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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

[The Zurich Paracelsus Project. Legends, controversies and prospects for current Paracelsus research].

The research on the life and teaching of Theophrastus of Hohenheim (1493/94-1541), called Paracelsus, offers a broad variety of problems still to be solved. In comparison to being well-known and having written the most voluminous 16th century professional literature next to Luther, the scientific edition of his works remains badly neglected. About a quarter of them, mostly theological ones, are widely scattered around the world in manuscript form and still await their edition. The ones being already edited lack the critical apparatus satisfying modern standards, including a dictionary for the specific Paracelsian expressions and a general index. The Zurich Paracelsus Project now offers a possible way to manage the problems. Microfilms of important manuscripts will be collected and united at a central place. The mass of the edited texts will be electronically recorded and analysed according to various criteria. On the basis of these preparatory work an index will be produced and building stones for a Paracelsus dictionary will be made available. A homepage (http:/(/)www.mhiz.unizh.ch/Paracelsus.html++ +) will present the state of the art and will serve to coordinate further activities.

Historiography↗
PubMed1993

[Medical magic of Paracelsus and Paracelsus followers: weapon salve].

The doctrine of 'transplantatio morborum' may be considered a branch of the 'magia naturalis'-philosophy which was widespread in the sixteenth century. According to this doctrine, ailments and remedies can be transferred from one body to another. A further example of this field of medicine is gun salve, which we find mentioned particularly in the works of the Paracelsists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even though salve of various types had already been used for some time in the treatment of stab wounds, gun salve was imputed to have magnetic properties which gave rise to 'actio in distans', whereby the smearing of gun salve onto the weapon caused the wound to be healed. An early example of a description of its formula can be found in the first book of the 'Archidoxis magica': one of the works which have been wrongly attributed to Paracelsus. Early in the seventeenth century, this formula for gun salve--frequently with modifications--found its way into the writings of the followers of Paracelsian doctrine: of Oswald Croll, for example, or Rudolph Goclenius. When the concept of 'actio in distans' was propounded, an argument soon developed as to whether gun salve should be classified under 'magia naturalis' or 'magia daemoniaca'. Determined opposition to Goclenius was proferred in the person of Jean Roberti, a Belgian Jesuit who accused the Protestant Goclenius of consorting with demons. A number of treatises appeared in close succession, with Johann Baptist van Helmont emerging as the mediator in the argument. Yet he too came under attack at the hand of the Jesuit Roberti, with the result that, at least by the time Athanasius Kircher had also become embroiled in the debate, the dispute was pursued principally between orthodox Trentino Catholicism and heterodox Protestantism. An analysis of the writings on the subject of gun salve demonstrates how easily a discussion which was originally of a purely medical, scientific nature could lead to a religious controversy in that denominational age.

Alchemy↗
PubMed1994

[Physicians facing Paracelsus. Final thoughts at an art exhibit for physicians in honor of the 500th anniversary of Paracelsus in Old Bad Pfäfers on 18 September 1993].

The symposium for physicians in the Old Bad Pfäfers in honor of the 500th anniversary of Paracelsus' was framed by an art-exhibition with art-works from eleven amateur artists. Nine physicians, one psychologist/psychotherapist and one nurse met for the exhibition in order to get involved intensively with the personality of the medical colleague, natural scientist and philosopher Theophrast von Hohenheim. New interpretations of this 'seltsam wunderlichen Mann aus Einsiedeln' and of the Taminaschlucht, the place where he stayed for a short while, were exhibited. The artists have briefly been introduced during the opening session. The importance of the 'imagination' and of the creative work of a physician are emphasized.

Exhibitions as Topic↗
PubMed1993

[In honor of Paracelsus--Einsiedeln 1993. Anniversary address and honoring of Paracelsus on Saturday, 6 November 1993, in Cloister Einsiedeln].

The introductory address to the final ceremony of the anniversary of Einsiedeln attempts to show how a peregrine physician of the beginning New Age assesses the relation between the native place and the foreign country. A view on the life and work of Theophrastus von Hohenheim shows this relation to be full of tension and to be included in the relation of earthly pilgrimage to the heavenly home land. Paracelsus' spiritual greatness and the wideness of his points of view are thus evident from a vital factuality.

Alchemy↗
PubMed1993

[Paracelsus research past and present: basic results, frustrated attempts, new approaches].

As is well known, the Leipzig historian of medicine Karl Sudhoff inaugurated modern research on Paracelsus, providing it with a basis that has remained indispensable right down to the present. Pertinent scholarly contributions by Sudhoff date from 1887; they culminated first in the Paracelsus bibliography of 1894 and reached their fitting conclusion with the edition of Hohenheim's collected works, Abteilung 1: Medizinische, naturwissenschaftliche und philosophische Schriften; its fourteen volumes appeared between 1922 and 1933. Following the second world war the Marburg historian of religion Kurt Goldammer undertook the edition of Abteilung 2: Theologische und religionsphilosophische Schriften; this edition, building on Sudhoff's work, is likewise conceived as comprising fourteen volumes, of which six (together with a supplement), that is, half the projected total, have appeared so far (through 1986). Alongside these fundamental achievements, however, Paracelsus research in the more recent past has also been marked by a series of failed attempts. One of these is the index volume to the Sudhoff edition; it was put together under difficult circumstances, and even at the time of its appearance (1960) it failed to fully satisfy scholarly criteria. A further unsatisfactory aspect, it may be recalled, is the Paracelsus lexicon which was begun forty years ago, but which, despite the pressing need for a research tool of this kind, has still not appeared. Finally, it has not been possible, despite repeated efforts, to establish a Paracelsus institute in the sense of a centre for historical research. Under these circumstances, the continued care for what Paracelsus has bequeathed to us and the coordination of related activities have down to the present been provided for solely by the two pertinent professional societies, the Schweizerische Paracelsus-Gesellschaft (founded in 1942) and the Internationale Paracelsus-Gesellschaft (created in 1951), along with their respective periodical publications. A renewal in Paracelsus research today should accordingly not be limited to the investigation of discrete problems, still unresolved, that bear on Hohenheim and his work; indeed, new efforts should focus above all on clearing up, through interdisciplinary cooperation, the above-mentioned desiderata.

Alchemy↗
PubMed1995

Paracelsus confronts the saints: miracles, healing and the secularization of magic.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed an erosion of the role played by the church in healing. Magical practices mediated by the church were replaced by the resources of medicine. This represented an important cultural development and it is often regarded as a manifestation of increasing secularization, the decline of magic and rise of science. This paper examines this issue with special reference to miraculous healing associated with saints, which constituted one of the most important facets of magic controlled by the church. It will be suggested that Paracelsus (Theophrast von Hohenheim, 1493-1541) played an important part in the argument concerning the miraculous powers of saints. Many works by Paracelsus produced at various points in his career were relevant to this issue, but De causis morborum invisibilium, the sequel to his important Opus Paraminum (1531), was especially significant. The question of miraculous healing was therefore important in the first, full presentation of the new system of medicine developed by Paracelsus. Modern commentators have understandably found De causis morborum invisibilium less intelligible and congenial than the more accessible Opus Paramirum. But the former was important to Paracelsus, and it addressed problems that were fundamental to his audience. This case-study shows how conclusions reached by Paracelsus about medical questions were integrally tied up with his theological standpoint and with his wider reaction to the acute crisis of confidence which affected the church and the established social order at the beginning of the sixteenth century. By eliminating the miraculous intervention of saints and promoting the secularization of magic, Paracelsus was contributing to one of the important cultural changes associated with the Reformation.

Christianity↗
PubMed2006

Invisible wombs: rethinking Paracelsus's concept of body and matter.

Paracelsus's matter theory remains a puzzling subject, especially insofar as his division of matter and the human being is concerned. Paracelsus's early matter theory, as presented in perhaps his most significant chemical work, the Archidoxis, was influenced by John of Rupescissa and contained elements that the mature Paracelsus--greatly influenced by theological concerns and his own unique biblical exegesis--would abandon due to their nonconformity with scripture. The article stresses Paracelsus's interpretation of Genesis 2:7, and the author argues that the Paracelsus of the Astronomia Magna (1537-38)--somewhat echoing the theories in his so-called "meterological writings"--held that the cosmos and microcosm (man) consist of soul, sidereal body (also mortal spirit), elemental mortal matter (a combination of seeds and the tria prima of salt, sulfur, and mercury as produced in the four elemental mothers of air, earth, fire, and water), and eternal body (e.g. the resurrection body). The focus in this article is on mortal matter; Paracelsus's natural philosophy and theology become much more accessible when one understands this quadripartite division.

History, 16th Century↗
PubMed1993

[The lay theology of Paracelsus from the traditional historical viewpoint and its classification to Reformation and Catholic reform].

Certain aspects of the theological oeuvre of Paracelsus--a body of work first described in painstaking detail and on the basis of the sources by Kurt Goldammer--still resist our understanding of them in appropriate historical terms. This circumstance is apparent in the various unanswered questions posed by the very biography of the physician and theologian: was his critical, reform-minded position vis-à-vis the Church in any way relevant to his choice of Strasbourg as a place of residence or to his being called to the position in Basel? Can certain manifestations in the activities of Paracelsus, who died within the Roman Catholic Church, be viewed as signs of a Nicodemism such as characterizes Agrippa von Nettesheim (a figure in some ways so close to Paracelsus)? From the very start, Hohenheim's accounts of himself reveal the art of medicine and theology as inextricably linked to one another. And in its development this linkage becomes in turn an essential element of autobiographical interpretation, with the result that the healing art, Christian faith, and the living of life are fused, through the self-awareness and activity of Paracelsus, into a fascinating unity. From this perspective, it proves to be difficult to assign his theological, world', having as it does its place in his total view of things, one based on Renaissance philosophy, to any single tendency or direction within the spectrum of Reformation thought and its critical approaches to the church establishment. Admittedly, in particular areas we may well suppose such a dependence to have existed, and certain classifications remain a possibility. But an affiliation of this kind, despite partial parallels in, say, the thought of Schwenckfeld, seems to break down precisely in the case of Paracelsus's teaching on the Eucharist; for at the heart of his Eucharistic ideas stands a distinctive concept of, limbus'--very likely unmatched in the thought of the Spiritualists--which is shaped by a distinction between what is earthly or mortal and what is heavenly, immortal. The same difficulty persists as well with the Paracelsian notion of the Christian magus. Here there are definitely models to be found in Renaissance philosophy; the magus concept peculiar to Paracelsus, however, is especially evocative of the unity (v.s.) characteristic of this physician-theologian in particular.

Catholicism↗
PubMed2002

Paracelsus, Paracelsianism, and the secularization of the worldview.

This paper examines Paracelsus and Paracelsianism in the light of the ideas of Max Weber concerning the social consequences of the Reformation, with special reference to his theories of Entzauberung and secularization. He linked these tendencies both to the rise of capitalism and the growth of experimental science. The detailed case study of Paracelsus' account of diseases linked with saints, in common with his interpretation of many other conditions, demonstrates that he self-consciously extended the boundaries of medicine and eroded the role of magic and witchcraft associated with the church. On the other hand, Paracelsus adopted the Neoplatonic worldview, was immersed in popular magic, and evolved a system of medicine that self-consciously revolved around magic. These factors seem to place a distinct limit on his role in the demystification of knowledge. However, the magic of Paracelsus entailed a decisive break with the entrenched elitist and esoteric tradition of the occultists and hermeticists. It is argued that this reconstructed magic re-establishes the credentials of Paracelsus as a significant contributor to the disenchantment and secularization of the worldview.

Europe↗
PubMed1993

[The therapeutics of Paracelsus with reference to natural philosophy, alchemy and psychology].

The controversial reception of Paracelsus is still going on. The crucial question is whether he is a man of the Middle Ages or of modern times. It is not possible to give a simple answer. We have to study the writings of Paracelsus within the scientific and cultural context of the Renaissance. This period is characterized by a new concept of natural philosophy. The theory of signature tries to read or translate certain constellations within the natural environment as a secret code. The idea of a sympathetic correspondence between natural bodies or substances implies the possibility of magical healing. A wellknown example is the preparation of the 'weapon salve'. There are two realities of spiritual powers at the same time: demons from the outside of the human body and powers of the mind from its inside which influence the body functions. The natural philosophy of the Renaissance tries to 'naturalize' the demons as a complement of matter. Paracelsus reflects the ideas of his time. The human being has got two bodies: a visible one which belongs to earth and an invisible one which belongs to heaven. The 'philosopher' as a pharmacist and a doctor has to detect the invisible body corresponding with the celestial world (stars, planets) by analysing the manifest astrological signs. The alchemical preparation of remedies has to purify the specific healing substances ('arcana') from the crude material. The pharmacist and doctor just imitates artificially the quasi alchemical metabolic process of nature itself continuing and finishing it. Paracelsus' concept of imagination ('imaginatio') implies a psychosomatic model how far spiritual powers can influence the body functions. Paracelsus stresses radically the importance of suggestions as a source of illness. The synchronical concepts are confusing today. Knowledge and superstition, scientific rationality and irrational speculations come together and can hardly be separated. Nevertheless, at the end of the 20th century we may have more mental relations to this scenario than we are able to realize it at the moment.

Alchemy↗
PubMed1992

[Montaigne and Paracelsus].

After some general remarks on Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), who died just 400 years ago, the author compares him with another most original thinker of the 16th century: Paracelsus. Montaigne and Paracelsus were akin in their fundamental scepticism about human knowledge and convictions. Speaking, in his "Essais", of medicine Montaigne repeatedly quotes Paracelsus. These quotations show that Montaigne had some knowledge of Paracelsus' writings and that, to some extent, he was in sympathy with his ideas.

France↗
PubMed1993

[Paracelsus in St. Gallen].

Once, coming from Nürnberg, Paracelsus interrupted his journey and remained from 1531 to 1533 in the eastern part of Switzerland: First as personal physician of the severely ill mayor of St. Gall, Christian Studer, after the death of Studer (30. 12. 1531) he probably stayed in Roggenhalm near Bühler, a small village in the Canton of Appenzell. In most of the rare testimonies from citizens of St. Gall (Bartlome Schowinger, Johannes Rütiner, Vadian) about the man from Hohenheim he is described negatively as a rather unfavorable, unpleasant outsider. Vadian himself, to whom Paracelsus dedicated the third book of his "Opus Paramirum", obviously avoided him. In St. Gall Paracelsus wrote two prognostic scripts that were promptly printed in Zurich: The "Exposition of the Comet" and the "Exposition of the Arch of Peache". Rütiner tells in his diary about a (finally successful) surgical intervention on a hand operated by Paracelsus. Another successful treatment performed on a monk in December 1533, when he lived in Roggenheim, is registered in the expense-book of the abbot of St. Gall.

History, 15th Century↗
PubMed2003

Paracelsus: the Hippocrates of the Renaissance.

Paracelsus lived during the Renaissance. His sober spirit of scientific observation and critical reason were accompanied by emotional turbulence and a volcanic temperament. He remains both a mystery and an object of nostalgia. Paracelsus is today celebrated as the first modern medical scientist. Paracelsus' early life, achievements and latter years are described.

Alchemy↗
PubMed1998

[Derangement of the mind in the Paracelsus tract "Liber de lunaticis Theophrasti"].

In a treatise "Liber de lunaticis Theophrasti" Paracelsus describes his view of "lunatici". These are men, inflicted by a psychopathological process, that gradually destroys their minds. He develops his argumentation on the base of iatroastrological, new-neoplatonistical and Christian thoughts. In his view man is a microcosm in macrocosm and a trichotomically organized being. Man is influenced by three lights. These lights are representing three levels of vitalisation, knowledge and cognition. According to this, man consists of the body (corresponding to the level of visible material light), the soul (corresponding to the invisible astral-sidereal light of the firmamental macrocosm) and the spirit (corresponding to the light of Christ and the divine-Christian sphere of spiritual light). The origin of lunatic confusion of the mind is caused by the intrinsically motivated intention of man (representing the microcosm) to shift his spiritual focus from the protective sphere of spiritual light to the sphere of astral-sidereal macrocosmic emanations. The latter have a deteriorative influence on man's mind, due to the lack of guidance of man's consciousness by the spiritual light. Paracelsus describes the individual and sociological effects of lunatic confusion. These effects may range from personal confusion up to the aggregation of lunatics in ideologically coordinated groups of fanatics, displaying wrong teachings, dissensions and even warfare and homicide. Concerning the therapy of "lunatici" Paracelsus develops ideas, which show a resemblance towards integrative and holistic tendencies of our days discussed in the field of Psychoanalysis, Behavioral Medicine and "Holistic Health Medicine". In general the Paracelsian concept of lunatic deterioration can be regarded as an historic example that deals with an integrative approach towards the description of psychiatric disorders.

History, 16th Century↗
PubMed1991

[Paracelsus at the horizon of medicine].

After a brief review of the life and work of Paracelsus (1493-1541) the five spheres of existence of the healthy as well as the sick individual are characterized (theory of the 5 entities). Founding on this theoretical orientation of existence Paracelsus constructs his "house of medicine" which is resting on 4 pillars: on "Philosophia" as natural and human science, on "Astronomia" as structured chronologic order, on "Alchimia" as science of the preparation of materials and on "Physica" providing the ethical prerequisite for medical practise. Paracelsus believes the physician to represent an educated expert applying standards to the other faculties as well; in his eyes medicine represents the "cornerstone of university".

Alchemy↗
PubMed1993

[The Paracelsus dramas of Martha Sills-Fuchs in the circumstances of Julius Streicher's Society of German Public Health].

Between 1936 and 1939 the Hungaro-Austrian author Martha Sills-Fuchs (1896-?) wrote three plays, in which Theophrast von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus is the main figure. Written for the ideological purposes of the 'Verein Deutsche Volksheilkunde', founded in 1935 by the radical German Nazi-leader Julius Streicher, Paracelsus was--totally neglecting the historical facts--shown as a precursor of Nazism. It could be demonstrated by detailed analysis, that Martha Sills-Fuchs sketched Paracelsus as a racist, a fighter against the jews, a follower of a mystical 'blood and soil'-ideology and as a medical doctor, who had great respect of 'mother nature' (as the Nazis claimed they had).

Austria↗
PubMed1994

[Paracelsus and balneology].

Starting from the words of Paracelsus, 'allein und fremd und anders'--alone and foreign and different--the influence of this important Swiss physician for the balneology of his time is outlined. Up to our days Paracelsus is honored as the real father of balneology, whereas other authors saw and probably still see hypotheses and in part utopias in his specific ideas. Paracelsus has described quite a number of thermal springs in Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany, some of them rather in detail. It is certainly questionable that he visited all of them personally. Bad Pfäfers, however, definitely belongs to them, since undoubted testimonies exist that emerged during his life time. His famous 'Baderbüchlin', though, has been printed after his death in 1562. His theoretical ideas about the effects of bathing are in part very modern, others originate from medieval alchemistic sources. He used this theory of 'Separatio' of the three basal elements sulphur, mercurius and sal, as well as the idea of the 'light of Nature', but beyond that he discussed also influences of personified forces, which he assumed in nymphs, melusins and others. Furthermore, in his balneology he expressed clearly his doctrine about the macro- and microcosmic relation, and he used in his balneotherapy vegetable and mineral compounds up to precious stones. Time, too, had a special importance for the effectiveness of the bath in his eyes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Balneology↗