Krankes Römisches Reich
Printing History, Manuscripts. First printed in 1620, attributed to Paracelsus; reprinted in 1621 without attribution to Paracelsus. No manuscripts known.
Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.
Relationship between different versions.
Structure, genre/form, perspective, style.
Relationship to other texts. The text was a response to Andrew Willet’s Papa Purus putus Antichristus sive Decima Quaestio de Antichristo (Frankfurt: Hulsius, 1619). According to one of Karl Widemann’s Verzeichnisse, Adam Haslmayr wrote a “Responsio” to the Krankes römisches Reich.
Authenticity, authorship. In the first edition the work was attributed to Paracelsus. According to Sudhoff, Paracelsus is not mentioned anywhere in the text, which has no connection to Paracelsian thought. Chapter 13 mentions the Rosicrucians.
Time of writing. Probably written ca. 1620.
Manuscripts: no manuscripts known
First printed:
- 1620 (Das krancke Römische Reich Dessen Vrsach, vnd glaubwürdige Artzney dargegen, Authore Paracelso &c. […] Sampt anhengenden Schluß, wie deß Reichs Schwachheit vnd Fall, sey zuuerstehen. Gestellet durch M. Angelum de Grauen, Palatinum (no place, 1620); Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 523–524 n° 315; VD17 14:003029B; reprinted as Vier Bey diesem jetzigen Auffstande deß gantzen heiligen Römischen Reichs hoch nothwendige Fragen und discurs, no place 1621)
Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Widemann, Verzeichnisse (Kassel), n° I, 10
Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 523–524 n° 315, 697 n° 46
Further bibliographical references:
Carlos Gilly, “The ‘Midnight Lion’, the ‘Eagle’ and the ‘Antichrist’: Political, religious and chiliastic propaganda in the pamphlets, illustrated broadsheets and ballads of the Thirty Years War,” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 80 (2000), 46–77, on 51.
Carlos Gilly, “Der ‘Löwe von Mitternacht’, der ‘Adler’ und der ‘Endchrist’: Die politische, religiöse und chiliastische Publizistik in den Flugschriften, illustrierten Flugblättern und Volksliedern des Dreissigjährigen Krieges”, in Rosenkreuz als europäisches Phänomen im 17. Jahrhundert (Amsterdam, 2002), 249–268 (with plates, 234–248), on 255–256.
Thomas Fuchs, Der Dreißigjährige Krieg und seine Drucksachen, Katalog zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig (Leipzig, 2018), 57.
