Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum

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 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.