Title page of a 1678 edition at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript LibraryFrontispiece of theMusaeum Hermeticum
Musaeum Hermeticum ("Hermetic library") is a compendium ofalchemical texts first published inGerman, inFrankfurt, 1625 byLucas Jennis.[1] Additional material was added for the 1678Latin edition, which in turn was reprinted in 1749.
Its purpose was apparently to supply in a compact form a representative collection of relatively brief and less ancient alchemical writings; it could be regarded as a supplement to those large storehouses of Hermetic learning such as theTheatrum Chemicum, orJean-Jacques Manget'sBibliotheca Chemica Curiosa. It seemed to represent a distinctive school in Alchemy, less committed to the past and less obscure than the works of older and more traditional alchemical masters.[2]
The fullLatin title is: "Musæum Hermeticum, omnes sopho-spagyricæ artis discipulos fidelissime erudiens, quo pacto summa illa veraque Medicina, qua res omne, qualemcumque defectum patientes, instaurari possunt (quæ alias Benedictus Lapis Sapientum appellatur) inveniri ac haberi queat inveniri ac haberi queat. Continens tractatus chymicos novem præatantissimos, quorum nomina et seriem versa pagella indicabit. In gratiam filiorum doctrinæ, quibus Germanicum Idioma ignotum, in Latinum conversum ac juris publici factum.Jennis"
The Hermetic Museum, restored and enlarged Vol I (of II) (A scanned UMI copy of volume one from the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford, published in 1893 introduction written by A.E. Waite, the translator of the original texts is anonymous)
