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Melchior Cibinensis

Hungarian writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ580267 ↗
Source-derived summary

Melchior Cibinensis was a Hungarian alchemical writer active in the first part of the 16th century. He is known for the Processus sub forma missae, an alchemical mass, now dated to around 1525, through which wanted to make from alchemy a religion; it was published in the Theatrum Chemicum of 1602, and formed part of a celebrated later collection Symbola Aureae Mensae from 1617 of Michael Maier.

The identity of Melchior is still a subject of debate. The candidate proposed by Carl Jung was Nicolas Melchior Szebeni. This Nicolas was chaplain and from 1490 court astrologer to Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary to whom the Processus was dedicated. It has more recently been proposed that Melchior was a pseudonym of Nicolaus Olahus. Another name given is Menyhért Miklós.

References

Kiss, Farkas Gábor; Láng, Benedek; Popa-Gorjanu, Cosmin, The Alchemical Mass of Nicolaus Melchior Cibinensis: Text, Identity and Speculations, Ambix, Volume 53, Number 2, July 2006, pp.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Melchior Cibinensis” as hungarian writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Melchior, Cibinensis and Hungarian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1525, 1602, 1617, 1490—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1500. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Melchior, Cibinensis and Hungarian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Melchior Cibinensis”, the useful work is to connect “hungarian writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q580267. VIAF identifies the subject as 84413653. The Library of Congress control number is no2015125608. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1525, 1602, 1617 and 1490.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Melchior Cibinensis”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Melchior Cibinensis primary sources, Melchior Cibinensis archive and Melchior research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Melchior Cibinensis”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Melchior Cibinensis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.