Lapis philosophorum
Printing History, Manuscripts. Not printed. Two manuscripts.
Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.
Relationship between different versions. Only one version known.
Structure, genre/form, perspective, style. Seven chapters (“septem gradus”). Written in the third person.
Relationship to other texts. The first sentence only is a quotation from book 4 of the Archidoxis (Huser, 6: 33).
Authenticity, authorship. Allegedly acquired in 1573 by “J. Erasmus Rulandt” from Emperor Maximilian II’s physician “Doctor Suevus” in Vienna. None of these persons is listed in a 1566 “Hofstaatsverzeichnis” by Nicolaus Mameranus. It is not known if there is any connection with Bernhard Suevus, doctor of medicine, 1623 physicus in Rotenburg ob der Tauber, deceased in 1636.
Time of writing. Possibly written in the 1570s.
Manuscripts:
- Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 58, f. 47r–49v
- Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 8° Ms. chem. 28[4, f. 3v–10v
First printed: not printed
Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 725, 729–730, 780 n° II/14.
Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 192.