The Deutsche Theatrum Chemicum is a collection of alchemical texts, predominantly in German translation, which was published in Nuremberg in three volumes (1728, 1730, 1732) by Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736), the publisher, printer and bibliographer.

The Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum follows in the tradition of earlier collections, such as the seventeenth-century Theatrum Chemicum and Jean-Jacques Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa (Geneva, 1702), though these collections are in Latin rather than German. The selection of texts presented here is also quite different. Roth-Scholtz wanted above all to present and link the philosophical connections between the texts, and, as he says himself, lets the texts affect the reader like actors in a theater appearing one after the other. The texts also include more curious selections, such as legal advice on which spouse owns silverware which has been transmuted into gold. This also makes it clear that Roth-Scholtz was aiming the book at a wider, bourgeois readership than did the editors of the earlier Latin language editions, which largely appealed to scholars.

John Ferguson[1] praised the book for their introductions and biographical information, which are printed with material not otherwise accessible, such as the studies of Georg Wolfgang Wedel on Basilius Valentinus. The book contains illustrations, including a portrait of Roth-Scholtz himself.

Roth-Scholtz writes in the final volume that he had just about finished a fourth volume. In fact, this planned volume never appeared. A second edition appeared in Frankfurt and Leipzig between 1767 and 1772.

Contents

The full title reads: Deutsches theatrum chemicum, auf welchem der berühmtesten Philosophen und Alchymisten Schrifften, die von dem Stein der Weisen, von Verwandlung der schlechten Metalle in bessere, von Kräutern, von Thieren, von Gesund- und Sauer-Brunnen, von warmen Bädern, von herrlichen Artzneyen und von andern grossen Geheimnüssen der Natur handeln, welche bisshero entweder niemahls gedruckt, oder doch sonsten sehr rar worden sind, vorgestellet werden durch Friederich Roth-Scholtzen

Volume 1

Volume 2

The volume is dedicated to the art patron Franz Anton von Sporck.

Volume 3

This volume contains primarily texts attributed to Roger Bacon, sometimes incorrectly. Roth-Scholtz discusses Bacon and John Dee in the Preface.

Notes & References

  1. ^ John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 2 (Glasgow, 1906), 299. Also contains table of contents.
  2. ^ Arzt in Straßburg, gestorben 1721. Aus Gelnhausen. Veröffentlichte medizinische Werke wie Theoria hominis sani (1714), CERL.
  3. ^ Josaphat Friedrich Hautnorton. Auch Johann Harprecht, Filii Sendivogii (Sohn des Sendivogius), da er dessen Lehre vom philosophischen Salz folgt, geboren um 1610, vielleicht aus Erfurt, wirkte 1650–1663
  4. ^ Benedikt Nikolaus Petraeus, doctor, author of a preface to an edition of the works of Basilius Valentinus (Basilius Innovatus, Hamburg 1717)
  5. ^ Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 2, p. 301, states only that the teacher of Johann Christian Orschall was probably in Dresden.
  6. ^ Bartholomäus Korndörffer was described by Karl Christoph Schmieder as a traveling alchemist from the mid-sixteenth century. Geschichte der Alchemie, (Halle, 1832), 268. According to Schmieder, Korndörffer bought alchemical recipes, which were printed, for example, in the Aureum Vellum (Golden Fleece) of Salomon Trismosin (1598) and also in a book in Helmstadt (1677).
  7. ^ Alethophilus, pseudonym of an unknown author, who in 1705 wrote a commentary on the Teutsches Fegfeuer der Scheidekunst (1702); Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, Vol.1, p. 23.
  8. ^ Antonius von Abbatia was an Italian monk of the fourteenth century (Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemie, 184). The name Abbatia simply points to an abbey. This treatise was published in German in Hamburg in 1670 alongside that of Johannis Ticinensis (Johann von Tetzen) and Edward Kelley, with new editions in 1672 and 1691.

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