Schatzkammer der Natur

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also:
Secreta secretissimorum nach der Schatzkammer der Natur
Von der Extraction der Mumia spiritualis
Thesaurinella naturae
Libellus secretorum secretissimorum
Secreta secretorum Theophrasti
Erklärung der zwei großen Geheimnisse
De mumiis microcosmi


I. Basic information


Printing History, Manuscripts. First printed in Latin in 1629, edited by Andreas Tentzel as Medicina diastatica. First printed in German in 1635, edited by Jacob Lupius as Schatzkammer der Natur. Several manuscripts, one of them a presentation copy from Joachim Tancke to Landgraf Moritz von Hessen-Kassel in 1609. One lost manuscript associated with Karl Widemann.

Editions. Not edited by Huser or Sudhoff.

Relationship between different versions. Written in German. Translated into Latin and modified in some places by Andreas Tentzel. The printed German version of 1635 is mostly true to the original version.

Structure, genre/form, perspective, style. Divided into two parts, the first “on the extraction of the spiritual mumia,” the second a ‘magical’ interpretation of Adam’s fall. Two illustrations.

Relationship to other texts. The Schatzkammer der Natur names Libellus de tempore and Büchlein vom Ursprung der Künste as its two main sources. The latter may refer to the Liber principiorum (§ ‎5.18) with the alternative title Büchlein vom Ursprung der Künste or to the Liber de inventione artium, edited by Huser, 9 (1591): 162–186 (“Auß Theophrasti eigner Handschrifft”). Further study required.

Authenticity, authorship. Not directly attributed to Paracelsus both in the Latin and in the German printed edition, but rather quoting Paracelsus as an authority on the title-page. The Kiesewetter manuscript associates the text with Karl Widemann who is styled “vicarius perpetuus” and is said to have sent the text to Sigismund III, King of Poland. According to Gilly, Widemann was in the possession of the Schatzkammer der Natur as early as 1612 and may have acquired it, together with the Clavis oder Das zehnte Buch der Archidoxen (§ ‎4.25), from Adam Haslmayr. The Kopenhagen manuscript was copied by Johann Friedrich Jung according to Gilly, but the handwriting was also attributed to Abraham von Franckenberg, according to an 18th century note quoted by Scialdone. – The real author (i.e. allegedly Joachim Tancke) is revealed, according to Benzenhöfer and Broszinski, in the Kassel manuscript, which is a presentation copy for Landgraf Moritz von Hessen-Kassel with an autograph dedication of Tancke. On the other hand, there is a second volume equally dedicated by Tancke to Landgraf Moritz and written by the same scribe with a text also based on Paracelsus and Pseudo-Paracelsus where the text cannot be attributed to Tancke.

Time of writing. Probably written in the 1600s.

II. Sources


Manuscripts:

  • Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: M126
  • Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek: Mscr.Dresd.N.80c
  • Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek: Cod. alchim. 596; 30 pages [probably copied from a printed edition]
  • Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek: Cod. alchim. 722, f. 1r–23r
  • Kassel, Landesbibliothek: 4° Ms. chem. 99; 59 fols.
  • Kopenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek: GKS 1765 kvart
  • London, Wellcome Library: MS 3563, 539–544 [extracts, partly in shorthand]
  • London, Wellcome Library: MS 3757; 298 pages
  • München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Kiesewetteriana 31
  • Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève: Ms 2199, f. 57r–66r
  • Praha, Strahovská knihovna: DF IV 59, f. 247r–283v
  • Strasbourg, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire: ms. 199, f. 299–328
  • Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek: Cod. 11330, f. 210r–247v
  • Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek: Cod. Guelf. 51.3 Aug. 4°, f. 1r–65v

First printed:

  • 1629 (in: Medicina Diastatica, ed. Andreas Tentzelius (Jena: Johann Birckner, 1629); VD17 39:115825D; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 541–542 n° 331)
  • 1635 (Schatzkammer der Natur: Gründliche Erkärung zweyer grossen Geheimnüsse, Vnd erstlichen die Extractio der spiritualischen Mumiae des Menschen, vnd anderer Thier etc., ed. Jacob Lupius (1635); not in VD17; Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 563–564 n° 358; – id. (no place, 1645); VD17 29:733616E)

Historical Manuscript Catalogues: Widemann, Unausgangene Bücher (Hannover), n° 19, 41; Widemann, Verzeichnisse (Kassel), n° III, 36 / IV, 32 / I, 21, 33; Uffenbach (1747), 317 n° 98.

III. Bibliography


Essential bibliography: Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, 541–542 n° 331, 563 n° 358; Sudhoff, Paracelsus-Handschriften, 26, 658–661, 679, 797 n° IV/3.

Further bibliographical references:

Peuckert, Gabalia (1967), 249, 257–259, 259–268, 465–470, 552–553, 562.

Gilly, Paracelsus in der BPH (1993), 46, 67–68.

Udo Benzenhöfer, “Joachim Tancke (1557–1609). Leben und Werk eines Leipziger Paracelsisten,” in Paracelsus und Paracelsisten. Vorträge 1984/85 (Vienna, 1987) (Salzburger Beiträge zur Paracelsusforschung, 25), 9–81, on 18–23, 29, 42–44.

Heinrich Schipperges, Die Entienlehre des Paracelsus. Aufbau und Umriß seiner Theoretischen Pathologie (Berlin-Heidelberg, 1988), 34.

Bruce T. Moran, The Alchemical World of the German Court. Occult Philosophy and Chemical Medicine in the Circle of Moritz of Hessen (1572–1632) (Stuttgart, 1991), 138–141.

Heinrich Schipperges, “Medicina occulta. Oberfläche und Hintergrund”, in August Buck, ed., Die okkulten Wissenschaften in der Renaissance (Wiesbaden, 1992), 125–138, on 129, 131.

Maria Paola Scialdone, “‘Aller heilsamste Mum Iah.’ ‘Lebensbalsam’ (pseudo-)Paracelsiano e ‘Selbsterlösung’ nel ‘Raphael’ di Abraham von Franckenberg,” Studi germanici, N.S. 39 (2001), 7–35, on 14–15.

Hania Siebenpfeiffer, “‘Malgré la mort, je vis encore’ – Mumien und Gespenster als Manifestationen des Unheimlichen im 17. Jahrhundert,” in Moritz Baßler et al., Gespenster. Erscheinungen – Medien – Theorien (Würzburg, 2005), 105–125, on 117–119.

Broszinski, Manuscripta chemica in quarto (2011), 387–388.

Christoph Sander, Magnes. Der Magnetstein und der Magnetismus in den Wissenschaften der Frühen Neuzeit (Leiden, 2020), 58–61, 936–938.