Paracelsus, Five
Hundred Years
Three American Exhibits
Bethesda, Md National Library of Medicine Building 38 Lobby September - December, 1993
xxxxx Philadelphia, Hahnemann University,
October
-
Pa The Library
December, 1993
Mo
Louis, Washington University School of Medicine Library St.
March
-
July, 1994
PARACELSUS,
Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits. Bethesda, Maryland: Published by the Friends of the National
Library of Medicine,
Inc., for the Hahnemann University Library, The National Library of Medicine, and the Washington University
School of Medicine
(St.
Louis), 1993.
Acknowledgements Funding to publish this brochure was provided by the Hahnemann University Library and by the Washington University School of Medicine
(St.
Louis).
Other assistance respective exhibits
Hahnemann
in the preparation
was provided
University Library:
Sandra L. Chaff (Consultant); Judith Baker, Carol Fenichel,
Lowe
Randall
of the booklet and/or of the
as follows:
Washington University: Susan Alon (Rare Book Librarian); Lilla Wechsler, Paul
Anderson, Susan Crawford, National Library of Medicine:
Gerhild Scholz-Williams;
Allen G. Debus (consultant);
The Robert
Graphics: Joseph Fitzgerald
Collection-St. Louis
and Becky Cagle;
Metropolitan Medical
E. Schlueter
History of Medicine
Society;
Division: Stephen Greenberg
The Horncrest Foundation, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Margaret Kaiser, Lucy Keister, Jan Lazarus,
Martha-Lucia
Amanda
Sierra,
Sprochi, David
Vecchioli,
Monique Young,
James Cassedy
Single copies of this brochure
by writing
to
may
be obtained without charge
one of the sponsoring organizations.
Front cover
illustration:
Paracelsus is shown surrounded by various philosophical symbols, including his famous sword. From Paracelsus: Etliche Tractaten, zum ander Mai in Truck auszgangen. Vom Podagra und In this portrait
seinem Speciebus
(Coin, 1567).
Washington University
Collection.
Introduction
This booklet highlights the joint observance of the 500th anniversary of the
special exhibits which,
along with lectures and other programs, are being
birth of Paracelsus
by three
organized
American medical
libraries
The
at these libraries.
intent of the various
events
is
to celebrate as
well as to explain the contributions of this major
Renaissance figure, especially those in
medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy. The brochure also serves to
draw
attention to the unique
special collections
and
strong general holdings pertaining to Paracelsus that are held
by the
sponsoring institutions. The theme essay in this brochure has been prepared by Dr. Allen G. Debus of the University of Chicago,
who
is
the leading
American authority on Paracelsus and his historical influence.
Some
few of Dr. Debus 's publications are cited in the list
of
Some Readings on
Paracelsus, which follows his essay.
— The Hahnemann University Library,
The
National Library of
Medicine, and The Washington University
Medical Library (St. Louis). It has been prepared to accompany the
Also pertinent,
however, is his recent book, The French Paracelsians, published in 1991.
Illustrations in the
brochure are from the collections of the National Library of Medicine and
Washington University.
PARACELSUS AND THE MEDICAL REVOLUTION OF THE RENAISSANCE
A 500th Anniversary Celebration by Allen G. Debus Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine
The University of Chicago
Paracelsus (1493-1541),
more properly Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland in
1493, one year after Columbus' first
voyage
He was
to the
New
World.
a contemporary of
the
Middle Ages. They
texts
survived in isolated monasteries
discovery of the
and they studied Greek so that they might translate these
explorers.
.
.
.
felt first in
and
history,
but by the late fifteenth century
associate with the shattering of
there
medieval thought and the birth of the modern world.
in the sciences and medicine. Astronomers and mathematicians
change no less than the others. During his lifetime
was an increasing
more frequently on
for Copernicus'
scientific debates of the late
the inno-
interest
on the
truths of antiquity
became increasingly dependent upon the writings of Galen, the "Prince of Physicians."
In
short, with the corrected
translations of ancient
Ptolemy's
sixteenth century were centered
"Luther of Medicine" and the
made by contemporary The result was a new
sought an accurate text of
Almagest and both the observations and the mathematics of this text were to form the foundation
he was called by some the
lands
reliance
literature, rhetoric
part in this
new
and establishment medicine
was
new
as exciting as the
This search for the work of ancient authors
In fact, Paracelsus played a
being
seemed
treasures of the ancient world.
Luther, Leonardo da Vinci and
we
humanists the discovery of
manuscripts that might have
Nicholas Copernicus, Martin a host of other figures
A.D. Indeed, for many
travelled in search of old
De
vations of Paracelsus than they
revolutionibus
were on the heliocentric astronomy of Copernicus.
orbium (1543). In medicine Galen, Hippocrates, and
Renaissance Humanism
How may we intellectual
characterize the
world
in
which
Dioscorides were newly translated from Greek. The
Paracelsus lived? Surely a
recovery of the
major factor was Renaissance
medical writings of
humanism— the
Celsus was highly
antiquity in
all
Authors sought
fascination with
of
its
aspects.
to write a
stylistically pure Latin to
replace the barbarous Latin of
influential
because
they presented
medical terminology in the elegant
of the
first
Latin
century
Numerous Renaissance physicians favored the teachings of Hippocrates over those of Galen. From Justi Cortnummii, Di morbo attonito liber unus ad Hippocraticam (Lipsiae, 1677) .
.
.
3
authors
—and more important, new
the discovery of
manuscripts a
scholars for
lost to
thousand years
—
it
was
thought possible to restore the real truths
of both Aristotelian
natural philosophy
and Galenic
speak of a hermetic seal
transmutation of the base metals to gold, but more important was the separation by chemical
means of the pure essence of a substance from
medicine.
However, the recovery of
in
chemistry. Traditional alchemy did include a belief in the
its
impurities.
Through such processes
Paracelsus While
still
became aware of many of the conflicting currents of his age.
His father was a physician
(frequently through distillation)
was not limited
translation
to
number of mining towns. The boy surely learned some
It is
impressed on earthly things by the Creator for their proper use
many lesser figures there were new areas of study made available to
(and then lost Fall)
Renaissance scholars.
more of our Creator while
addition to the works of
Important
among them was
the
this
at the
time of the
might be rediscovered. In
we would
fashion
learn
recovering His gifts through our
we could
recovery of the Corpus
labor.
Hermeticum, a group of
to find substances of medicinal
treatises
supposedly written
in
Egypt by Hermes Trismegistus at
about the time of
Abraham
Surely
value in this way.
by 1500 the impact of the newly recovered
was leading
texts
composed
directions.
until late antiquity.
that a
treatises felt
magus, a true natural
On
two one hand the
in
the
natural philosophers and
physicians of the schools had
magician, would be able to
developed an increased respect
understand man, the micro-
for Aristotle,
cosm, through his study of the
ancient authorities.
macrocosm since the former was a perfect representation of
other hand, the recovery of the
the latter.
Some
physicians
were
to find this a
their
work.
No
new key
less
to
appealing
Galen and other
On
the
Corpus Hermeticum and other more mystical texts placed an emphasis on natural magic, the relationship of
man
to the
was
the fact that this call for
macrocosm, and sought divine
new
observations in nature
truths in the study of nature.
could be seen as an act of
The
first
path led to truth
home
at
likely that he learned
some
He
folk medicine as well.
also
picked up some alchemy from his father
who had an interest And in mining
in
the subject.
towns he would have observed metallurgical practices as well as the diseases that afflicted the
men who worked Traditionally
it
that Paracelsus
In short,
although they had not been
Authors of these
expect
medicine
through observing his father.
the true divine signatures
works of Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, and Dioscorides. In
the
in
Einsiedeln and he practiced in a
practical
ancient classics and their
a youth Paracelsus
the mines.
has been said
was taught by
several bishops and the occultist
abbot of Sponheim, Johannes Trithemius. At the age of fourteen the boy
left
home
to
begin a long period of
wandering.
He
apparently
number of universities, but there is no proof that he ever took a medical degree. As visited a
an adult, however, he picked up practical medical
knowledge by
working as a surgeon
in a
number of the mercenary armies that ravaged Europe
in
the seemingly endless wars of the period.
He wrote
that
he
devotion. Christians should
through traditional medicine
study not only Holy Scripture,
most of the countries of Central, Northern, and Eastern
and a reliance on mathematics and the physics of motion for
Europe.
but also the clearly
our understanding of nature: the
book of nature, a second book of divine
revelation.
Hermes was known not only to the Church Fathers, but also as one of the great figures
of alchemy. Even today
4
we
visited
It is
only in the final
fifteen years of his life that the
second led to a more mystical and religious basis of
records of his travels become
knowledge and turned to chemistry as a key to man and
to Basel to treat a leg ailment of
nature alike.
clearer.
the
In 1527 he
was
called
famed publisher of humanist
The Chemical Philosophy At the time of his death Paracelsus seems to have been well
known
as a physician, but
not as an author.
He had
published several almanacs and a few medical works, but only
one major
text, the Grosse Wundartzney (1536) which had gone into a second edition the following year. Here he
appeared as a medical practitioner discussing
ulcers,
and
wounds,
their cure with
salves and balms.
A particularly
interesting section treats the
wounds caused by gunpowder
—
clearly a reflection of a
growing problem
in sixteenth-
century warfare. It
was well over
a decade
after his death before physicians
began scripts
to look for his
and
to publish
manuthem
frequently with commentaries
of their own. his
By 1570 many
works were
in print
of
along
with treatises written by a
Johannes Frobenius.
In Basel Paracelsus also gave
Avicenna's revered Canon of medicine to the blaze. Then,
medical advice to the Dutch
his patient, Frobenius, died.
classics,
scholar Erasmus and
This was followed by a
contact with
disastrous lawsuit and he
came in some of the more
prominent scholars of the religious Reformation.
He was
left
Basel in haste, even leaving
behind his manuscripts.
The
appointed city physician and professor of medicine. But
final years
find Paracelsus
of his
life
moving from
although he was permitted to
town
to
lecture at the University of
often
left his
Basel, he had no official
He as an angry man who antagonized many of those he met even those who tried
appointment with the medical faculty there.
Almost immediately Paracelsus became a figure of contention.
He heaped
scorn on
the conservative physicians of the University, and, at the St.
John's
Day
bonfire, threw
growing number of disciples. In these works we find a strong
town, and again, he manuscripts
behind as he had
in Basel.
comes across
—
to help him.
In the
end he was
called to Salzburg to treat the
suffragan bishop, Ernest of Wittelsbach. There he died the early age of forty-eight.
at
Erasmus
of
Rotterdam 1469-1536.
Print of engraving,
NLM
collection
5
Another object of the Paracelsians' attack
was
the
ancient system of elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire with their attendant qualities
and
humors. This was a complex system, but a potentially fragile one, since a rejection of even
one might
result in a collapse of
the whole.
The Paracelsians in Holy
argued that nowhere Scripture
is
there reference to the
creation of fire and therefore
it
cannot be considered an element. Still,
the four elements were not
categorically denied by
Renaissance surgical scene. From Paracelsus, Opus chyrurgicum Artzney Buch (Franckfurt am Mayn, 1565)
in the
all,
and
course of the seventeenth
und century a five element/principle
system evolved
in the
works of
the chemists and the chemical
challenge to the educational
well as Galen's
establishment and
its
on ancient
its
reliance
Some
authorities.
Paracelsians took pride in the fact that they
had not gone
the universities at
all,
to
The use of
(1571).
weights and measures for the
— and even
avoiding the useless knowledge
physician
they would have been subjected
the mystical use of
to.
Those who did not go
to the
universities turned instead to
—
two-book theory reliance on Holy Scripture and on personal observations and experience. Here they found the
chemistry particularly valuable since
it
this,
numbers
as one
chemistry
might
find in the hermetic
texts— but not the logical-geometrical use
of mathematics. Far
more acceptable was
the
analogy of the great
world and
separated pure from
impure. Beyond
man which
might be used as a guide Paracelsus had
became a basis for explaining both macrocosmic and microcosmic phenomena. Even the Creator was pictured as a divine
theory has searched
alchemist in commentaries on
deeply and gravely by
the first chapter of Genesis.
aspects, astronomical
The Paracelsians
differed
sharply from the ancients in their discussion of In his
summary of Paracelsian
medicine, Peter Severinus
argued
6
that Aristotle's
work
to truth.
written that "everything
which astronomical
tables forth,
mathematics.
as
physicians.
mathematical logic
was acceptable
thus
was flawed by
overemphasis on
and so
—
this
self-same
knowledge should be a lesson and teaching to
Diagram illustrating the convergence of elements, humors, and geocosmic factors the thinking of Paracelsian chemical physicians. From Annibal Barlet, Le Vray
you concerning the
et
bodily firmament."
(Paris,
methodique Cours de 1653)
.
.
.
Chymie
in
Element theory was only one aspect of macrocosmic If the
interest.
Creation was to
for the divine signatures.
an alchemist separating pure
This was unavoidable since a
from impure. Thus, the
knowledge of the macrocosm
be understood primarily as an
led directly to hitherto
alchemical separation from an
secrets of
chaos, then
initial
it
in
geocosmic explanations.
was
Distillation
employed
the
model
for rain, volcanic
eruptions, and the origin of
mountain streams. Indeed, the earth itself
was viewed
maintaining the health of the
—even among
at the surface.
to a
rejected
much
of the ancient
legacy, they remained
wedded world astral
seed with a proper matrix. The
matured
in the
much as a fetus And indeed,
in the
resultant ore
earth
mother.
there
life spirit that is essential
By
was
a
for
the final
identified as an
The Medical Chemistry
his followers consciously
sought a
based upon the macrocosmmicrocosm analogy. Chemistry
was
to
be a key to
this
new
man was new
philosophy which
uncover through
observations and the search
Examples were the tartaric diseases where stony predeveloped
in the
— —
kidneys or the bladder or in the
as
case of tuberculosis
in
The
essentially localized
Paracelsians differed from the
Von der Bergsucht oder
humoral explanations of the
Bergkranckheiten drey Biicher
Galenists. Utilizing the ancient
(1533-34) he prepared the
concept of the four humors
first
book on miners'
—
(blood, phlegm, yellow and
was the book specifically on an indeed,
it
occupational disease.
And
his discussion of syphilis
in
[Vom
black bile) which were associated with the elements, the
Galenists argued that health
derived from a proper balance
Holtz Guaiaco griindlicher
of these fluids while disease
hey lung (1529) and Von der
was the result of imbalance. The physician might note an excess of blood from a ruddy
Franzdsischen kranckheit Drey Biicher (1530)] he criticized including the popular use of
complexion, yellow bile through the yellowing asso-
guaiac.
ciated with jaundice, black bile specific medical
problems were less inflammatory than concepts that seemed to directly challenge Galenic
authority.
new world system
and poisons accumulated.
other current problems as well.
of the Paracelsians of the ancients, Paracelsus and
failed
seats of diseases of the
Works on
a replacement for the works
the directive force in an organ
the lungs.
in
current methods of treatment
aerial niter or saltpeter.
As
wounds
when
But Paracelsus was aware of
first is
decade of the sixteenth century this spirit
growing problem
body. Illness occurred
cipitates
caused by gunshot clearly spoke
diseases
both the organic and the inorganic worlds.
chapters on the cure of
In his
view. Metals originated in the
from a union of an
rejected Paracelsus'
sixteenth-century medicine.
to the ancient vitalistic
earth
the
those
who
the Paracelsians
Similarly, other
book dealing with specific medical problems as well as preparation of balms and plasters that were widely
cosmological views. The
if
intestines.
organs had their function in
which heated underground reservoirs and lava both of which might erupt But
The
Grosse Wundartzney was a
large distillation flask with a fiery center
eliminated through the
practical side to all of this.
heralded
as a
from the dross which was
man. There was clearly a
seemed
appropriate to use this analogy
unknown
stomach separated the nutritional part of foodstuffs
Among
the latter,
Paracelsus' repeated use of
through diarrhoea, or phlegm
from a running nose. Even uroscopy might be employed
to
diagnose an illness through a sample of urine without
chemistry and chemical
examining the actual patient since a humoral excess would
analogies was particularly
be evident in the sample.
objectionable to the medical to
establishment.
As an example
one
may
that
each bodily organ acted as
turn to his conviction
The Paracelsian
rejection
of humoral medicine was clearly a fundamental break
with medical tradition.
No
less
7
numerous compounds of mercury, lead, arsenic and
antimony, almost
all
of which
would be avoided today.
The Paracelsian Debates The growing interest in the works of Paracelsus in the third quarter of the sixteenth century led to an ever increasing
number of publications, translations
on
and commentaries
his works.
At stake was the
question of educational reform, the relation of religion to
science and medicine, and the Depiction of urine examination, Seventeenth Century. Print, "Le Medecin Empyrique," by David Teniers, II, 1610-1690, NLM collection
relative value of ancient
authority to fresh observational
evidence. The role of chemistry
of this was crucial.
in all
so was their method of cure.
by the ancients, but the great
The Galenists argued
that
bulk of traditional remedies
contraries cure. That
is,
It
were derived from plant
a
tion in terms of stark contrasts.
was
disease of a certain quality and
substances. This balance
magnitude would be cured by a medicine of opposed quality
shift
argued that the
and magnitude. The Paracelsians
diseases of their age required
with the chemists
to
who
new and
violent
turned rather to folk tradition
stronger medicines. Neither the
arguing that like cures
medieval herbals nor the works
poison
in the
like: a
body would be
cured by a similar poison.
when
And
the Galenists charged that
of the ancients described
and other new diseases
were a veritable legion of homicide
of metals and their compounds
physicians, the latter replied
seemed
the Paracelsians
that their
medicines were safe
successfully.
The
internal use
essential to them.
Used
as purges and vomatives their
was
more
because they had been altered
action
chemically; moreover, careful
than the old herbal mixtures. In
attention
had been paid
to
These medical reformers not only proposed a
new
to cure, they also
emphasized a new materia medica.
some
class of
To be
sure,
metallic and mineral
substances had been employed
8
some cases
the
violent
Galenists accused their
opponents with murder.
we examine
When
the chemical and
pharmaceutical books of the late sixteenth
and the seven-
teenth centuries
we
sure, Peter Severinus
sought to establish the superiority of Paracelsism to
Galenism in his important Idea medicinae philosophicae (1571) while
Thomas
Erastus upheld
Galen and damned the innovations of Paracelsus in his
Disputationes de medicina nova Paracelsi (1572-1574). These
were but the opening salvos of a confrontational literature that
extended over more than a century.
new medicines
proved too strong and the
dosage.
approach
truly
To be
the authority of Aristotle and
substances that could combat syphilis
would be wrong to growing confronta-
picture the
see
directions for the preparation of
there
And yet from the beginning were those who sought to
chart a middle course.
Albertus
Wimpenaeus of
Munich wrote
his
Hippocraticorum
De
concordia
et
Paracelsistarum in 1569 and here he admitted that although
he followed Paracelsus
in
some
was
matters he also followed the
Even more
ancient authorities.
the use of
chemistry
In France the
Johannes Guinter of Andernach,
who
late in life,
began to read
internal use of
the Paracelsian texts. In his
massive
De medicina
veteri et
noua ...(1571) Guinter held
much
to
of traditional medical
theory, but he
hoped
much
that Paracelsus
felt that
there
effective purgative
—and Paracelsian cure — by a
to
the early
1560s.
himself was an arrogant man, but Guinter
antimony was being promoted as an specifically as
conciliate the warring factions.
He wrote
in
medicine.
important was the venerable
was
of value in his
The
conservative medical faculty of Paris
reacted quickly,
chemically-prepared remedies.
charging that
He sought
antimony
to
similarities
show
the
in
any
form was a
between the
Aristotelian elements and the
dangerous poison
Paracelsian principles and he
that
argued that the macrocosm-
taken internally
microcosm analogy had been employed by some of the
(1566). In a series
of decrees and court
ancients as well as Paracelsus.
cases this powerful
should not be Figure representing "The Spirit of Sulphur."
Engraving from Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn, Quinta essentia und Alchemia .
He
also suggested that cure
by
was not so different from that by contrariety. The works of Severinus, similitude
Wimpenaeus and
body
any use of
tried to forbid
chemistry
in
among
the
.
younger physicians.
After Louis
medicine.
.
XIV was
cured with
Nevertheless, publishers
an antimony purge (1658) the
continued to print books
end was
in sight.
An assembly
favoring medical chemistry, and
of the medical faculty in 1666
Guinter give some idea of the
by the early years of the new
resulted in an
range of opinion that had
century courses in the
vote accepting antimony as an
Erastus,
overwhelming
developed by the early 1570s.
preparation of pharmaceutical
approved purgative, and
The tone of the debate became far more bitter in the coming
chemicals were available
that time there
By 1612 John Cotta expressed the views of many when he wrote that "the in-
faculty forced Theophraste
decades.
Paris.
in
In the 1630s the medical
Renaudot
to close his
was
after
little
resistance to the use of chemical
medicines along with more
Bureau
traditional cures in France.
The English
d'Adresse where he fostered the
reaction to the
numerable dissentions amongst the learned concerning the
use of pharmaceutical
new chemical medicine was
chemicals. But in 1641 the
closely related to the French
Arabicke and Chymicke
establishment of the Jardin des
scene.
plantes provided for a professor
English references to Paracelsus appear in the 1560s. In this
remedies
at this
day
infinitely,
with opposite and contradictorie
who
writings, and invectives,
operations. Although the
burthen the whole- world."
medical faculty
Although there was some debate over the more mystical
legal battles, they could
views of the later Paracelsians, the most inflammatory point
taught chemical
won
case
repeated
do
little
end the growing use of chemical remedies which to
became ever more fashionable
As
we
in
France, the
first
find that the authors
had lived
in exile in
Switzerland during the harsh reign of the
Roman But
Catholic Queen, Mary.
London College of Physicians was initially hostile if
the
9
to the chemists, this attitude
By
gradually faded.
Paracelsus was completed by
the mid-
Salih Ibn Nasrallah Ibn Sallum
eighties the Fellows of the
no
College planned an official
relatively large
pharmacopoeia
that
was
The number of manuscript copies of this work
to
include a section on chemically-
prepared medicines. Moffett
who had
later
than 1640.
attest to the fact that the
Thomas
Paracelsian union of chemistry
taken his M.D.
and medicine had spread
was a friend of Peter Severinus, was placed in
beyond the borders of Western Europe by the mid-seventeenth
charge of
century.
at
Basel, and
this section since
he
had already written a defence of chemical medicines (De Jure et
Chemistry and
Chemicorum Medicamentorum, 1584). Although the project was Praestantia
abandoned
at that
the Universities Throughout the sixteenth century the medical faculties of
time there
is
European universities
evidence of an increasing interest in the
value of chemistry. R.
Bostocke wrote an apology for the entire Paracelsian system in
The new pharmacopoeias helped
1585 and reference to specific
improve the dispensing of medications in Renaissance pharmacies. Woodcut from E. Feynon, Der Barmhertziger Samariter
Paracelsian preparations appear in the
works of a number of
late
Elizabethan surgeons.
century, the medical faculty of
this
recent chemists and
time against
them a
medicine as Joseph Duchesne
place and corner in the rear
to
(Quercetanus) and Theodore
so that they might be as a
Turquet de Mayerne. Turquet
servant to the dogmatic
might act as
the
in
prepared medicines. The preface to the Pharmacopoeia
— by Turquet —
written
we
surely
states that
venerate the age old
learning of the ancients
and for
this
reason
we have
placed their remedies the beginning, but
other hand,
10
we
at
on the
neither
true chemical
Chymicum (1610) which became a model for later with
its
texts
division into animal,
vegetable and mineral
was
reprinted throughout the century auxiliaries.
In short, although interest
of the College and pressed for the inclusion of chemically-
first
often with additions and
dormant pharmacopoeia project
Londinensis of 1618
private instruction. In Paris
Jean Beguin established a
preparations. This text
medicine, and thus they
the country for
London where he revived
to find
textbook, the Tyrocinium
we
have conceded
left
learn about chemical operations
were generally forced
and wrote the
medicines of the more
such defenders of chemical
ultimately
ancient and Arabic physicians. Those students who wished to
pharmaceutical preparations
spurn the subsidiary
went on the offensive
once more,
on
laboratory where he lectured on
After the turn of the
Paris
relied
the medical writings of the
chemical medicine
may have
originally been centered in
Germany and Switzerland, became widely known in
it
commentaries by others. However, soon there were further chemical texts. The founder of the Jardin des Plantes,
Guy
de
la
Brosse,
England, France, and other
included a lengthy discussion of
European countries during the late sixteenth and early seven-
chemistry
teenth centuries. This influence
(1628), and after the
was even to be found in the Ottoman Empire where an Arabic work titled the New Chemical Medicine Invented by
appointment of William
in his
De
la
Natur,
Vertu, et Vtilite des Plantes
Davisson we find a succession of chemical textbooks written for the lecture series presented
at the
own
Davisson's
textbook was
followed by those of his successors; Nicholas
Le Fevre,
Christofle Glaser and
Moyse
in the
of Nicholas
appeared
in
Cows de
Dioscorides permitted the use
the broadest sense, but his
of some "stones and minerals"
teaching emphasized
in
Charas. The tradition cul-
minated
instance, the authority of
The professor, Johann Hartmann was a Paracelsian in
Montpellier, and elsewhere, for
Jardin des Plantes.
medicine and
it is
in this
tradition that a limited
chymie
Lemery which French in numerous
from 1675 to 1757 and was translated into Latin, German, English and Spanish. However, the courses at the Jardin des Plantes were only editions
number
of inorganic substances were
accepted by physicians.
How-
ever, the first chain in chemical
medicine was created
at
Marburg
in 1609.
pharmaceutical preparations.
He prepared
editions of the
practical texts of Jean Beguin's
Tyrocinium and Oswald Croll's Basilica Chymica which were extremely popular.
one source for students to learn chemistry. Throughout Europe there
is
tutors
evidence of private
and chemical entre-
who
preneurs
established
courses of their own.
With a continually interest it was to be
growing
expected that the universities
would have to consider this new subject. But although the Paracelsians looked
upon
chemistry as a key to a
total
new philosophy of nature and man, it was the physicians who were most concerned. As the idea of a chemically operating
macrocosm and microcosm declined, interest in the medical
value of chemically prepared
substances grew.
was
that
The
result
chemical instruction
gradually
became established
in
programs of European universities while the the medical
natural philosophy curriculum
remained wedded
we would
to subjects
classify as the
physical sciences.
There
is little
the preparation of
doubt
that
some
chemical substances was taught in a
few
universities in the
sixteenth century. At
OWERTVRE DV COVRS
JIM
ili
Renaissance instruction in preparation of chemicals. From Annibal Barlet Le Vray et methodique cours de Chymie (Paris, 1 653)
1
Hartmann's appointment was the first of many.
A
course
in
through
his death, partially his
chemistry for
own works and
partially
through those of his
medical students was
followers
who
offered
expanded
his views.
at
Jena as early as
codified and
His
1612 by Zacharias Brendel and this was continued first
medicine came
by his son and then by
when many Galenic and
Werner Rolfinck who became the first Professor
other ancient medical texts
of Chemistry
rediscovered.
in the
rejection of establishment at
a time
had only recently been
Medical
The attack on was bound to
Faculty. His long tenure at
these texts
Jena ensured the importance
result in a confrontation.
of that university in this
prime area of contention for
These teachers wrote
field.
own
their
the Paracelsians
And
cation.
Central
European universities Wittenburg, Helmstedt, Leipzig
and Halle among them.
instructors published their
in
own
Both Oxford and
Cambridge began courses chemistry
in
Aftermath As chemistry became academicremedies,
began
its
1683, and even in
Paris the Medical Faculty
for the teaching of both
chemical and Galenic pharmacy in 1696. In short, chemistry
was well established in European universities by midcentury and it had become almost universal by the end of
However, the of chemistry was acceptance the century.
through medicine rather than
through natural philosophy.
And
to change.
so, in the late
and
medical emphasis as
it
did
seventeenth
century, the original concepts of the Paracelsians
in
established a professorial chair
were gradually
modified and diluted. One-time
van Helmont embraced the chemical philosophy no less strenuously than did Paracelsus, but they
moved on
to such areas
Mean-
as chemical physiology.
while, for Robert Boyle and others in the age of
Newton, the
decline in authority of the ancient
authors
and demanded the
metallic based remedies. Their rejection of humoral explanations
was anathema
made way
for a
new
mathematical and mechanistic approach to science and medicine.
Yet the effect of Paracelsus on medicine was
occurred almost entirely after
to the
medical
establishment, and their frequent
use of mystical and fundamentalist
interpretations strongly
mixed with hermeticism set them apart from other physicians.
By
Paracelsians such as Jean Baptiste
enormous. This influence
12
similitude rather than contra-
introduction of an armory of
ally respectable for its cures
Leiden
began teaching in chemistry 1 669 and here too the early texts.
principle of cure based on
riety,
established chairs in chemistry:
In the Netherlands
this the
traditional elements, sought a
conception of a mid-seventeenthcentury laboratory. Print, Francois V. Mieris, 1635-1681, NLM collection Artist's
teenth century the medical
many
But beyond
chemists questioned the
during the
second half of the sevenfaculties of
that of
the reform of medical edu-
textbooks
following the French tradition.
was
A
the mid-seventeenth
century there had been almost a century of debate, but
many of
the medical views of Paracelsus
were
to prevail in the end.
The
academic acceptance of chemistry by physicians surely was one of the chief accomplishments of his school.
Beyond
this, the
significance of his opening of
medical thought to
this
new
approach can be compared with that of the influence of
Copernicus on astronomy and physics during the same period.
Some Readings on Paracelsus
Although much of the work of Paracelsus and his followers has appeared in German, number of important
there are a studies in
English. Essential for back-
ground material is O wsei Temkin
'
Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972).
Theophrastus Bombast, of Hoheneim, Called Paracelsus the Great (2 vols., London Elliott and Co., 1894). The reader will Walter Pagel' s The Smiling Spleen: Paracelsianism in Storm and Stress (Basel et
al:
Karger,
many
1984) useful for
specific
Allen G. Debus has prepared a
aspects of the Paracelsian
short general introduction to
tradition.
Renaissance science and
discussed the English and the
medicine in the
in his
Man and Nature
Renaissance (Cambridge enjoyable introduction
to the life
and work of
in
The English
Paracelsians: The Chemical
Challenge
Henry Pachter, Paracelsus: Magic Into Science (New York: Henry Schumann, 195 1 ). However, for those who would go beyond this, a far more authoritative work is that Paracelsus
French scenes
Paracelsians (London: Oldbourne, 1965) and in The French
University Press, 1978).
An
Allen G. Debus has
is
of Walter Pagel, Paracelsus:
An
to
Medical and
Scientific Tradition in
Early
Modern France (Cambridge University Press, 1991). In The
Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and
Medicine
in the Sixteenth
and
Introduction to Philosophical
Seventeenth Centuries (2 vols., New York: Science History
Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (Basel: Karger,
discussed the Paracelsian
1968; second edition, 1982).
tradition
Publcations, 1977)
up
to
Robert Boyle.
Several texts, including the
Of considerable
work on
detailing the
the diseases of miners,
have been translated in Four Treatises ofTheophrastus von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus, edited, with a preface by Henry E. Sigerist (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1941). Selections from his writings may also be found in Nicholas GoodrickClarke, Paracelsus: Essential
Readings (Wellingborough: Crucible, \990) md'mParacelsus: Selected Writings, edited with
an introduction by Jolande Jacobi, translated by Norbert
Guterman (New York: Pantheon Books, 1951).
A
number of the alchemical and chemical works were translated by Arthur Edward Waite in The
Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Phillippus
Debus
interest for
opposed views of
the Paracelsian,
Oswald
Croll
and his adversary, Andreas is Owen Hannaway's The Chemists and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins Press, 1975). Bruce T. Moran has uncovered much new
Libavius,
material related to the teaching
of chemistry and chemical medicine at Marburg in The
Alchemical World of the German Court: Occult Philosophy and
Chemical Medicine in the Circle ofMoritz ofHessen (1572-1632), Sudhojfs Archiv, Beiheft 29 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991).
A.D.
13
The Paracelsus Collection at
Hahnemann Medical College 1
Hahnemann University
in
Philadelphia was founded in
848 as a school devoted
to the
homeopathic principles of Samuel Hahnemann ( 755- 1 843). 1
It
was
for
the
successful center
first
homeopathic education
Much
the world.
in
as Paracelsus,
Housing over 200 volumes
—many and Old German —
dating from 1502 Latin
in
the
collection, in addition to the
original
works of Paracelsus,
includes early works on the
philosopher's stone, alchemy, botany, and a
first
edition of
breaking from the authority of
Robert Browning's poem,
Galen, taught that the basis of
Paracelsus. In 1881, a
medical science should be the
catalogue documenting the
study of nature, observation of
was published by Globe Publishing House and in 1932, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital produced a second catalogue of the Constantine Hering Paracelsus Collection housed at the
the patient, and experiment and
some 300 Samuel
experience, so too, years
did
later,
Hahnemann break
with the
medicine
tradition of allopathic
in his effort to establish a
more
benign, sympathetic approach to treating
medical
collection
College. In conjunction with the
ills.
Constantine Hering (18001880), a student and follower of
celebration of the 500th
anniversary of the birth of
Hahnemann
Samuel Hahnemann, was a
Paracelsus,
physician, chemist, and zoologist.
University Library will present
Known
an exhibit of books and
pathy
as the father of
in
homeo-
America, he was one of
the founders of
Hahnemann
University. His passion
—
or
man and many
one of them, for he was a of enormous curiosity interest
—was
The Paracelsus Exhibit
will run
from October through
December, 1993
at
Hahnemann
University in Philadelphia.
On
Paracelsus, as well as material
to
He devoted
memo-
this collection.
the original writings of
the
all
works by or pertaining
from
display will be selections from
to obtain a
perfect collection of
rabilia
half a century to this pursuit.
documenting the initial reaction to him and his work. The
The
exhibit also will trace the
Paracelsus.
fruits
nearly
of his labour form
one of the principal collections
thinking of Paracelsus and his
of works by and about
philosophical progeny through
Paracelsus. This collection,
Hahnemann and Hering, with books and memorabilia from the Hering Collection.
known
as the Constantine
Hering Collection,
is
now
a
part of the special collections
of
14
Hahnemann
University.
Carol H. Fenichel
Paracelsian Works at the National Library of Medicine
The National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine
£6fop6rafh'#<tw«lft/
Division holds an outstanding
works by Paracelsus. The Library's predecessor was the Library of collection of
fommm iw fcfc
wetQ
<£ai>6 ^fcffere t'n<&&<r
fif Icgcn /
and) fcmcr £u<)cn&/ ftaffe
bcnjcniqnnVhinimlid^riib bod? ronnotcn }ii tri|fcn, barnacb ficfc jubalrcn.
the Surgeon-General's Office
and the
first
Paracelsus work to
be acquired was the Opera
Omnia Medico-ChemicoChirurgica (Geneva, 1658)
which appears catalogue.
By
in its
1868
the 1880's and
the printing of the first series of the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-
General s
Office, there
(Sttrucfcfti$3(tfc( 6q>
©>?mtni 3puno.
M. D- LXXVI.
were an
additional thirty entries. Today, the Library's collection of
works by Paracelsus continues
Title
page from one
of
NLM's most
recently acquired works by
Paracelsus. Paracelsus,
Vom
to
ursprung und herkommen des Bads Pfeffers (Basel, 1576)
collection includes over 150 of
by authors of various countries
the titles listed in Karl Sudhoff's
who were
grow, with five titles having been acquired since 1989. The
Bibliographia Paracelsica. The earliest Paracelsus
collection
is
work
in the
a copy of the 1536
influenced by him.
also includes a large
number of
historical studies of Paracelsus' life
and contributions to
Ulm edition of the Grosse Wund Artzney... which contains
medicine and science. The
annotations in the hand of
resource for the study of an
Konrad Gesner. Among other
innovative and controversial
especially noteworthy holdings
Library's collection
is
a rich
figure in the history of medicine.
of Paracelsus' collected works
Access to all of these titles is provided through CATLINE,
edited by Johann Huser and
the Library's online
published in Basel between
catalog. In addition,
1589 and 1591.
these
is
the rare complete 10-part set
In addition to
works written
by Paracelsus, the Library holds numerous original works by his immediate disciples as well as
It
titles
book
many
are available
of
on
microfilm for loan and for purchase.
Margaret Kaiser
15
The Paracelsus
The Archives and Rare Book Division of Washington
1560-1588 which include the works published from the
Collection at
University School of Medicine
personal manuscripts of
Washington
Library
Paracelsus. Eighty-four
University, St.
Louis
(St.
Louis) contains the
holdings of the Robert E.
represent the
Schlueter Paracelsus Collection,
between 1589-1658, during which period there were publications by Paracelsists, such as John Glauber, William Johnson
on deposit from the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society.
Of significant
interest to al-
chemical and early modern scholars of science and medicine is this
exceptional collection,
and Ferdinand Parkhurst, including the Huser edition of his complete works, 1589-1591,
perhaps the world's largest intact
and the Latin translation
of works by, or concerning, the
(Frankfurt, 1603). In addition there are
German Renaissance
enigmatic
more
physician and philosopher
than one hundred newer works
Theophrastus Bombastus von
such as facsimile editions, biographies, Kolbenheyer's
Hohenheim. Included are more than four hundred titles, primary and secondary sources dating from 1530; all materials are now cataloged and available through the
OCLC database.
The Schlueter
collection
includes the larger part of the
three dramatic works,
epic
poem, Wake's
Browning
'
s
translation
of his hermetic writings, and others. Lastly there is an extensive collection of odd
pamphlets and reprints of comparatively recent date.
Assembled
original writings of Paracelsus
in a lifetime
of
and surveys the distinct Paracelsian schools and revivals of interest that have flourished in Germany, England, France, and
discriminate collecting by
other countries over the past
was so focused and complete that it became a model for similar special collections which were
five centuries.
The
collection
consists of six titles of the twenty-
four
known
editions
which were
published during the life-time
between the
of Paracelsus, that
is
years 1527-1539.
The
is
the
first
earliest
edition of his three
works on Syphilis, 1530, and the latest
is
the third edition of
his Great Surgery, 1537.
There are
Dr. Schlueter, a distinguished St.
Louis physician,
this
unrivaled Paracelsus Collection
developed around other celebrated medical pioneers in other libraries of the world.
collection
is at
The
the disposal of
any scholar desiring to utilize the primary sources of a controversial, often times discredited,
pioneer sixteenth century
from the remainder of and seventy-seven titles from the
as
seventeenth century.
Phillippus Aureolus Theoprastus
161
titles
the sixteenth century,
Five
titles
represent the
important later editions between
1549 and 1560, including some translations. There are 131 titles of the publications between
16
titles
collected works
scientist,
surgeon and physician,
we celebrate the five hundredth
anniversary of the birth of
Bombastus von Hohenheim, later called Paracelsus.
Susan Alon
Internis
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Renaissance chemical symbols. From Oswald
Back cover
Crolii,
Basilica
Chymica
(Frankfurt, 1609)
illustration:
Paracelsian-era discussions often took place within a complex framework of symbols such as those shown here. Woodcut in Johann Daniel Mylius,
Opus medico-chymicum
.
.
.
,
Vol.
1
(Francofurti, 1618-1620).
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