Joachim Telle, “Numismatik und Alchemie. Mitteilungen zu Münzen und Medaillen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Christoph Meinel, ed., Die Alchemie in der europäischen Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Wiesbaden, 1986), 229–275, on 248 (on the term “lili”).

Urs Leo Gantenbein, “Separatio puri ab impuro: Die Alchemie des Paracelsus,” Nova Acta Paracelsica, N.F. 11 (1997), 3–59, on 14.

Carlos Gilly, “Johann Arndt und die ‘dritte Reformation’ im Zeichen des Paracelsus,” Nova Acta Paracelsica, N.F. 11 (1997), 60–77, on 63.

Goldammer, Der göttliche Magier (1991), 105.

Gilly, “Vom ägyptischen Hermes zum Trismegistus Germanus” (2010), 80–81, 87.

Kahn, “Le retour de Gérard Dorn” (2010–2011), 149.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 51, 54, 86.

Didier Kahn, “Le contexte alchimique des Noces Chymiques,” Recherches germaniques, hors-série n° 13 (2018), 79–89.