electronic facsimile edition of Lazarus Zetzner's collection of alchemical texts

A short introduction
with external hyperlinks

The alchemical tradition was introduced into Latin Europe in 1144 with Robert of Ketton's translation of Liber de compositione alchemiae ^[1]Some undated translations of other treatises may have been made a few years earlier but this one provides a convenient "birthdate" of European alchemy. from the Arabic and remained an important and lasting ingredient of European culture ever after. Not only was it instrumental in the gradual unfolding of the science of chemistry, but its influence can also be traced in such diverse fields as philosophy, medicine, literature, or art. Alchemy in the strict sense (as opposed to proto-chemistry as practised by artisans) relied heavily on the textual tradition of its Hellenistic and Arabic predecessors, much of which was attributed to mythical founders (Hermes Trismegistos) and classical Greek philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras), to semi-legendary alchemists (Jâbir ibn Hayyân known in Europe as Geber) and medieval authorities who most probably never wrote on alchemy (St. Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, Arnald of Villanova). Many of those texts were copied and collected by medieval intellectuals and after the technology of printing spread over Europe, such collections were published alongside innumerable individual works, giving alchemy a new impetus during the Renaissance and Early Modern period.

The earliest printed compilation was De alchemia which contained Summa perfectionis ^[2]For the modern scholarly edition of this important text see: W. R. Newman, The summa perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A critical edition, translation and study, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991 by pseudo-Geber and three other texts accompanied by several alchemical poems. It was probably first published in Venice about 1475 ^[3]The only known copy is in the British Library, catalogued as Begin. Incipit Liber Geber., then in Rome about 1485 ^[4]R. Hirsch, "The invention of printing and the diffusion of alchemical and chemical knowledge", Chymia. Annual Studies in the History of Chemistry 3 (1950), p. 132., and later had a number of editions (with variant contents). But the first really important collection which became the linear ancestor of Theatrum chemicum was one also entitled De alchemia, containing ten texts and published by Johannes Petreius in Nuremberg in 1541. Petreius was also the publisher of Copernicus' De revolutionibus which appeared two years later. He collected alchemical manuscripts in order to prepare a more complete compilation but it was only after his death that the collection found its way to his relative Heinrich Petri in Basel who published it in cooperation with Pietro Perna in 1561, with 53 texts edited by Guglielmo Grataroli and entitled Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae, citra aenigmata, doctrina. Interestingly, the same Petri published the second edition of De revolutionibus in 1566, but it was Perna who produced a whole series of alchemical collections in 1572 (7 volumes with over 80 texts). Perna and later his son-in-law Konrad Waldkirch planned a new multivolume collection of alchemical texts but eventually the project was taken over by Lazarus Zetzner from Strasbourg, who also acquired the rights to publish Paracelsus' works from Waldkirch ^[5]A detailed discussion of the predecessors of Theatrum chemicum, the editorial documentation of its second edition as well as other publishing projects of Zetzner is presented by C. Gilly, "On the genesis of L. Zetzner's Theatrum Chemicum in Strasbourg" in: Magia, alchimia, scienza dal '400 al '700. L'influsso di Ermete Trismegisto, ed. C. Gilly, C. van Heertum, Firenze: Centro Di, 2003, p. 451-468. On pages 435-441 there is a tabular comparison of the three editions and Manget's Bibliotheca chemica curiosa edited by Thomas Hofmeier..

The first edition of Theatrum chemicum published by Zetzner in 1602 was printed in three volumes in Oberursel and contained 80 texts. The same set was reprinted in 1613 with an additional volume of 54 treatises. In 1622 the heirs of Zetzner published the fifth volume of 20 texts edited by Isaac Habrecht. The final and definitive edition of Theatrum chemicum was prepared by Johann Jacob Heilmann and published in 1659-1660 by Eberhard Zetzner with still one more volume, bringing the total number of alchemical tracts to over 200. It was thus the greatest such collection ever published, the second one being Jean-Jacques Manget's Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (Geneva 1702) with almost 140 treatises, 35 of which had also been included in Theatrum chemicum. It also lent its title to alchemical compilations in English and German: Theatrum chemicum Britannicum edited by Elias Ashmole (London 1652) and Deutsches theatrum chemicum prepared by Friederich Roth-Scholtz (Nuremberg 1728-1732).

Theatrum chemicum formed the kernel of Isaac Newton's extensive collection of alchemical books and manuscripts when he bought it in or about 1668 at the age of 26 and started to experiment with alchemy, which was to become one of his lifelong interests ^[6]The first and still important study of Newton's interest in alchemy is B. J. T. Dobbs, The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or 'The Hunting of the Greene Lyon', Cambridge 1975. Of all the books Newton owned, it was this one that had most corrections, references and other marginal annotations ^[7]J. Harrison, The library of Isaac Newton, Cambridge 1978, p. 16..

The fact that the appearance of early alchemical compendia was closely related to the publication of Copernicus' De revolutionibus, and that their six-volume descendant was eagerly studied by Newton - the two giants demarcating the period conventionally called the Scientific Revolution - clearly shows how the areas of science and alchemy, which are now looked upon as the products of two very different worldviews, were intermingled in the minds of those who lived before the emergence of the Enlightenment mentality we have inherited. The electronic facsimile publication of Theatrum chemicum may thus be an important aid for the study of the phenomenon of alchemy, the importance of which is only being recognized by wider academic community, as certified by the number of important books and articles published in the last two decades.