forshaw, paradoxes, absurdities and madness

Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008) 53-81 wwwbrillnlesm

copy Koninklijke Brill NV Leiden 2008 DOI 101163157338207X242465

ldquoParadoxes Absurdities and Madnessrdquo Conflict over Alchemy Magic and Medicine in the Works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath

Peter J ForshawUniversity of London

AbstractBoth Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath graduated from Basel Medical Acad-emy in 1588 though the theses they defended reveal antithetical approaches to med-icine despite their shared interests in iatrochemistry and transmutational alchemy Libavius argued in favour of Galenic allopathy while Khunrath promoted the con-trasting homeopathic approach of Paracelsus and the utility of the occult doctrine of Signatures for medical purposes is article considers these differences in the two graduatesrsquo theses both as intimations of their subsequent divergent notions of the boundaries of alchemy and its relations with medicine and magic and also as evidence of the surprisingly unstable academic status of Paracelsian philosophy in Basel its main publishing centre at the end of the sixteenth century

Keywordsalchemy chrysopoeia iatrochemistry Paracelsianism Hermetic philosophy Physico-Chemistry medicine hyperphysical magic Basel graduation theses late sixteenth century allopathy homeopathy Signatures weapon salve

Dogmatics Chymiatrists amp Paracelsians

In his Commentariorum alchymiae libri (1606) Andreas Libavius of Halle (1560-1616) divides the medical sects of his day into the lsquosecta dogmaticorumrsquo that is the followers of Galen and Hippocrates and

) I would like to thank Sachiko Kusukawa for her generous encouragement and infi-nite patience the journalrsquos referees for constructive challenges and helpful suggestions and the British Academy for their greatly appreciated postdoctoral fellowship

book_esm13-1indb 53book_esm13-1indb 53 8-11-2007 1238248-11-2007 123824

54 PJ Forshaw Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008) 53-81

two kinds of medical chemist e Chymiatri base their practice on conventional academic theory derived from the ancients supple-menting it with anything they find of use in the realm of chemically prepared medicines1 some of whom are wont to use Hermetic and parabolic discourse but are nonetheless genuine chymiatrists e Paracelsisti however whom Libavius elsewhere calls the foremost opponents of Aristotle2 practise the magic in their masterrsquos Philo-sophia sagax a book filled with necromancy vain astrology signatures uncertain arts and the summoning of devils or spirits eir works are founded on paradoxes absurdities and madness3

Libavius for his part is a chymiatrist defending his medical theses in Basel on 5 July 1588 and a relatively well-known figure in the history of chymistry having been one of the two major protagonists in Owen Hannawayrsquos e Chemists amp the Word (1975) ere he is presented as both a conservative reactionary to Paracel-sianism and at the same time author of the ldquofirst definitive textbookrdquo of chemistry the Alchemia of 15974 His opposite number in

1) Allen G Debus e French Paracelsians e Chemical Challenge to Medical and Sci-entific Tradition in Early Modern France (Cambridge 1991) 61-622) Prodromus vitalis philosophiae Paracelsistarum in Andreas Libavius Examen philo-sophiae novae quae veteri abrogandae opponitur (Frankfurt 1615) 1-12 at 33) Andreas Libavius Commentariorum alchymiae pars prima sex libris declarata (Frank-furt 1606) Aa2v-Aa3r ldquo[Paracelsus] qui propriam hellip sectam condidit coacervatis ex omni paradoxorum absurdorumque amp deliramentorum angulo portentis hellip In hac Philosophia est ars Diabolos seu spiritus evocandirdquo On Paracelsus and magic see Kurt Goldammer ldquoMagie bei Paracelsusrdquo in Kurt Goldammer Paracelsus in neuen Hori-zonten Gesammelte Aufsaumltze Salzburger Beitraumlge zur Paracelsusforschung 24 (Vienna 1986) 321-342 and the third chapter of Goldammerrsquos Der goumlttliche Magier und die Magierin Natur (Stuttgart 1991) See also chapter 3 in Wolf-Dieter Muumlller-Jahncke Astrologisch-magische eorie und Praxis in der Heilkunde der Fruumlhen Neuzeit (Stutt-gart 1985)4) Owen Hannaway e Chemists amp the Word e Didactic Origins of Chemistry (Bal-timore and London 1975) 75 80 Cf JR Partington A History of Chemistry (Lon-don 1961) 2 247 Debus French Paracelsians 61 For more on Libavius see Wlodzimierz Hubickirsquos entry in e Dictionary of Scientific Biography ed Charles Coulston Gillispie (New York 1973) 8 309-312 Lynn orndike ldquoLibavius and chemical controversyrdquo in A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York 1964) 6 238-253 Robert P Multhauf ldquoLibavius and Beguinrdquo in Great Chemists ed Eduard Farber (New York and London 1961) 65-79 Bruce T Moran Andreas


PJ Forshaw Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008) 53-81 55

Hannawayrsquos account is Oswald Croll (1560-1608) who was himself to spend some time as a student in Basel in 1591 author of ldquoproba-bly the main source from which a knowledge of Paracelsian medi-cines and teachings became knownrdquo the Basilica chymica (1609)5

One of the figures whose best-known work Croll praises as ldquomost worthy of perpetual memoryrdquo (as Libavius was fully aware) is Heinrich Khunrath of Leipzig (1560-1605) who likewise defended his medical theses at Basel a month later than Libavius in August 1588 though his arguments reveal a radically different approach not just to medicine but to its relations with alchemy and magic6 As long ago as 1972 Frances Yates aware of the English magus John Deersquos 1589 record of a visit from Khunrath while in Bremen wrily noted that ldquoKhunrathrsquos lsquoAlchemistrsquo [was] expressive of the Dee kind of alchemyrdquo by which she meant one mystical and emblematic ldquothe kind of which Libavius disapprovedrdquo7 Unfortunately this does little justice to the diversity of either Khunrath or Deersquos knowledge of medieval and early modern alchemical texts or the extent of their

Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy Separating Chemical Cultures with Polem-ical Fire (Sagamore Beach MA 2007) My thanks to Bruce Moran for allowing me to read the manuscript of this book before publication5) Oswald Croll Basilica chymica (c1609) 49 Partington History 2 174-177 See too Hannaway Chemists xi6) Oswald Croll Basilica chymica (Frankfurt c1609) facsimile repr Hildesheim 1996) Praefatio Admonitoria 33 ldquoVide Amphitheatrum Khunradi cedro dignissi-mumrdquo Cf Oswaldus Crollius Philosophy Reformed amp Improved (London 1657) 61 ldquoworthy of perpetuall memoryrdquo Andreas Libavius Exercitatio alia de abominabili impi-etate magiae Paracelsicae per Oswaldum Crollium aucta in Examen philosophiae novae 62 ldquoHabetis totam Paracelsiam amp Amphitheatrum rasybuli divinomagicum quod Crollius cedro dignum iudicavit nos ignibus addicimus haereticisrdquo rasybulus is a pseudonym Khunrath uses in Vom hylealischen das ist pri-materialischen catholischen oder algemeinem natuumlrlichen Chaos der naturgemessen Alchymiae und Alchymisten (Frankfurt 1708 facsimile reprint Graz 1990) 2687) Frances A Yates e Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London 1972 repr 1996) 83 e Private Diary of Dr John Dee ed James Orchard Halliwell (London 1842) 31 For Libavius and Khunrathrsquos response to Deersquos Monas Hieroglyphica see my article ldquolsquoPossibly the most obscure work ever written by an Englishmanrsquo e Early Alchem-ical Reception of John Deersquos Monas Hieroglyphicardquo in Stephen Clucas ed Ambix e Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 523 (2005) 247-269



practical laboratory experience8 A positivist of a slightly different cut John Read acknowledges Libaviusrsquos lsquotext-bookrsquo as ldquoa blend of alchemical mysticism and symbolism with sound chemical knowl-edgerdquo9 while dismissing Dee as a lsquopseudo-alchemistrsquo and Khunrath as one whose alchemy is ldquospiritual rather than materialrdquo and who ldquoexerted no influence upon the progress of alchemy towards chemistryrdquo10 is judgement is apparently based solely on the object of Crollrsquos praise Khunrathrsquos baroquely illustrated Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (1609) which never presents itself as a work strictly devoted to alchemy but rather subsumes lsquoPhysico-Chemistryrsquo into a broader theosophical project11 Read appears serenely unaware of Khunrathrsquos extensive physico-chemical engagement with chrysopoeia that is medieval transmutational alchemy and its attendant matter theory in Vom hylealischen Chaos (1597) and Magnesia catholica philo-sophorum (1599) or of his practical engagement with iatro chemistry in Quaestiones tres perutiles (1607)12 Even though there can be little

8) See for example Nicholas H Clulee ldquoJohn Dee and the Paracelsiansrdquo in Reading the Book of Nature e Other Side of the Scientific Revolution ed Allen G Debus and Michael Walton (Kirkville MO 1997) 111-1329) John Read From Alchemy to Chemistry (London 1957 repr New York 1995) 72 (Khunrath) 75 (Dee) 87 (Libavius)10) On Libaviusrsquos Alchemia see John Read Prelude to Chemistry An Outline of Alchemy its Literature and Relationships (London 1936 repr Cambridge MA 1966) 31 ldquoan authoritative and comprehensive textbookrdquo 80 ldquothe first work which has a claim to be considered as a text-book of chemistryrdquo On the dismissal of Khunrath as a lsquospiritual alchemistrsquo see ibid 81 11) Contrary to the almost exclusively alchemical focus of Ralf Toumlllner Der unend-liche Kommentar (Hamburg 1991) and Urszula Szulakowska e Alchemy of Light Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration (Leiden 2000) Hein-rich Khunrath Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae solius verae christiano-kabalisticum divino-magicum nec non physico-chymicum tertriunum catholicon ed Erasmus Wol-fart (Hanau 1609) As this work is divided into two main parts with separate pagi-nation subsequent references will be to either Amphitheatrum I or II to avoid confusion 12) For more on Khunrathrsquos alchemy see my forthcoming chapter ldquoSubliming Spir-its Physical-Chemistry and eo-Alchemy in the works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605)rdquo in ldquoMystical Metal of Goldrdquo Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture ed Stanton J Linden (New York 2007) For a brief account of the publishing history of Khunrathrsquos Amphitheatrum see Umberto Eco Lo strano caso della Hanau 1609 (Milan



doubt that the two Basel graduates had widely differing notions of the extent of alchemyrsquos domain in their enthusiasm for identifying the heroes and villains of science Yates and Read misrepresent both men by locating them at opposing extremes of their material-pro-gressivistspiritual-recidivist spectrum

More recently in Geheimnisse der Alchemie (1999) Manuel Bach-mann and omas Hofmeier explicitly oppose Libavius and Khun-rath but this time with greater sympathy for the latter underscoring the significance of his theses as precious documentary evidence of the academic recognition of the Paracelsian-alchemical interpretation of nature in the medical faculty of Basel13 In the process they present them as the very antithesis of those Libavius had defended a month earlier In this article I shall present some of the evident differences in the two physiciansrsquo graduation theses and use them as the basis for providing some illustrations of subsequent distinctly divergent intellectual trajectories while considering some common ground the two men shared at a time before alchemy had truly gained any officially sanctioned status or disciplinary identity in academia14 Bearing Libaviusrsquos division of contemporary medical sects in mind let us briefly consider the situa tion in Basel around the time of his and Khunrathrsquos gra dua tion

Paracelsus in Basel

Paracelsusrsquos provocation of the Basel authorities in 1527 following his appointment as medicus ordinarius on the medical faculty and city medical officer with his insistence on giving lectures in the vernacular from his own writings rather than those of the revered ancients and so the story goes his notorious burning of the works

1989) Extracts from Khunrathrsquos writings can be found in James Brown Craven Doc-tor Heinrich Khunrath a Study in Mystical Alchemy (Kirkwall 1919 Reprinted and edited by Adam McLean Glasgow 1997)13) Manuel Bachmann and omas Hofmeier eds Geheimnisse der Alchemie (Basel 1999) 15714) For an informative discussion of the status of alchemy in medieval academia see William R Newman ldquoTechnology and Alchemical Debate in the Late Middle Agesrdquo Isis 80 (1989) 423-445



of Avicenna is well known as are the details of the promotion of his medical and alchemical writings after his death in 154115 From around 1560 his followers vied with one another in translating editing and writing commentaries on his manuscripts and Basel was the main centre for this burgeoning Paracelsian publishing industry16 ere Adam von Bodenstein (1528-1577) son of the radical reformer Andreas Karlstadt was instrumental in getting eighty books of Paracelsusrsquos writings published thirty of them translated from his less accessible Swiss-German into Latin and thus made available to a far wider readership17 e success of this endeavour can clearly be seen in the records of the Frankfurt book fair which show that although the category lsquoLibri cum Medici tum Chemicirsquo does not stabilise and become a permanent presence until 1594 German and Latin editions of Paracelsusrsquos medical and alchemical works are by far the most regular entries from Georg Willersrsquo first catalogue in 156418 Bodenstein paid a price however for his enthusiasm on 27 January that very same year having failed to heed the warnings of the medical faculty about his lsquoheretical opinionsrsquo and having published various books without its blessing he was excluded from the faculty and university council19

is flood of Paracelsian publishing in Basel coincided with a reinvigoration of the cityrsquos medical school which in the last quarter of the sixteenth century had become a popular destination for scholars on their Peregrinatio medica20 Since the reopening of the

15) Partington History 2 118 Ian Maclean Logic Signs and Nature in the Renaissance e Case of Learned Medicine (Cambridge 2002) 31 78 90 Andrew Weeks Para-celsus Speculative eory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation (New York 1997) 104 Albrecht Burckhardt Geschichte der Medizinischen Fakultaumlt zu Basel 1460-1900 (Basel 1917) 29 considers the account of Paracelsusrsquos burning of Avicennarsquos works a myth16) Frank Hieronymus ldquoParacelsus-Druck in Baselrdquo in Heinz Schott and Ilana Zin-guer Paracelsus und seine internationale Rezeption in der Fruumlhen Neuzeit (Leiden 1998) 36-57 17) Maclean Logic 37 For more on Bodenstein see Wilhelm Kuumlhlmann und Joachim Telle eds Der Fruumlhparacelsismus (Tuumlbingen 2001) 18) Georg Willers Die Messkataloge des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts Faksimiledrucke her-ausgegeben von Bernhard Fabian 5 vols (Hildesheim amp New York 1972)19) Burckhardt Geschichte 56-57 20) Bachmann and Hofmeier Geheimnisse 152



school in 1532 following a three-year closure due to the religious conflicts of the Reformation instruction had been assigned to two Chairs the first Professor teaching Medicina theoretica general pathology and physiology the second Professor teaching Medicina practica particular pathology therapy and surgery21 A year after Libaviusrsquo and Khunrathrsquos graduation in 1589 with the construction of the anatomical theatre22 a third Professor was inaugurated to teach Anatomy and Botany23 Ian Maclean notes that Basel evinced a particularly strong bias towards practical medicine teaching being closely allied with practical work be that the collecting of herbs on fieldtrips to avoid over-reliance on unreliable apothecaries or ana-tomical dissections24 Such a hands-on approach would have found favour with Spagyric physicians who Paracelsus declared in De natura rerum ldquodonrsquot loaf about hellip but find their entertainment in the laboratory hellip ey stick their fingers into coals dung and dirt not in gold ringsrdquo25

ere had evidently been a certain openness to alchemy since 1536 when Martin Borrhaus first arrived in Basel as university professor to remain there practising both medicine and alchemy until his death in 156426 Guglielmo Grataroli (1516-1568) who became dean of the medical faculty in 1567 himself edited several treatises concerned with the medicinal aspects of alchemy27

21) Burckhardt Geschichte 32-33 on the closure See also Rudolf ommen Geschichte der Universitaumlt Basel 1532-1632 (Basel 1889) 21222) ommen Geschichte 228 23) Edgar Bonjour Die Universitaumlt Basel von den Anfaumlngen bis zur Gegenwart 1460-1960 (Basel 1960) 168 24) Maclean Logic 31-3225) Paracelsus De natura rerum neun Buumlcher in Paracelsus Opera (1603) 1 906 ldquoIch lob aber die Spagyrischen Artzet dann dieselbigen gehn nit umb Faulentzen sie suchen ihr Kurtzweil im Laboratorio Stossen die Finger in die Kolen in Koht und Dreck und nit in die Guldene Ringldquo26) Bachmann and Hofmeier Geheimnisse 17327) Nancy G Siraisi ldquoe Fielding H Garrison Lecture Medicine and the Renais-sance World of Learningrdquo Bulletin of the History of Medicine 781 (2004) 1-36 at 17 31



e Basel Medical Faculty and Its Graduations

During the period of Libaviusrsquo and Khunrathrsquos studies Felix Platter (1536-1614) author of De corporis structura et usu (1583) illustrated with plates similar to those of Vesalius was Professor of Practical Medicine28 ough never wholeheartedly in favour of Paracelsus Platter was at least an advocate of chemical therapy29 e Professor of eoretical Medicine however was sympathetic to the Paracelsian cause is was the polymath eodor Zwinger (1533-1588) disciple of the anti-Aristotelian Huguenot Petrus Ramus long-time corre-spondent with the French Cabalist Guillaume Postel and friend of the Danish physician and professor of medicine Petrus Severinus one of the foremost promoters of Paracelsian medical philosophy in his famous Idea medicinae philosophicae published in Basel in 157130 Zwinger who had previously been Professor of Greek and Ethics was author of the encyclopaedic eatrum vitae humanae (1565) a work encompassing such subjects as physics metaphysics medicine theology mathematics astrology and magic as well as commentaries on Galenrsquos Ars medicinalis (1565) Aristotlersquos Nico-machean Ethics (1566) and the works of Hippocrates (1579)31 His familiarity with Paracelsian ideas is evident in many of his letters as well as in his Physiologia medica (1610) where he discusses Physio-logia Pathologia Aetiologia Semeiotice and erapeutice Paracelsica32 Zwinger died on 10 March 1588 several months before Libavius

28) ommen Geschichte 225-228 On Platter see Burckhardt Geschichte 64-89 Andreas Vesalius had also spent time in Basel and his De humani corporis fabrica was first printed there by Johannes Oporinus in 154329) Charles Webster ldquoAlchemical and Paracelsian medicinerdquo in Health Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century ed Charles Webster (Cambridge 1979) 301-334 at 31730) On Zwinger see Burckhardt Geschichte 89-9531) eodor Zwinger eatrum vitae humanae (Basel 1565) In artem medicinalem Galeni tabulae et commentarii (Basel 1565) Aristotelis Stagiritae de moribus ad Nico-machum libri decem (Basel 1566) Hippocratis Coi Asclepiadeae gentis sacrae coryphaei viginti duo commentarii tabulis illustrati (Basel 1579)32) eodor Zwinger Physiologia medica hellip eophrasti item Paracelsi totius feregrave medicinae dogmatibus illustrata (Basel 1610) Lib 1 Proscenia medica Caput IIX De medicinae speciebus 82-90



and Khunrath defended their theses33 Given that both candidates had their theses printed lsquoTypis Oporinianisrsquo owned by Zwingerrsquos uncle Johannes Oporinus (who had himself been Paracelsusrsquos amanuensis) it is even possible that he was their supervisor though his paraphrase of Agrippa and the Paracelsian Alexander von Suchten in the eatrum that magic encompasses the three most excellent concerns of the human mind medicine religion and astrology would have found little favour with Libavius34

Notwithstanding the exuberance of the Basel publishing industry with respect to Paracelsian texts and Charles Websterrsquos observation that by 1585 the works of Paracelsus and his followers were ldquowidely disseminated and actively studied by both laymen and medical practitionersrdquo35 the majority of Basel medical theses from the years around 1588 make little mention of the Swiss chymist or his theories and still display a bias towards material from Galen Hippocrates and Avicenna be those disputations on sleep waking and comas (1583) philosophical and medical actions (1584) the sympathies and antipathies of the elements (1589) or the heartbeat (1592)36 is is not to say that none of the disputants had any regard for

33) ommen Geschichte 24534) Zwinger eatrum 3 338 ldquoMagica ars olim in magno precio fuit habita quando-quidem sola artium tres alias imperiosissimas humanae mentis complexa in se unam redegit medicinam videlicet religionem amp astrologiamrdquo Cf Alexander von Suchten De secretis antimonij (Strassburg 1570) 106 ldquoInde Magus dicitur non qui cum Dae-monibus negotium habet quod nobis plane interdictum est sed qui eologiam Astronomiam amp Medicinam perfecte cognovitrdquo Zwingerrsquos characterisation of magic as something once held in high esteem (olim in magno precio fuit habita) to my mind at least echoes Agripparsquos famous prefatory letter to Trithemius in De occulta phi-losophia where he asks ldquocur magia ipsa cum olim primum sublimitatis fastigium uno omnium veterum philosophorum iudicio teneret helliptandem explosa a theologis etcrdquo See Cornelius Agrippa De occulta philosophia libri tres ed V Perrone Compagni (Leiden 1992) 6835) Webster ldquoAlchemical and Paracelsian medicinerdquo 33036) Petrus Monavius De dentium affectibus theses inaugurales (Basel 1578) Andreas Christianus Disputationes duae prior de somno et vigilia posterior de comate seu cataphora (Basel 1583) Henricus Lavaterus ΕΝ∆ΟΞΑ philosophica amp medica (Basel 1584) Johannes Heinricus Cherlerus ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΤΟΙΧΙΩΝ eorumque ΣΥΜΠΑΘΕΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΤΙΠΑΘΕΙΑ ΑΦΟΡΙΣΜΟΙ (Basel 1589) Antonius Battus Haderslebius eses de palpitatione cordis (Basel 1592)



Paracelsus Peter Monau makes no mention of Paracelsus in his theses on tooth complaints (1578) but shortly after his promotion he writes letters to Zwinger asking about his positive opinion of authors who combine Paracelsian and Galenic teachings in particular Severinus and Gerard Dorn whose Paracelsian writings were published in Basel in the 1570s37 Johann Runge who graduated the same year with theses on ocular pathology that likewise include no references to Paracelsus shortly afterwards exchanges letters with Zwinger discussing chemical authors personal laboratory experiments such Paracelsian interests as the properties of mumia and tartar and how to formulate the principles of the new chymical knowledge into a theoretical system in opposition to scholastic medicine38 No Paracelsian presence can be found either over a decade later in Johann Scerbeciusrsquos theses On Medico-philosophical Questions (1591) notwithstanding his inclusion among the most famous chemical physicians (including Paracelsus Severinus Dorn DuChesne Moffet Dee Penot Maier and Hartmann) in the elegy De vera antiqua philosophica medicina elegia (1608) which Ulrich Bollinger dedicated to Oswald Croll39 Despite their evident interest in matters Para-cel sian they appear to have prudently exercised a truly spagyric lsquoseparationrsquo of public from private interests for the sake of their formal academic promotion e argument could be adduced that Paracelsian literature was not directly relevant to their disputations but this still does not explain why for instance Heinrich Schwallen-bergrsquos 1588 theses on syphilis a subject discussed at length by

37) Frank Hieronymus eophrast und GalenmdashCelsus und Paracelsus Medizin Natur-philosophie und Kirchenreform im Basler Buchdruck bis zum Dreissigjaumlhrigen Krieg 4 vols and index (Basel 2005) 3 2578 Burckhardt Geschichte 63 Johannes Karcher eodor Zwinger und seine Zeitgenossen (Basel 1956) 34 On Dorn see Didier Kahn ldquoLe debut de Gerard Dorn drsquoapres le manuscrit autographe de sa Clavis totius philoso-phiae chymisticae (1565)rdquo in Analecta Paracelsica Studien zum Nachleben eophrast von Hohenheims im deutschen Kulturgebiet der fruumlhen Neuzeit ed Joachim Telle (Stutt-gart 1994) 59-126 38) Johannes Rungius De praecipuis visus symptomatis eorumque causis physica amp medica contemplatio (Basel 1578) See Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 3 2581-258339) Johann Scerbecius Περι των rsquoΑπορηματων ὶατροφιλοσοφικων (Basel 1591) See Peter Voswinckel ldquoDer daumlnisch-luumlbeckische Arzt und Chymicus Johannes Scerbecius (1553-1633)ldquo in Telle Analecta Paracelsica 305-334



Paracelsus in works like Von der franzoumlsischen Krankheit (1529) makes no mention of him or chemical medicine restricting itself instead to Galen a dietary regimen of melons and figs pills including helle-bore and guaiac and the traditional recourse to purges and phle-botomy40 e same holds true for the theses of Michael Maier whose name is frequently linked with the Paracelsian worldview41 Despite Huserrsquos inclusion of the Liber de caducis in Paracelsusrsquos Opera Maierrsquos utterly conventional eses de epilepsia (1596) lack any reference to Paracelsian publications on the subject cautiously confining themselves instead to the classical authors plus a few moderns like Jean Fernel Guillaume Rondelet and Baselrsquos own Caspar Bauhin42

Although Peter Bietenholz evokes an atmosphere of tolerance among the Basel medical community ldquosufficiently subdued to avoid the occurrence of clashesrdquo43 it nevertheless appears that some of the facultyrsquos well-known Paracelsian alumni encountered difficulties over their promotions e irenic Joseph DuChesne (c1544-1609) ended up having to receive his doctoral degree in a private ceremony at Zwingerrsquos home in 157344 ough no reasons are given Albrecht Burckhardt suggests that DuChesnersquos Paracelsianism was the

40) Heinrich Schwallenberg eses de morbo gallico et eius curatione (Basel 1588) Paracelsus wrote two large volumes on the ldquoFrench diseaseldquo in 1529 Von der franzouml-sischen Krankheit drei Buumlcher and Von Ursprung und Herkommen der Franzosen samt der Recepten Heilung acht Buumlcher41) See for example Frances A Yates e Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972 rept Lon-don 1996) 73 W Hubicki ldquoMichael Maierrdquo Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1974) 9 23 Hereward Tilton however argues against such descriptions of Maier as a Paracelsian in e Quest for the Phoenix Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucian-ism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622) (Berlin 2003) 60-6142) Michael Meierus eses de epilepsia (Basel 1596) See Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 3 2601-5 On Paracelsus and epilepsy see Johann Huserrsquos edition of Paracel-susrsquos Opera (Strassburg 1603) 589-626 Liber de caducis Von Ursprung Ursach und Heilung morbi caduci oder epilepsiae43) Peter G Bietenholz Basle and France in the Sixteenth Century e Basle Human-ists and Printers in eir Contacts with Francophone Culture (Geneva 1971) 64-6544) Bietenholz Basle and France 71 On DuChesnersquos lsquoqualified Paracelsianismrsquo see Walter Pagel e Smiling Spleen Paracelsianism in Storm and Stress (Basel 1984) 28



motivation behind such secrecy45 It may be that the faculty was trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the bitter controversy kindled by one of Zwingerrsquos former students omas Erastus (1524-1583)46 en Professor of Medicine at the University of Heidelberg later Professor of Ethics in Basel47 Erastus had published the first three parts of his influential anti-Paracelsian Disputationum de medicina nova Philippi Paracelsi the previous year beginning with an attack on Paracelsusrsquos magical remedies the fourth and final part chal-lenging his approach to the treatment of epilepsy making its appearance in 1573

e same year as Monau and Rungersquos promotions in 1578 the English physician omas Moffet (1553-1604) experienced more than his fair share of difficulties in his promotion despite the support of both Platter and Zwinger is was at least in part due to his overt Paracelsian sympathies and his criticism of Erastus Moffetrsquos first disputation De venis mesaraicis obstructis (May 1578) seems not to have ruffled too many feathers with just one brief reference to Paracelsus and his Opus paramirum48 His second dis-puta tion De anodinis medicamentis initially published without the Deanrsquos approval was a different matter Manfred Weltirsquos brief account of what Moffet calls his lsquowar of chemistryrsquo (chemiae bellum) describes the facultyrsquos clampdown on heterodoxy and how Moffet was forced to edit his theses removing all attacks on Erastus and the orthodox anti-paracelsians and have them reprinted reducing their number from 111 to 40 in the process Moffetrsquos promotion finally took place almost a year later on 17 February 157949

45) Burckhardt Geschichte 158-15946) Bietenholz Basle and France 7047) Webster ldquoAlchemical and Paracelsian medicinerdquo 328 See Charles D Gunnoe Jr ldquoErastus and Paracelsianism eological motifs in omas Erastusrsquo rejection of Para-celsian natural philosophyrdquo in Debus and Walton eds Reading the Book of Nature 45-66 and Charles D Gunnoe Jr ldquoomas Erastus and His Circle of Anti-Paracel-siansrdquo in Telle Analecta Paracelsica 127-14848) omas Moffet De venis mesaraicis obstructis ipsarumque ita affectarum curatione theses sive pronunciata LX (Basel 1578) esis LIV49) Manfred Edwin Welti Der Basler Buchdruck und Britannien Die Rezeption briti-schen Gedankenguts in den Basler Pressen von den Anfaumlngen bis zum Beginn des 17 Jahr-hunderts (Basel 1964) 157f Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 1 643



Let us now turn to Libavius and Khunrath and take a brief look at their graduation theses of 1588 the same year incidentally that Moffet in his Nosomantia Hippocratea provocatively lauded Paracelsus as the ldquoHippocrates of the new agerdquo50

Libavius Hippocrates and Contraries

Libaviusrsquos thirty-two eses on the Pre-eminent and General View in Healing namely that in all erapy Contraries are the Remedies of Contrary ings51 presented in July 1588 are a defence of the ancient medical principle presented in Hippocratesrsquos Aphorisms that ldquoDiseases caused by repletion are cured by depletion those caused by depletion are cured by repletion and in general contraries are cured by contrariesrdquo52 For example a hot dry disease caused by an imbalance of the bodily humors should be treated with a medicine of an opposed cold moist quality53 Libavius argues that because the human body arises from mutable principles it contains the causes of its own corruption54 If the body falls from a healthy condition nature exerts itself to restore the balance by means of a contrary55 When nature alone cannot succeed it is acceptable to provide assistance by the lsquoars adiutrixrsquo of medicine imitating nature56 It is the duty of a physician ldquoto open the closed correct the distorted and dry-up the moistrdquo57 It is slightly disconcerting to

50) omas Moffet Nosomantica Hippocratea (Frankfurt 1588) sigs A5r-6v cited in Webster ldquoAlchemical and Paracelsian medicinerdquo 330 51) Andreas Libavius eses de summo et generali in medendo scopo quod nimirum in omni θεραπεύσει contraria contrarijs sint remedia (Basel 1588) in Basel Disputationes medicae 2 No 34 With grateful thanks to Dominik Hunger archivist at Basel See Bachmann and Hofmeier Geheimnisse 15652) Hippocrates Aphorisms IIxxii in Hippocrates trans W H S Jones (Cambridge MA 1931 repr 1998) 4 113 Libavius directly refers to this aphorism in his own esis XXII53) Libavius eses XVI 54) Libavius eses I 55) Libavius eses VIII56) Libavius eses X and XI57) Libavius eses XXIII ldquoExinde ex Hippocratis sententia conclusa aperire distorta corrigere humida resiccarerdquo



see the future arch-polemicist and controversialist presenting such an anodyne set of arguments possibly intended to honour or curry favour with Zwinger whose own parallel-text Greek and Latin Hippocrates with commentaries had appeared in 157958 Frank Hieronymus considers the theses to be an indication of the anti-paracelsian direction Libavius was to express more forcefully in later publications59 e only intimation we have of his later acerbic bite is the remark that ldquothose who overturn this fundamental principle hellip have either not understood the ancient dogma or arrogantly desire to set up their own authority in its steadrdquo60 ough Paracelsus is not named Libavius is most likely alluding to his commentaries on the Hippocratic aphorisms as well as his well-known rejection of Galenic allopathy in favour of the homoeopathic belief popular to German folk medicine that lsquolike cures likersquo Rather than administering mild vegetable concoctions Paracelsus argued that a competent physician had to investigate the properties of poisons in order to treat lsquomodernrsquo diseases not discussed by the classical authorities like syphilis and hitherto incurable ones like leprosy epilepsy dropsy and gout61

Khunrath Signatures and Sympathies

Khunrathrsquos defence stands only three places later than that of Libavius on the Basel medical faculty register62 On 24 August

58) See Hippocrates De flatibus in Zwinger Hippocratis Coi hellip commentarii 287 ldquocontraria contrarijs curare hellip Ex ijs quae morbo sunt contraria sciens quid adhibere oporteat helliprdquo59) Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 3 2587-2592 at 259160) Libavius eses XXVII ldquoApparet itaque eos qui evertendi hoc fundamentum causa negant omnino contraria curari contrarijs sed similia quoque similibus aut non intellexisse veterum dogma aut arroganter autoritatem eorum velle labefactarerdquo61) Paracelsus Opera (1603) Commentaria in librum primum aphorismorum Hippo-cratis 695f Auszliglegung der ersten 6 Aphorismorum libri secundi 707f Aphorismi primi libri prima ein ander Auszliglegung 710 See Udo Benzenhoumlfer and Michaela Triebs ldquoZu eophrast von Hohenheims Auslegungen der sbquoAphorismenrsquo des Hippocratesrdquo in Pa-rerga Paracelsica Paracelsus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart ed Joachim Telle (Stutt-gart 1991) 27-3762) Bachmann and Hofmeier Geheimnisse 160



Khunrath defended twenty-eight theses On the Signatures of Natural ings arguing for the revival of the occult doctrine of signatures for medical purposes63 e title of the theses more than likely alludes to the already-mentioned De natura rerum attributed to Paracelsus the ninth book of which bears the same heading as Khunrathrsquos dissertation64 Khunrathrsquos theses represent a ldquonatural-philosophical concept of a rational hermeneutic of naturerdquo one that sees connections in all things and which orients itself to phenomena on the assumption that the outward appearances forms and visible symmetries of things reveal their inner qualities65 ough Khunrath never mentions him by name in his theses the influence of Paracelsus would have been abundantly clear to anyone familiar with the Philosophia sagax or Astronomia magna (1537-8) so reviled by Libavius where he had argued for the importance of a knowledge of signatures for the identification of the occult properties of nature together with the validity of the lsquouncertain artsrsquo of physiognomy cheiromancy and metoposcopy and the related study of astrology for diagnosis and prognosis66 In his critique of scholastic medicine in Labyrinthus medicorum errantium (1537-41) Paracelsus went so far as to assert that magic was the lsquoAnatomy of Medicinersquo (Anathomia Medicinae) its ldquomistress preceptress and doctoressrdquo67 stressing the

63) Heinrich Khunrath De Signatura rerum naturalium theses (Basel 1588) Univer-sitaumltsbibliothek Basel Diss 148 No 52 See Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 3 2592-259464) Paracelsus De natura rerum 880ff Lib 9 De Signaturis 908-92165) Bachmann and Hofmeier Geheimnisse 160 ldquoein natur-philosophisches Konzept einer rationalen Hermeneutik der Naturrdquo66) Paracelsus Astronomia magna oder die gantze philosophia sagax der grossen und klei-nen Welt ed Michael Toxites (Frankfurt 1571) Lib 1 sigs 60v-63v ldquoProbatio Partic-ularis in Scientiam Signatamrdquo sigs 63v-66r ldquoProbatio in Scientias Artium Incertarumrdquo On the lsquoConjectural arts or sciencesrsquo see Maclean Logic 315-326 On Signatures see Massimo Luigi Bianchi Signatura Rerum Segni Magia e conoscenza da Paracelso a Leibniz (Rome 1987) Wilhelm Kuumlhlmann ldquoOswald Crollius und seine Signaturen-lehre Zum Profil hermetischer Naturphilosophie in der Aumlra Rudolphs IIrdquo in Die okkulten Wissenschaften in der Renaissance Wolfenbuumltteler Abhandlungen zur Renais-ssanceforschung ed A Buck (Wiesbaden 1992) 103-123 67) Paracelsus Labyrinthus medicorum errantium (Nuremberg 1553) Cap 9 sig Gijv ldquo sequitur quod Magica ars sit magistra praeceptrix ac doctorissa Medicinae



difficulty of being experienced in medicine and grasping its innermost heart for those lsquobunglersrsquo unacquainted with the arts of Cabala and Magic68 For the ardent Paracelsian then medicine and occult philosophy were necessarily interconnected With his insistence on combined ldquoknowledge through experience in the Oratory and Laboratoryrdquo69 Khunrath resembles Paracelsus arguing that knowledge gained by ratio et experientia should be augmented by and ultimately subordinated to knowledge of a higher order e true wise man is θεοδιδακτος [theodidaktos] ldquotaught by Godrdquo70 either in hypnotic visions or dream-revelations and union with good (lsquohyperphysicalrsquo) spirits71 Like Paracelsus Khunrath is prepared to resort to any art that might serve the increase of knowledge including ldquoMagic and her sisters Physiognomy Metoposcopy Chiromancy and every Doctrine of the Signature of Natural ings Alchemy Astrology too with her daughter Geomancyrdquo72

ough critical of him in later works Khunrath does not here reject Aristotle who was after all believed to have himself composed a work on physiognomy73 but instead he Christianises the Philosopherrsquos famous dictum from On the Heavens declaring that ldquoGod and Nature do nothing in vainrdquo arguing that everything has been made by Him for a certain end74 In contrast to Libaviusrsquos

eorumque quibus morbos depellimus non autem Galenus non Avicenna aut talesrdquo68) Von dem Schwefel in Paracelsus Opera (1603) 1048 ldquoEs ist ein grosser Grund die Artzney zu erfahren und jhr in jhr Hertz greiffen Aber diese KuumlnstCabalia und Magica seind bey jhnen alle unbekannt Es seind doch Sudlerldquo69) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 42 ldquoscientiam per experientiam in Oratorio amp Labo-ratoriordquo 70) Khunrath Chaos (1708) 248 ldquoθεοδιδακτοι Divinitus edocti von Gott gelehrte Philosophirdquo71) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 168f72) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 91 ldquoMageia amp huic cognatae Physiognomia Meto-poscopia Cheiromantia atque Doctrina de Signatura Rerum Naturalium omnis Alchemia Astrologia quoque cum filia sua Geomantiardquo73) See Zwinger eatrum 236 For Aristotle on physiognomy see Aristotle Minor Works trans WS Hett (Cambridge MA 1936 repr1993) 84-13774) Khunrath eses sigs Aijr I-2 ldquonihil reperiatur hellip cuius non sit certus ac determi-natus in Natura ususrdquo esis IV ldquoDeum amp Naturam nihil facere frustrardquo Cf Aristo-



sole citation of the two ancient medical authorities Galen and Hippocrates Khunrath invokes a wide variety of sources in support of his statements the officially sanctioned classical authorities Aristotle Galen and Pliny the thirteenth-century philosopher Michael Scotus (c1175-c1234) author of the Liber physiognomiae and De alchimia Johannes de Indagine (1467-1537) author of works on astrology cheiromancy and physiognomy the two physicians Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566) and Pier Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) both authorities on botany Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568) student of Andreas Vesalius and author of the popular De occultis naturae miraculis (1567) and contemporaries like Joseph DuChesne the Czech astronomer Tadeaacuteš Hajek (1525-1600) personal physician to Rudolf II and Claude Aubery to whose Physiognomic syllogisms he refers75 From these sources Khunrath defends the idea that the lsquouncertain artsrsquo can identify the latent significations of men76 and argues that a knowledge of signatures can help recognise the properties of plants including Horsetongue Lungwort Winter Cherry Elm Forget-me-not and Fern as well as the virtues of stones like the legendary Aetites (Eaglestone) Lapis Judaicvs (Jew Stone) and Haematite (Bloodstone) By signatures moreover he does not merely intend the qualities of things their colours smells and tastes but also their lsquoquantitiesrsquo their sympathetic and antipathetic lsquomagneticrsquo virtues their lines notes and hieroglyphic figures77 In so doing his theses move from the herba of traditional

tle On the Heavens trans WKC Guthrie (Cambridge MA 1939 repr 1986) 31 For a more antagonistic stance see Chaos (1708) 39-40 for Khunrathrsquos discussion of aether ldquohellip ungeachtet was Aristoteles vergebens dawider schwaumltzet seine Phan-tastereyen Von Ewigkeit der Weltrdquo (regardless of what Aristotle vainly prattles on about it in his phantasies about the eternity of the world)75) Khunrath eses sig Avr esis XXV refers to ldquoIoseph Quercetanus in suo Sclo-petariordquo is was DuChesnersquos 1576 treatise on the treatment of gunshot wounds in which he promotes the benefits of the spagyric art esis XXVI ldquoHinc Claudius Alberius Triuncurianus Losannae Latobrigorum professor Organicus in posteriore lib prior ἀναλυτ suos extruit Physiognomicos syllogismosrdquo76) Khunrath eses sig Aiijr esis IX ldquoEx hoc fonte illa natura ex vultu amp corporis animalium habitu inspectio Physiognomia vulgariter dicta nec non Chiromantia amp Metoposcopia suam accepecircre originemrdquo77) Khunrath eses sig Aijr esis VIII ldquoIntelligimus autem per rerum naturalium



Galenic medicine to the lapides of the chymists including in the process the sympathies and hieroglyphics of magic A similar combination of Galenic and Paracelsian approaches can be found in his most iatrochemical work the ree highly Useful Questions concerning the Treatment of hellip Tartarean Ailments of the Microcosm (1607) dedicated to the ldquothree great lights of Europe in our century eo-and-Philosophers Spagyrics famous Natural Philosophers and Doctors [hellip] Masters Fellow-priests and his dearly loved Friendsrdquo DuChesne Dee and the Hamburg chymist Petrus Hollander78 ere while making the Paracelsian assertion that ldquothere is a great virtue not only in words and herbs but also in stonesrdquo79 he displays an irenicism resembling that of his friend DuChesne attempting to reconcile both medical systems by arguing that their two central axioms ldquoSimilia similibus amp contraria contrarijs curanturrdquo in no way contradict one other80 In contrast to Libavius however Khun-rath shows no interest in publishing recipes of medical reme dies perhaps as Lawrence Principe suggests in the case of Robert Boyle81 reluctant to trivialise the status of alchemy restrict ing its scope in the manner of textbook writers reducing it to the level of a technical exercise to be carried out by distillers refiners and apothecaries indeed he is quite scathing about such books lamenting ldquoAh God many hundreds of Process and Recipe-books are full of the said sophistical stupidities and mal-chemical seductionsrdquo82

Signaturas non solugravem Colores Odores Sapores verugravem etiam earundem Quantitates virtutes sympathicas amp antipathicas Magneticas dictas Lineolas amp Notas q hiero-glyphicas atque figuras ampcrdquo78) Heinrich Khunrath Quaestiones tres per-utiles haud-quaquam praeter mittendae nec non summegrave necessariae cum curationem tum praecautionem absolutam perfectam amp veram arenae sabuli calculi podagrae gonagrae chiragrae aliorumque morborum tar-tareorum microcosmi seu mundi minoris hominis puta concernentes (Leipzig 1607) sig A2v ldquoLumina nostro seculo Europae tria magna eo-ac-Philosophos Spagiros Physicos amp Medicos Percelebres [hellip] Dominos Symmystas amp Amicos suos longegrave cha-rissimosrdquo79) Khunrath Quaestiones Civr ldquoNon duntaxat in verbis amp Herbis sed amp in Lapidi-bus magna est Virtusrdquo80) Ibid sig Bir81) Lawrence M Principe e Aspiring Adept Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest (Princeton 1998) 18682) Khunrath Chaos (1708) 226 ldquoAch Gott gesagter Sophistischer orheiten und



ere can be no doubt that Khunrath saw his doctoral research as of-the-minute for several years later in the first edition of his Amphitheatrum published in Hamburg in 1595 where he propounds a theosophical union of Christian Cabala Divine Magic and Physico-Chemistry he praises Paracelsus for being the one who ldquomost fruitfully fetched this [Doctrine of Signatures] back from the darkness of oblivionrdquo Explaining that ldquoGiovanni Battista della Porta of Naples set it out in another fashion in [his] Phytognomonicsrdquo (on the signa-tures of plants) he expresses the pride he feels at being ldquothe first of all since Paracelsus Della Portarsquos Phytognomonics not yet being seen or available in Germanyrdquo to have ldquopublicly taught and defendedrdquo the Doctrine of Signatures83 Although in truth the term lsquoSigna-turesrsquo had already appeared in Dornrsquos Compendium astronomiae magnae and Hajekrsquos Aphorismorum metoposcopicorum libellus both published in Frankfurt in 158484 Khunrath clearly saw himself as a major proponent of this influential new or revived doctrine which was soon to be adopted by other Paracelsian physicians like DuChesne and Croll85 He assures his readers that Signatures are the ldquoPhysico-medical Alphabet in the Book of Naturerdquo and warns

Arg-Chymistischer Verfuumlhrungen seynd viel hundert Process und Recept-Buumlcher vollrdquo83) Heinrich Khunrath Totique celestis exercitus spiritualis militiae proximo suo fideli et sibimetipsi naturae atque arti Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae solius verae (Ham-burg 1595) 17 Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 152 ldquoHoc Philippus eophrastus Paracelsus hellip agrave tenebris oblivionis in lucem fructuosissimegrave revocavit Iohan Baptista Porta Neapolitana in Phytognomonicis aliquo modo explicuit Ego (post Paracelsum primus omnium Phytognomonicis Portae in Germania nondum extantibus nec visis) ex consilio amp decreto amplissimi Collegii Medici in Basileensium Academia pro Doc-toris gradu in Medicina consequendo Iehovah summo iuvante esibus affixis viginti octo publicegrave docui atque defendi Anno Christi 1588 die 24 Augusti helliprdquo Della Portarsquos Phytognomonica hellip In quibus nova facillimaque affertur methodus qua plan-tarum animalium metallorum rerum denique omnium ex prima extimae faciei inspec-tione quivis abditas vires assequatur was published in Naples 158884) Gerard Dorn Commentaria in Archidoxorum libros X D Doctoris eophrasti Para-celsi quibus accessit Compendium astronomiae magnae eiusdem autoris (Frankfurt 1584) 521ff T Hagecii ab Hayck Aphorismorum metoposcopicorum libellus unus (Frankfurt 1584) 2085) Josephus Quercetanus De priscorum philosophorum verae medicinae materia hellip deque simplicium amp rerum signaturis tum externis tum internis seu specificis (Geneva



that any physician who refuses to learn them will remain ldquoone-eyed (monoculus) and lame in medicinerdquo86

Defining Practices Physico-Medicine and Physico-Chemistry

In the Amphitheatrum Khunrath also provides definitions of his various practices ones that immediately locate him in the camp of Hermetic philosophers with his promotion of the doctrine of cor-respondences between the greater and lesser worlds Physico-Medicine is defined as ldquothe art of knowing the great Book of Nature (macro and micro-cosmically) so that you might read hellip Yourself in the greater World and vice versa the greater World in Yourself to conserve the health of the human body and to expel ills from itrdquo87 Rather than the Galenic notion of sickness as an internal im balance of humours we have instead the Paracelsian notion of disease as an interloper needing to be ejected88 Khunrathrsquos hermetic outlook is explicit too in his definition of Physico-Chemistry as ldquothe art of chemically dissolving hellip purifying and suitably reuniting Physical ings the universal (macro-cosmically the Philosophersrsquo Stone micro-cosmically the parts of the human body) and the particulars everything in the inferior globerdquo89 It is important to note that save for the reference to the micro- and macro-cosms this definition would have been relatively acceptable to Libavius who would find

1603) Oswald Croll Basilica chymica (Frankfurt 1609) Tractatus de signaturis inter-nis rerum seu de vera et viva anatomia majori amp minoris mundi (Frankfurt 1609)86) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 152 ldquoHoc Alphabetum in Naturae libro Physico-medicum quod qui discere respuit monoculus manebit amp claudicans in Medicinardquo 87) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 147 [mispaginated as 145] ldquoPhysicomedicina est ars cognoscendi Librum Naturae (Macro amp MicroCosmicegrave) magnum ita ut legere possis Temetipsum in Mundo maiore amp contra Mundum maiorem in Teipso ad hu mani corporis sanitatem tuendam morbosque profligandosrdquo88) Walter Pagel Paracelsus An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (Basel 1958) 140 Jole Shackelford A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine e Ideas Intellectual Context and Influence of Petrus Severinus 1540-1602 (Copenhagen 2004) 18589) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 147 ldquoPhysicochemia est ars methodo Naturae Chemicegrave solvendi depurandi amp ritegrave reuniendi Res Physicas Universalem (MacroCos-micegrave Lapidem Philosophorum MicroCosmicegrave corporis humani partes [hellip]) amp par-ticulares globi inferioris omnesrdquo



little to repudiate in Khunrathrsquos assertion that Physico-Chemistry is an art of analysis providing ldquothe precious essences of Vegetables of Animals and their parts of Minerals of Stones of Gems of Pearls and of Metals and even the Philosophersrsquo Stonerdquo90 In Alchemia Libavius similarly defines alchemy as the art of extracting perfect magisteries and pure essences valuable to medicine dividing alchemy into two main parts Encheria knowledge of chemical procedure and laboratory equipment with further subdivisions into Elaboratio the chemical operations of solution distillation and so on and Exal-tatio the production of higher activity in a substance and Chymia description of substances and their properties the ma gisteries the quintessence and so forth91 On a pragmatic level the two men share common interests Libavius devotes many pages of De scevastica artis (1606) to the discussion of laboratory design and equipment including detailed depictions of ovens stills and other laboratory apparatus In Warhafftiger Bericht vom philosophischen Athanore (1599 1603) Khunrath similarly writes about his own new design for the construction of an alchemical furnace which even receives a fav-ourable mention by Libavius92 ose quick to distinguish the two by pointing out the lsquotheosophicalrsquo and lsquohiero glyphicrsquo figures (Chris-tian-Cabalist Sigillum Dei Adam-Androgyne alchemical Rebis and so forth) in Khunrathrsquos Amphi theatrum could also bear in mind William Newmanrsquos moderation of Hannawayrsquos positivistic portrayal of Libavius in the discussion of how he bases his laboratory plan on Deersquos Hieroglyphic Monad93

Sometimes Libavius even finds himself drawing support from Paracelsian works in the defence and promotion of chrysopoeia and certain kinds of chymiatria such as the use of potable gold against gainsayers like Nicholas Guibert (c1547-c1620) chief physician

90) Ibid 163 ldquoVegetabilium Animalium partiumque eorundum Mineralium Lapi-dum Gemmarum Margaritarum amp Metallorum Essentias praetiosas subtilitatesque salutariter efficacissimasrdquo91) Hubicki Dictionary 311 Partington History 253 92) Libavius Examen philosophiae novae 14493) William R Newman ldquoAlchemical Symbolism and Concealment e Chemical House of Libaviusrdquo in e Architecture of Science ed Peter Galison and Emily omp-son (Cambridge MA 1999) 59-77



of the Papal States the conservative Parisian Galenist Jean Riolan the elder (1539-1606) and Erastus94 As Newman makes clear Libavius may be an Aristotelian but of a far different sort to Erastus95 us he makes ready use of the Paracelsian Bernard Penotrsquos edition of Gaston Claveus DuClorsquos Apologia chrysopoeiae et argyropoeiae adversus omam Erastum (1598)96 and shows at least a modicum of support for DuChesne and Turquet de Mayerne when their alchemical medicine is censured by the Parisian faculty97

Oratory amp LaboratorymdashSeparation or Union

Despite some similarities however there is a fundamental difference in philosophical outlook While Libavius might acknowledge some important services of Paracelsus in the realm of chemical medicine98 in publications like Neoparacelsica (1594) and Examen philosophiae novae (1615) he fiercely defends the culture of traditional education and university auctoritas against the disruptive Paracelsian emphasis

94) See for example Novus de medicina veterum tam Hippocratica quam Hermetica tractatus (Frankfurt 1599) for his defence of chemical medicine and Defensio et de claratio perspicua alchymiae transmutatoriae opposita N Guiperti (1604) against Nicholas Guibertrsquos assault on transmutational alchemy in Alchymia ratione et experientia (1603)95) See William R Newman Atoms and Alchemy Chymistry and the Experimental Ori-gins of the Scientific Revolution (Chicago 2006) especially Chapter 2 on Erastus and Chapter 3 on Libavius96) Apologia chrysopoeiae et argyropoeiae adversus omam Erastum doctorum et profes-sorum medicinae In qua disputatur et docetur an quid et quomodo sit chrysopoeia et argyropoeia Authore Gastone Claveo subpraeside Nivernensi Nunc primum a Bernardo G Penoto a Porta S Mariae Aquitano cum annotationibus marginalibus edita (Geneva 1598) On DuClo see Lawrence M Principe ldquoDiversity in Alchemy e Case of Gaston lsquoClaveusrsquo DuClo a Scholastic Mercurialist Chrysopoeianrdquo in Debus and Wal-ton eds Reading the Book of Nature 169-18597) See Libavius Alchymia triumphans de iniusta in se collegii Galenici spurii in academia Parisiensi censura (Frankfurt 1607) for his response to the anonymously published Apologia pro Hippocratis et Galeni medicina adversus Quercetani librum de priscorum philosophorum verae medicinae materia hellip Accessit censura scholae Parisiensis (Paris 1603) is was itself a reaction to Duchesnersquos De priscorum philosophorum verae medicinae materia (1603)98) Partington History 244 253



on the practitioner as inspired ldquoex revelatione occultardquo be that the Light of Nature or the Light of Grace in Khunrathrsquos case for example signatures and dream-visions99 e best-known illustration in Khunrathrsquos Amphitheatrum is that of the Oratory-Laboratory (Fig 1) with which he emphasises the necessary relation of theology and natural philosophy the inseparability of work and prayer most explicitly stated in his condemnation of those who ldquoquite un-

99) For Libaviusrsquos rejection of the Paracelsian doctrine of two Lights see Examen philosophiae novae 4 See Moran Andreas Libavius ch 6 For more on Libaviusrsquos antiparacelsianism see Carlos Gilly ldquoe lsquofifth columnrsquo within Hermetism Andreas Libaviusrdquo in Magia alchimia scienza dal lsquo400 al lsquo700 Magic Alchemy and Science 15th-18th Centuries ed Carlos Gilly 2 vols (Florence 2002) 1 409-415

Fig 1 Oratory-Laboratory engraving from Heinrich Khunrath Amphitheatrum Sapi-entiae aeternae ([Hamburg] 1595) By courtesy of the Department of Special Collec-tions Memorial Library University of Wisconsin-Madison



philosophically divide Oratory and Laboratory from one anotherrdquo100 While Libavius strives to separate these realms of existence Khunrath seeks to bring them together Paracelsus had stated that ldquoese two callingsmdashthe promulgation of the word of God and the healing of the sickmdashmust not be separated from each other Since the body is the dwelling place of the soul the two are connected and the one must open access to the otherrdquo101 With the declaration that ldquoCabala Magic and Alchemy should and must be conjoined with one anotherrdquo102 Khunrath reaffirms this on a more esoteric level Christoph Gottlieb von Murr recognised this in his argument that Khunrath was the main person responsible for taking Paracelsian science in a new direction with theosophical astrological magical and cabalistical inclinations103 More recently Antoine Faivre has identified him as one of three lsquoproto-theosophersrsquo (with Johann Arndt and Valentin Weigel) responsible for incorporating Paracelsusrsquos speculations about cosmic sympathies existing between different levels of reality into a ldquomore global visionrdquo104 Such an ambition is evident for example in On Primordial Chaos where Khunrath writes

In the Laboratory hellip I have seen the Green Catholic Lion of Nature and of the physico-alchemists hellip I have with care Catholically taken the Green Line of the Cabalists naturally penetrating the whole world Catholically hellip [and] I have

100) Khunrath Chaos (1708) 252 ldquoDas Oratorium und Laboratorium trennen sie gantz unPhilosophisch von einanderrdquo101) Paracelsus Selected Writings ed Jolande Jacobi trans Norbert Guterman (Prin-ceton 1995) 68 Die drei Buumlcher des Opus Paramirum in Paracelsus Saumlmtliche Werke ed Karl Sudhoff and Wilhelm Matthiessen Part 1 Vol 9 70-71 ldquodan die zwo pro-fession werden sich nicht von einander scheiden dieweil der leib der selen haus ist so hangt eins am andern und oumlfnet ie eins das anderldquo102) Heinrich Khunrath De igne magorum philosophorumque secreto externo et visibili (Strassburg 1608) 95 ldquoKabala Magia Alchymia Conjugendaelig Sollen und muumlssen mit und neben einander angewendet werdenldquo103) Christoph Gottlieb von Murr Uumlber den wahren Ursprung der Rosenkreuzer und des Freymaurerordens (Sulzbach 1803) 8104) Antoine Faivre eosophy Imagination Tradition Studies in Western Esotericism trans Christine Rhone (New York 2000) 6



smelt and tasted the Blessed natural Green of Natural Magicians that naturally cultivates all natural things105

is may sound lsquomysticalrsquo to the modern reader but it does not automatically mean that Khunrath blurs distinctions between natural and supernatural realms of experience indeed he is careful to clarify that while manrsquos union with God is the concern of Cabala the fermentation of the Philosophersrsquo Stone is the work of Physico-Chemistry106

In Syntagmatis arcanorum et commentationum chymicarum (1613) Libavius condemns those who ldquostray from true alchemy into magicrdquo pointing the finger of blame at the famous medieval investigator of alchemy and magic Albertus Magnus at the Benedictine abbot Jo hannes Trithemius (1462-1516) and his proteacutegeacute Heinrich Cor-nelius Agrippa (1486-1535) author of the best-known encyclo paedia of magic De occulta philosophia (1533) and predictably at Para-celsus107 He singles out Khunrath and his Amphitheatrum as a representative of that ldquoconspiracy with devilsrdquo lsquoMagia Gabalisticarsquo asking why Paracelsians corrupt the name of Jesus by cabalistically writing IHSVH in the character of a cross thereby breaking the second commandment against taking Godrsquos name in vain108 Although he doesnrsquot name Khunrath here anyone familiar with the Amphitheatrum will immediately recognise a reference to its first cir-

105) Khunrath Chaos (1708) 91-93 ldquoin Laboratorio ich sahe den Gruumlnen Catho-lischen Loumlwen der Natur und Naturgemaumlssen Alchymisten ich hab in acht genom-men die Gruumlne die gantze Weld Catholisch durchgehende Natuumlrliche Lineam der Cabalisten Catholisch ich hab gerochen und geschmecket die Gesegnete der Naturgemaumlssen Magorum Natuumlrliche Gruumlne so alle Natuumlrliche Dinge Natuumlrlich zeu-getrdquo106) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 203107) Andreas Libavius Syntagmatis arcanorum et commentationum chymicarum (Frank-furt 1660) Appendix 1615 242 ldquoDeinde non si agrave vera quoque Alchymia aliqui in magiam deflectunt crimen est ipsius Alchymiae quale quid tributus Alberto amp Tri-themio amp Agrippae item Paracelso ampcrdquo108) Libavius Examen philosophiae novae 103 ldquoFundamentum diabolica magia der Gabel-fahrt hoc est Gabalistica Nota columnas magiae falsas quibus se amp alios decipiunt magi unica columna est conspiratio cum Diabolis ad aliquid ex sententia faciendum Amphitheatrum Trasybulirdquo For further references to Khunrathrsquos Amphi-theatrum see also Examen 62 101 144



cular figure the Sigillum Dei featuring Christ resurrected surrounded by Johann Reuchlinrsquos wonder-working Christian-Cabalist word Ihsvh109 One wonders about Libaviusrsquos relations with Zwinger at this point for he must surely have been aware that Khunrath cites the Basel professorrsquos Hippocratic Tables as a reference to Cabala a subject about which Zwinger must have had more than passing knowledge given his long-term correspondence with Postel110

Libavius thoroughly disapproves of the doctrine of Signatures for it typifies the magical worldview that he wants to keep separate from medicine and alchemy In Examen philosophiae novae (1615) he ridicules all those who write on signatures (naming Paracelsus DuChesne Croll Della Porta and Severinus) quipping ldquowhat is like a head helps the head like a hand the hand what is red the blood hellip so all grapes then will help the heads of Bacchaerdquo before going on to rail against other Paracelsian abo mina tions like magical mirrors diabolical seals and celestially infused gamahaea111 As an adherent of Aristotelian philosophy with its insistence that action only takes place through physical contact he is particularly incensed by the Paracelsian belief in action at a distance as expressed in their weapon salve whereby wounds could be sympathetically cured by anointing the weapon with a lsquomagneticrsquo ointment112 For him this must have sounded suspiciously close to other practices advocated by Paracelsus such as in De ima ginibus where he discusses magically curing a person by anointing their image113 e extent of Libaviusrsquos concern is already evident in the first of his Tractatus dvo physici

109) Ibid 28 ldquoSi non depravant vias Dei rectas cur in sua Cabala tam audacter pec-cant contra secundum praeceptum Cur in scripturis Paracelsicae exponendis In nom-ine Iesu corrumpendo (scribunt enim IHSVH) in Iehouah charactere crucis aliisque tam sunt impijrdquo See Johann Reuchlin De verbo mirifico (1494)110) Franccedilois Secret Les kabbalistes chreacutetiens de la Renaissance (Paris 1964) 190 ey corresponded for 14 years from 1566 to 1580 Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 101 Zwinger Hippocratis Coi hellip commentarii 37111) Libavius Examen philosophiae novae 119 121 ldquoNum quod simile capiti est caput iuvat quod manui manum quod rubrum sanguinem quod album lac amp sic dein-ceps Omnes ergo uvae ratione baccarum iuvabunt caputrdquo112) See for example Paracelsus Archidoxes of Magic (London 1655) 118 For more see Moran Andreas Libavius ch 14113) Pagel Paracelsus 149 n 63



(1594) where he proposes no fewer than 315 themata De hoplo-chrismate impostorio Paracelsistarum in which he argues against the whole concept of magical attraction and rejects as impious the proposition that wounds can be healed by the magnetic power of medicine because ldquoGod hates that attractive magicrdquo114 In stark contrast Khunrath in De igne magorum (1608) defends the weapon-salve and ridicules as lsquothick headsrsquo those who are incapable of conceiving of any natural contact other than corporeal115 Libavius however always remains resolutely corporeal in his approach expressing his misgivings in letters to a fellow physician Sigismund Schnitzer warning him in 1599 that Paracelsians ldquodonrsquot intend natural metals but magical or mystical or hiero gly phicalrdquo and pointedly remarking in 1607 that ldquoChymists seek spiritual remedies against spiritual ills but they are nevertheless corporeal things they are not cured by hyperphysical Spiritsrdquo116 is fairly rare use of the Greek term lsquohyperphysicalrsquo rather than the Latin lsquosupernaturalrsquo is quite possibly a direct reaction against Khunrath who in the Amphitheatrum describes his revelatory practice of ldquopious and useful conversation hellip with good Angelsrdquo as lsquoHyper physical Magicrsquo117

114) Andreas Libavius Tractatus duo physici prior de impostoria vulnerum per unguen-tum armarium sanatione Paracelsicis usitata commendataque posterior de cruentatione cadaverum in iusta caede factorum praesente qui occidisse creditur (Frankfurt 1594) 74 ldquoDeum odisse magiam illam attractricemrdquo115) Khunrath De igne 74-75 ldquosie keinen andern Contactum Physicum oder Natuumlr-liche beruumlhrung dann nur allein corporeum Crassum (Ocirc Capita Crassa) nec non oculis corporeis visibilem den Leiblichen groben (O grobe Koumlpff) und mit Leibli-chen Augen sichtbarem wissenrdquo116) Libavius in Sigismundus Schnitzer Cista medica quacirc in epistolae clarissimorum Germaniae medicorum familiaries amp in re medica tam quoad Hermetica amp chymica quam etiam Galenica principia (Nuremberg nd) [1599] 25 ldquonon proposita illis fuisse Metalla Naturalia sed magica vel Mystica aut hyeroglyphicardquo [1607] 79 ldquoQuaerunt Chymici Spiritualia remedia contra morbos spirituales sed illa nihilominus sunt cor-poralia nec curantur agrave Spiritibus hyperphysicisrdquo117) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 147 [mispaginated as 145] ldquoHyperphysicomageia hellip est cum Angelis bonis pia amp utilis conversatiordquo e term can also be found in Clemens Timpler Physicae seu philosophiae naturalis systema methodicum (Hanau 1605) 27-28 in a discussion of whether the world was made by God physically by generation or hyperphysically by creation Timplerrsquos publisher was Guilielmus Anto-nius who printed the expanded edition of Khunrathrsquos Amphitheatrum in 1609



Contrary however to Libaviusrsquos damning depiction of the Paracelsians in his description of the three medical sects at the beginning of this article to the best of my knowledge no follower of Paracelsus advocates the summoning of devils and Khunrath piously repudiates necromancy on more than one oc ca sion118

Conclusion

While it may seem that by 1588 a full decade after Moffetrsquos initial troublesome promotion with such an abundance of Paracelsian literature available on its doorstep the Basel medical faculty would surely have moved with the times and displayed greater tolerance for Paracelsian theories it is worth considering that three years later in 1591 when Johannes Huser is busy publishing Paracelsusrsquos Opera (Erster eil 1589-90) the aged Paracelsian Bernhard Penot (c1522-1617) like DuChesne before him in 1573 ended up being promoted in secret this time at the house of Felix Platter having to promise to continue to zealously read Hippocrates and Galen and not to speak or write openly against their doctrines119

Notwithstanding these academic reservations at Basel it is un de-niable that some of the facultyrsquos Paracelsian alumni did particularly well for themselves DuChesne served as physician to Henri IV of France Croll to Christian I of Anhalt and Khunrath to Emperor Rudolf IIrsquos second-in-command Count Vileacutem Rožmberk Libavius on the other hand never gained aristocratic patronage as a chemical physician Following his graduation he spent several years as Professor of History and Poetry at the University of Jena then worked as municipal physician inspector of schools and teacher in Rothenburg before living out his final years as rector of the Gymnasium Casimirianum Academicum until his death in 1616120 Not that this deterred him from his voluminous writing on chemical matters

118) Khunrath Amphitheatrum II 99 122119) Burckhardt Geschichte 158-159 Hieronymus eophrast und Galen 4 3614 Khunrath incidentally singles out ldquoder gute Penotusldquo for praise in both De igne 113 and Chaos (1708) 281120) Hubicki Dictionary 309 Multhauf ldquoLibavius and Beguinrdquo



and defense of chemical medicine Despite his dislike of Khunrathrsquos interest in magic we find occasional signs of common ground such as his acknowledgement of Khunrathrsquos practical publication on the athanor For those seeking philological evidence of different early modern formulations of chemistry it is intriguing to note that both men distinguish between lsquoAlchemiarsquo derived from παρα τὸ χέεσθαι [para to cheesthai] that is ldquoto make liquidrdquo and lsquoAlchymiarsquo from παρὰ του χυμου [para tou chymou] from ldquojuicerdquo or ldquosweatrdquo each respectively employing the former on the title pages of the first editions of the Amphitheatrum (1595) and Alchemia (1597) each later opting for the latter in the later editions121

It may appear obvious that the Paracelsian cause was well under way by 1609 when much to Libaviusrsquos chagrin Johannes Hartmann (1568-1631) editor of Crollrsquos Basilica chymica was appointed the very first professor of chemiatry at the University of Marburg It is somewhat sobering to discover that as late as 1613 the Basel faculty passed a decree that public disputants could not insert Paracelsian doctrines into their theses to be printed and distributed without the Deanrsquos consent122 In this light Khunrathrsquos theses defending the Doctrine of Signatures and his subsequent graduation ldquowith highest honoursrdquo on 3 September 1588 perhaps deserve more recognition than they have received for their astute negotiation of the boundaries of institutional tolerance123

121) Khunrath Chaos (1708) 158 ldquoNonnulli deducunt παρὰ τὸ χέεσθαι quod est Liquo Et scribunt per e Alii παρὰ του χυμου he agrave Succo vel Sapore quem arte exu-gunt Chymici sicut in Homine ceterisque Animalibus Natura Et scribunt per y Hinc Arabibus ALKYmiardquo Cf Andreas Libavius Rerum chymicarum epistolica forma ad phi-losophos et medicos qvosdam in Germania Vol 1 (Frankfurt 1595) 82-84 ldquoDe Nota-tione chymiaeligrdquo122) Burckhardt Geschichte 160 [June 11 1613] ldquostatutum ne Decanus illis qui pub-lice disputant concedat ut multa vel illa quae remedia chymica referunt et eo-phrasti Paracelsi Doctrinam sapere videntur esibus inserant et ne theses nisi a Decano subscriptas imprimantur et distribuanturrdquo123) Die Matrikel der Universitaumlt Basel ed Hans Georg Wackernagel et al (Basel 1956) 2 361 no 79 Johann Moller Cimbria literata (Copenhagen 1744) 2 440 ldquoSupremos artis Medicae honores Basileae A 1588rdquo



two kinds of medical chemist e Chymiatri base their practice on conventional academic theory derived from the ancients supple-menting it with anything they find of use in the realm of chemically prepared medicines1 some of whom are wont to use Hermetic and parabolic discourse but are nonetheless genuine chymiatrists e Paracelsisti however whom Libavius elsewhere calls the foremost opponents of Aristotle2 practise the magic in their masterrsquos Philo-sophia sagax a book filled with necromancy vain astrology signatures uncertain arts and the summoning of devils or spirits eir works are founded on paradoxes absurdities and madness3

Libavius for his part is a chymiatrist defending his medical theses in Basel on 5 July 1588 and a relatively well-known figure in the history of chymistry having been one of the two major protagonists in Owen Hannawayrsquos e Chemists amp the Word (1975) ere he is presented as both a conservative reactionary to Paracel-sianism and at the same time author of the ldquofirst definitive textbookrdquo of chemistry the Alchemia of 15974 His opposite number in

1) Allen G Debus e French Paracelsians e Chemical Challenge to Medical and Sci-entific Tradition in Early Modern France (Cambridge 1991) 61-622) Prodromus vitalis philosophiae Paracelsistarum in Andreas Libavius Examen philo-sophiae novae quae veteri abrogandae opponitur (Frankfurt 1615) 1-12 at 33) Andreas Libavius Commentariorum alchymiae pars prima sex libris declarata (Frank-furt 1606) Aa2v-Aa3r ldquo[Paracelsus] qui propriam hellip sectam condidit coacervatis ex omni paradoxorum absurdorumque amp deliramentorum angulo portentis hellip In hac Philosophia est ars Diabolos seu spiritus evocandirdquo On Paracelsus and magic see Kurt Goldammer ldquoMagie bei Paracelsusrdquo in Kurt Goldammer Paracelsus in neuen Hori-zonten Gesammelte Aufsaumltze Salzburger Beitraumlge zur Paracelsusforschung 24 (Vienna 1986) 321-342 and the third chapter of Goldammerrsquos Der goumlttliche Magier und die Magierin Natur (Stuttgart 1991) See also chapter 3 in Wolf-Dieter Muumlller-Jahncke Astrologisch-magische eorie und Praxis in der Heilkunde der Fruumlhen Neuzeit (Stutt-gart 1985)4) Owen Hannaway e Chemists amp the Word e Didactic Origins of Chemistry (Bal-timore and London 1975) 75 80 Cf JR Partington A History of Chemistry (Lon-don 1961) 2 247 Debus French Paracelsians 61 For more on Libavius see Wlodzimierz Hubickirsquos entry in e Dictionary of Scientific Biography ed Charles Coulston Gillispie (New York 1973) 8 309-312 Lynn orndike ldquoLibavius and chemical controversyrdquo in A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York 1964) 6 238-253 Robert P Multhauf ldquoLibavius and Beguinrdquo in Great Chemists ed Eduard Farber (New York and London 1961) 65-79 Bruce T Moran Andreas














Paracelsus in Basel



















































































































Conclusion






















Paracelsus in Basel



















































































































Conclusion

























































































































Conclusion










forshaw, paradoxes, absurdities and madness

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