Dedication, no date (1603), Zacharias Palthenius to Kaiser Rudolf II.

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
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Author: Zacharias Palthenius
Recipient: Rudolf II., Kaiser
Type: Dedication
Date: Expression error: Unrecognized word "no".
Place: Frankfurt am Main
Pages: 4
Language: Latin
Quote as: https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=792
Editor: Edited by Julian Paulus
Source: Paracelsus, Operum medico-chimicorum sive paradoxorum tomus genuinus primus, Frankfurt am Main: Zacharias Palthenius 1603, f. ):(2r – ):(3v
CP: Not in Kühlmann/Telle, Corpus Paracelsisticum
Names: Paracelsus; Karl V., Kaiser; Maximilian II., Kaiser; Adam von Bodenstein
Places: Deutschland; Ungarn; Europa; Österreich; Steiermark; Kärnten
Translation: Raw translation see below
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Avgvstissimo, Potentissimo Inuictissimoque Romanorum Imperatori. Rodolphi Secvndo, Regi Vngariae et Bohemiae, Domino, Domino suo clementissimo, Salutem, Gratiam & Pacem.

Benigniore quidem & fauentiore sydere, Inuictissime Imperator, non poterant Nobilis & praeclari admodum Paracelsi genuina Opera, Latino per nostras Musas cothurno donata, epitomisque tum columnaribus, tum finalibus splendide culteque exornata, lucem iam iterum aspicere, quam sub Augustissimo Serenissimae Celsitudinis vestrae Patrocinio: neque debuerant vel auspicio feliciore, vel nobiliori priuilegio diuersas diuersorum hominum manus mentesque peruagari, quam sub fulgentissimo & praeclarissimo eiusdem Celsitudinis vestrae nomine: neque sciuerant accomodatiori arcano adituque & suum & simul meum desiderium significare, quam sub luculentissimo & Serenissimo Invictissimi titulo. Victoram siquidem non tam de maleuolorum & inuidorum ob- [f. ):(2v] trecationibus, verum etiam de temporis iniuria pro rerum mearum tutela, & pro necessariorum meorum exspectatione, Vestri, vt dixi, Augustissimi nominis, certo sibi pollicetur. Fausto ergo omnino omine, & con(silio non ineuidenti, quicquid huius est, arbitror, actum est.) Nam si Sereniss[imam] Celsitudinem Vestram inter tot Imperatores, quorum splendore haec nostra refulsit Germania, prae omnibus ad fidem, pietatem, magnanimitatem, liberalitatem, mansuetudinem, constantiam, & ad cuncta immortalitatis monimenta enumerem, hoc mihi cum multis est commune: si vero ad res bello, paceque praeclare gerendas ab ipso Deo ter Opt[imo] Max[imo] delectam referam: hoc mihi cum tota Germaniae & Pannoniae vtraque coniunctum omnino est. Verum quod ad rem publicam literariam, eiusque milites saluandos, tutandos, promouendos vnice Ser[enissima] vestra Celsitudo propendeat, hoc mihi cum ipsis tantum proprium & praecipuum esse intelligo. Testes, quotquot in orbe Europaeo ex literatis degunt: apud quos cum de Ser[enissimae] Vestrae Celsitudinis in solide doctos benignitate agitur, de summa rerum agitur, quae sola in ceterarum rerum ingrato silentio nunquam silere potest. Non igitur non possum solus inter ipsos animi mei erga Seren[issimam] Cels[itudinem] Vestram officiosissimam humilimamque significationem omittere, cum ceteri pluribus ac frequentioribus attestationibus suam erga S[erenissimae] Cels[itudinis] V[estrae] obseruantiam non obscure explicarint. En igitur, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Philosophus Germanus, aliena nunc lingua rediui- [f. ):(3r] nus, pro merito & dignitate comtus, subiectissimi & candidissimi animi mei signum, Ser[enissimae] Vestrae Celsitudinis benignissimas manus, diuinum caput, auxilium & patrocinium clientum extremum, vt hilari fronte excipiatur, perque luminis S[erenissimae] Cels[itudinis] Vestrae splendorem enitescat, & ab aemulis obtrectatoribus defendatur, humilime obsecrat, inuocat, implorat. Spe certa ac fiducia erectus obfirmatusque amplissima, fore omnino, vt qva gratia olim apud Augustiss[imum] Imperator[em] Diu. Carolum V. incoram, & postea Maximilianum II. Serenissimae Vestrae Celsitudinis Auum ac Proaaum, Bodensteinii optimi Medici promitione suffultus praeualuit, eadem aut maiore etiam elementia apud Sereniss[imam] V[estram] Cels[itudinem] nunc quoque intro admittatur & gratus veniat. Qua quidem gratia dignissimus comprimis est, partim ob insignia paradoxa, quibus a ceteris plerisque omnibus Philosophis honesto ac plane Philosophico instituto discessit: partim ob rerum abstrusarum, arcanorumque chymicorum plurimorum, a medicis aliis supina oscitantia hactenus transsultorum, absolutissimam cognitionem, qua mirifice praemicuit. Taceo hoc, quod vel iam ante pridem Sereniss[imae] Vestrae Celsitudinis prouinciae haud paucae, vt Austria, Stiria, Carinthia &c. Paracelsum hunc veluti genium quendam domesticum sibi totum appropriarint, ac veluti ob possessionem singularem non tenuiter sese iactarint & extulerint. Accipiat igitur Imperator Inuictissimus, Monarchae Terrarum, Theophrastum Monarcham [f. ):(3v] Medicorum, appotrecta manu, vultuque benigno, tanquam humilimi & subiectissimi mei cultus tesseram publicam, ac conatus meos laboriosos simul ac sumtuosos, quos in Serenissimam Celsitudinem eius velut Numen quoddam lubens volensque dirigo, sibi vnice clementissimeque placere sinat. Pro qua Clementia summus coeli terraeque Monarcha, qui nutu suo vniuersum orben torquet, longaeuos annos, vigorem animi viuidum, ac longe lateque pacatum & florens imperium Serenissimae Vestrae Cels[itudinis] vbertim retribuat ac refundat. Datae Francofurti in meo vrbano.

Vestrae Ser[enissimae] Cels[itudinis] Humilimus cliens & seruus Ad pedes positus

Zacharias Palthenius D[octor].


English Raw Translation

Generated by ChatGPT on 2 March 2023. Attention: This translation is a machine translation by artificial intelligence. The translation has not been checked and should not be cited without additional human verification.

To the most august, powerful and invincible Emperor of the Romans, Rudolf II, King of Hungary and Bohemia, his most gracious lord, greetings, grace and peace.

Indeed, most invincible Emperor, the genuine works of the noble and highly distinguished Paracelsus, donated in Latin through our muses, and splendidly adorned with both columnar and final epitomes, could not have again seen the light under a more favorable and auspicious star than under the august patronage of your most serene highness. Nor could they have been passed into the hands and minds of diverse men under a more illustrious and noble privilege than under the resplendent and illustrious name of your highness. Nor have they been more suitably conveyed or received than under the most brilliant and serene title of invincibility.

Indeed, the victory I have gained is not so much over the slanders and envy of malcontents, but also over the ravages of time, for the sake of my own preservation and the expectations of my dependents, which your most august name assures. Therefore, with an auspicious omen and a non-invidious purpose, I believe that whatever I have done has been done well.

For if I should rank your most serene highness among all the emperors whose splendor has shone in our Germany, in terms of faith, piety, magnanimity, liberality, meekness, constancy, and all the monuments of immortality, this is a common sentiment I share with many. But if I refer to the conduct of military and peace affairs, which are chosen by God Almighty himself, then this is something I share with all of Germany and both Pannonias combined. However, I understand that what is uniquely and especially common to myself and those who seek to promote and protect the public literary interest and its soldiers is the unwavering support of your most serene highness.

To all those who live from literature throughout Europe, among whom when the kindness towards Your Serene Highness is discussed, the greatest matters are talked about, which can never remain silent, ungrateful and forgotten, among other things. Therefore, I cannot fail to express the most dutiful and humble acknowledgment of my own feelings towards Your Serene Highness, since others have also expressed their observance towards Your Serene Highness with many more and frequent attestations. Behold, Theophrastus Paracelsus, a German philosopher, now returning in a foreign language, distinguished for his merit and dignity, as a sign of the most submissive and candid intention of my soul, humbly begs, invokes, and implores the gracious hands, divine head, aid, and protection of Your Serene Highness as the last resort of his clients, so that he may be received with a cheerful countenance, and may shine through the splendor of Your Serene Highness's light, and be defended against envious detractors. Confident and assured with a firm hope, he begs that he may be admitted and kindly welcomed with the same or even greater generosity that he previously enjoyed under the patronage of the Most August Emperor Charles V, and afterwards under that of Maximilian II, Your Serene Highness's grandfather and great-grandfather, the distinguished physician of Bodenstein. For this most worthy favor, he has been repressed, partly due to his remarkable paradoxes, by which he has departed from the honorable and purely philosophical institution of most philosophers, and partly due to the most complete knowledge of abstruse and mysterious chemical matters, which have hitherto been neglected by other physicians. I omit the fact that many provinces of Your Serene Highness, such as Austria, Styria, Carinthia, etc., have long ago considered Paracelsus as their domestic genius, and have boasted and extolled themselves for possessing him in a singular manner. Therefore, let the Invincible Emperor, the Monarch of the World, accept Theophrastus, the Monarch of Physicians, with an outstretched hand and a kind face, as a public token of my humble and submissive loyalty, and permit my laborious and costly endeavors, which I willingly and eagerly direct towards Your Serene Highness as a kind of deity, to please him. For this clemency, may the supreme monarch of heaven and earth, who rules the universe by his will, abundantly repay and restore to Your Serene Highness long years, vivid strength of mind, and a far-reaching and flourishing empire. Given in my city of Frankfurt.

Your Serene Highness's Most Humble Client and Servant,

Zacharias Palthenius, Doctor.