living the long life

8/11/2019 Living the Long Life

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/living-the-long-life 1/34

347

Living the Long Life: Physical and Spiritual Health in Two Early Paracelsian Tracts

Thomas Willard

Abstract

Paracelsus wrote two early tracts on longevity, in which he discussed thetheory and practice of preserving human life beyond the normal limits.

They received considerable attention in the sixteenth century, but verylittle afterward. Indeed, they have developed a reputation as incoherentramblings that are full of superstition, strange words, and coded messagesto disciples. However, they reward attention because they promote a ho-listic or integrative approach to medicine, in which physical, mental, andspiritual health are not to be separated. Here he has made use of manytraditions, including alchemy, astrology, herbology, folklore, neoplato-

nism, and biblical interpretation.

Paracelsus schrieb zwei frŸhe Traktate zur Langlebigkeit, in denen er die Theorie und Praxis der Erhaltung menschlichen Lebens jenseits der nor-malen Grenzen diskutierte. Sie lenkten im 16. Jahrhundert gro§e Auf-merksamkeit auf sich, spŠter aber scheint man sie weitgehend ignoriertbzw. missachtet zu haben. Genau betrachtet zogen sie sich den Ruf zu,nichts als inkohŠrentes Geschwafel darzustellen und Texte zu sein, die voll

von Aberglauben, fremden Wšrtern und verschlŸsselten Nachrichten anSchŸler strotzten. Sie verdienen aber trotzdem unsere Beachtung, weil sieeinen ganzheitlichen oder integrativen Ansatz zur Medizin gefšrdert ha-ben, bei dem kšrperliche, seelische und geistige Gesundheit nicht vonei-

nander getrennt werden. Hier hat Paracelsus aus vielen Traditionen ge-schšpft, einschlie§lich Alchemie, Astrologie, KrŠuterkunde, Volkskunde,neuplatonische Philosophie und biblische Interpretation.



Thomas Willard348

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493Ð1541) wrote two tractsÒon long lifeÓ ( de vita longa ). Dated 1526 and 1527,1 they were completedbefore he left his position as BaselÕs city physician and before he began topublish medical texts under the name Paracelsus. After they were post-humously printed, between 1560 and 1570, they were recognized as integ-ral texts in the Paracelsian canon Ð texts that both deserved and neededcommentary. They were translated into English and other languages, butneither has received much scholarly attention in the last century.2 The lackof interest is surprising, inasmuch as the tracts call for a unified approachto physical and spiritual health and for a medical practice that would now

be termed integrative or holistic . This essay offers an English-language perspective on these tracts andon the Paracelsian approach to living a long life. After discussing theirsixteenth-century editions, it turns to English translations of the sevente-enth and nineteenth centuries and to some twentieth-century commentsavailable to English readers. It ends with a textual analysis.

The 1526 tract was written in German as a single essay without chap-ter and book divisions. The 1527 tract was dictated in German, in eitherfour or five books, but it survives in a Latin translation with only a fewfragments of the original German. The titles are remarkably similar. TheGerman text was first issued under the Latin title Liber de vita longa (or Delonga vita ), while the Latin tract appeared as Libri quatuor de vita longa ( Libri quinque in the second edition). For convenience, I shall refer to the first by

its German title, Vom langen Leben , and to the second by its shorter Latintitle, De vita longa.

Vom langen Leben is the companion piece of a German treatise on re-novation and restoration ( De renovatione et restauratione ). The two parts mayhave reached their final version in 1526, when Paracelsus had a medicalpractice in Stra§burg. They were clearly connected to his Òprincipalteachings,Ó which he called his archidoxa ,3 though the exact relationship

was not established. Meanwhile, De vita longa is just as clearly the sequel to _____________

1 Approximate dates of composition are assigned in the standard edition: Paracelsus: SŠmtli-che Werke, ed. by Karl Sudhoff and Wilhelm Matthiessen, Part 1: Medizinische, naturwis-senschaftliche und philosophische Schriften, 14 vols., Munich 1922Ð1933. Hereafter Sud-hoff. Complementing this edition, Karl Sudhoff: Bibliographia Paracelsica: Besprechung

der unter Theophrast von Hohenheim's 1527Ð1893 erschienen Druckschriften. Berlin1894, remains the standard reference for early books by and about Paracelsus; I thereforegive Sudhoff item numbers in the bibliography.

2 For example, neither tract is mentioned in Charles WebsterÕs excellent Paracelsus: Medici-ne, Magic and Mission at the End of Time. New Haven and London 2008. Meanwhile,neither text is excerpted in the otherwise fine new anthology Paracelsus: Essential Rea-dings, ed. by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Berkeley, CA, 1999 (Essential Readings).

3 See The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Oxford and New York 1989 (1st ed.1928),ãarchidoxisÒ, on the wordÕs etymology and early uses by English readers of Paracelsus.



Living the Long Life 349

Vom langen Leben , for the first sentence promises a ÒfurtherÓ comment onthe long life:

Since it is becoming to Theophrastus that he should philosophize further con-cerning long life, it is necessary, in the first place, and worthy to be known, in myjudgment, what life is, especially immortal life . . . 4

[Si de vita longa Theophrastum philosophari fas est, necessarium primo scrituquedignum, quid vita sit, existimo, maxime vero immortalis . . . ]5

The opening sentence makes it clear that Paracelsus plans to go beyondthe first tract on long life, widening the scope to include immortal life.6

The one question is why the full text survives only in Latin, and the ans-

wer is found in the edition prepared by Johann Huser. The text was com-posed in German and then translated by the young Johann Oporinus ( nŽHerbst; 1507Ð1568), who assisted Paracelsus in Basel.7 Huser, a physicianfrom Cologne, found German samples ( Teutsche Exemplaria ) in the as-sistantÕs papers and realized that Oporinus Òdid not follow the authorÕsintention [ Meinung ] in several places.Ó8 In the 1550s, when Oporinus wasestablished as a Basel philologist, he wrote often-quoted accounts of adrunken Paracelsus dictating new texts at all hours. For example:

wenn er besonders betrunken war, (er) nach Hause zurŸckgekehrt mir etwas vonseiner Philosophia zu diktieren, das so schšn zusammenhŠngend zu sein schien,da§ es der NŸchternste offensichtlich nicht hŠtte besser machen kšnnen. Ich wardann beflissen, diese Diktate, so gut ich konnte, in die lateinsche Sprache zu Ÿbe-zertzen.9

[When he was very drunk, he returned home to dictate to me some of his philo-sophy, which seemed so coherent that not even the soberest, most enterprising

_____________

4 Paracelsus: The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings, ed. by Arthur Edward Waite, 2 vols.London 1894, vol. 2, p. 323. Hereafter Waite.

5 Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 249. When reproducing Latin quotations, I have modernized the spellingsomewhat and have expanded abbreviations; thus breuis becomes brevis, n› becomes non,and quinq; becomes qunique.

6 Paracelsus briefly touches on the subject in Vom langen Leben, calling it ÒoccultÓ (verbor-gen); see Waite, vol. 2, p. 116, and Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 234. Here he paraphrases 1 Cor. 2:13.

7 Gerard Dorn refers to Oporinus as the amanuensis of Paracelsus and the translator of thistract. See his note to the reader in Paracelsus: Libri v De vita longa, brevi et sana. Frankfurta. M.: Christoff Rab, 1583, signature a4r. In book citations, the word ÒsignatureÓ is hereaf-

ter abbreviated Òsig.Ó8 Sechster Theil der BŸcher und Schriften . . . Paracelsi, ed. by Johann Huser. Frankfurt:

Heirs of Johann Wechel, 1603 (1st ed. 1589), p. 105. The fragments cover pp. 105Ð113 inthis edition and are reprinted in Sudhoff, vol. 3, pp. 293Ð308.

9 Letter to Konrad Gessner, quoted in Udo Benzenhšfer: Paracelsus. Reinbek bei Hamburg1997, p. 65. Also see OporinusÕs letter to Johann Weyer, dated Nov. 26, 1555, in SeppDomandl: ãParacelsus, Weyrer, Oporin: Die HintergrŸnde des Pamphlets von 1555Ò. Para-celsus Werk und Wirkung: Festgabe fŸr Kurt Goldammer zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. by SeppDomandl. Vienna 1975, pp. 53Ð70, esp. pp. 54Ð56.



Thomas Willard350

fellow could have done better. I was then eager to translate these dictations, asbest I could, into the Latin language.]

It is tempting to imagine a yawning student aide trying to keep up with theilluminated (or simply ÒlitÓ) physician, and there are sudden asides anddigressions in the text to support such a picture Ð for example, ÒSome

who have reached that age [i.e., 600 years] might be enumerated, did notmy pen [ calamus ] hasten in another direction.Ó10 Nevertheless, the use ofchapter divisions and topic sentences suggests a plan behind even thisfarthest extension of the authorÕs Archidoxa.

The first printings of Vom langen Leben and De vita longa were issued

during what Karl Sudhoff has called the third phase of Paracelsian publi-cation. The first phase included works published during the authorÕslifetime, and the second works reprinted after his death. The third phase,

which Sudhoff dates 1560Ð1588, was Òthe time of the publication of ma-nuscripts from HohenheimÕs estate in various special editions by Boden-stein, Dorn, Toxites, and othersÓ ( Die Zeit der Herausgabe des handschriftlichen

Nachlasses HohenheimÕs in zahlreichen Sonderausgaben von Bodenstein, Dorn, Toxi- tes und Andern ).11 De vita longa appeared in 1560, the first of many Paracelsi-an tracts collected by the Swiss physician Adam von Bodenstein (1528Ð 1577) and published in Basel by Peter Perna (1522Ð1582).12

Bodenstein was a member of the medical faculty in Basel, where Para-celsus had lectured. He was the author of small books on gout and plagueas well as a commentary on the Rosarium philosophorum , one of the first

printed books of alchemy. He became interested in Paracelsus after herecovered from a serious bout of tertian fever and credited his recovery toa Paracelsian preparation. He considered himself Òthe first doctor tograduate from a university and take up the wholesome and honest doctri-

_____________

10 Waite, vol. 2, p. 345; cf. Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 287. The word translated as ÒpenÓ (calamus) hasthe literal meaning of ÒreedÓ and in other contexts could be translated ÒpanpipeÓ.

11 Sudhoff: Bibliographia Paracelsica, p. 60. For information on Bodenstein, Dorn, and Toxites, see Urs Leo Gantenbein: ãDer frŸhe Paracelsismus in der SchweizÒ. In: Nova Acta Paracelsica 10 (1996), pp. 14Ð46, esp. pp. 27Ð33. Also see Philip Ball: The DevilÕsDoctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science. New York 2006, pp.

346Ð350.12 Paracelsus: Libri quatuor De vita longa, ed. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein. Basel: Peter Perna,

1560. For information on Perna, a major publisher of medical and alchemical texts, seeEdwin Eliott Willoughby: Fifty PrintersÕ Marks. Berkeley, CA 1947, pp. 61Ð62, and FrankHieronymus: ãParacelsus-Druck in BaselÒ. In: Heinz Schott and Ilana Zinguer, eds., Para-celsus und seine internationale Rezeption in der frŸhen Neuzeit. Brill 1998 (Studies in In-tellectual History, 86), pp. 36Ð57, esp. pp. 39Ð47. For a partial list of PernaÕs Paracelsianpublications see The Alchemy Website, ãPeter Perna, BaselÒ,

http://www.alchemywebsite.com/printer_perna.html (last accessed on July 11, 2010).




nes of Theophrastus and publicly defend them.Ó13 For his efforts, he wasdismissed from the medical faculty, which gave him the leisure to collectand edit some two dozen manuscripts left by Paracelsus. He died inpoverty, at an even younger age than his master.

The four-book De vita longa showed every sign of careful preparation,including a preface by the mysterious Valentius of Rhaetia, who offered atempting overview of books by or about Paracelsus.14 Valentius wrote thatParacelsus left 361 books: 230 on philosophy, 46 on medicine, 12 on poli-tics ( republica ), 7 on mathematics (i.e., astronomy), and 66 on more occultand abstruse subjects. He added that Paracelsus is mentioned in three

other books, making a total of 364 Ðalmost one for every day of the year. The obvious implication was that a trove of Paracelsian manuscripts wasout there, possibly in the canton of GraubŸnden, and that Bodenstein andPerna had access to them.

Then, in 1562, Bodenstein brought out a second edition of De vitalonga, this one organized in five books. In the introduction to the longertext, he explained:

Nos quidem anno 1560. quatuor libros de vita longa typis mandavimus, sed ad-huc imperfectos: quia liber quartus totus defuit, ac multa capita primi & tertii lib.ultissima, nunc autem perfectos, ac ex ore Paracelsi diligenter exceptos & recog-nitos publicamus, quos spero tibi gravissimos, ac utilissimos fore in vita longaproducenda, qui pro aetate fortitus es a domino Deo corpus bonum & commo-dum, quod arte vera in debita harmonia conservari potest.15

[In 1560 we committed to print the four books of long life, but they remainedincomplete because the fourth book was entirely lacking plus many chapters ofthe first and third books. However, they are now complete and diligently takenfrom the mouth of Paracelsus, and I hope will be most weighty and useful to youin promoting long life in a body both good and serviceable to God, a body whichcan by art be conserved in true harmony.]

Bodenstein was not just touting the advantages of a new, improved editi-on; he seemed dismayed to have brought a less reliable text to the publicand was convinced the new version preserved teachings that came Òout ofthe mouth of Paracelsus.Ó In addition to the new fourth book, the 1662

_____________

13 Paracelsus: Four Treatises of Theophrastus of Hohenheim Called Paracelsus, ed. and trans.by Henry E. Siegrist et al. Baltimore 1941, p. 136. Bodenstein recounted the story in a de-

dication of 1567, translated on pp. 136Ð141.14 Paracelsus: Libri v. de Vita longa, ed. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein. Basel: Peter Perna, 1562, sig.

d3r-v. I have consulted a reprint to which Sudhoff has assigned the date 1566 (Sudhoffnumber 503). Valentius prepared the text of Paracelsus, ÒDe tinctura physicorumÓ includedin Paracelsus: Archidoxa Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi . . . Zehen BŸcher, ed. by Michael Toxites. Stra§burg: Theodosius Rihel, 1570, pp. 323Ð324.

15 Paracelsus: De vita longa, sig. d2r-v. Sudhoff discusses the evidence of that led Huser toidentify Oporinus as BodensteinÕs source for the additional material (Bibliographia Paracel-sica, pp. 71Ð72).



Thomas Willard352

text had an extra chapter in book one, three extra chapters at the end ofbook three, and four unnumbered sections added to book two. The finalbook remained unchanged.16 The phrase ex ore Paracelsi lent credence tothe belief Ð which Huser took as fact Ð that Paracelsus dictated the chap-ters to Oporinus and that Oporinus gave Bodenstein passages from theoriginal dictation. Nevertheless, a heated dispute broke out between twosecond-generation Paracelsians.

In 1567, the Parisian diplomat Jacques Gohorry brought out the firstanthology of Paracelsian writings to be made available in Latin. Gohorryincluded a life of Paracelsus, an account of his medical philosophy, and a

selection of texts, featuring the four-book De vita longa .17

He compared thesupposed fifth book to the spurious fourth book of Cornelius Agrippa,and argued that De vita longa was difficult enough as it had first appeared.18 He wrote an extensive commentary on the four-book version, devotingthree pages of his own analysis to each page of the original. His Compendi- um proved sufficiently important that Perna agreed to publish a new editi-on the following year. However, PernaÕs edition included a highly criticalappendix by the Belgian physician Gerard Dorn (c.1530Ðc.1584).

Dorn had already written books on alchemy and Paracelsus when hebegan to collaborate with Bodenstein. The two produced a Latin editionof a text attributed to Paracelsus in 1568.19 Dorn went on to be the prin-cipal translator of Paracelsian texts into Latin, almost all of them publis-hed by Perna. After reading through GohorryÕs edition, he wrote a thirty-

page response to the Òvenom that Leo Suavius (unknown to me) tried tospew.Ó20 DornÕs language was openly abusive, after the manner of con-temporary pamphleteering. It was calculated, he said, Òto make the impos-ter repent and come to his senses.Ó21 He wrote primarily to defend himselfagainst charges that he had made various errors of translation and inter-pretation, replying to fifteen specific statements in GohorryÕs Compendium.Even PernaÕs printer got into the act with a six-page defense of Boden-

_____________

16 See Sudhoff: Bibliographia Paracelsica, p. 61, for a detailed comparison of the two texts.

17 ParacelsusÓ Compendium, ex optimus quibusque eius libris, cum scholiis in libros IIIIeiusdem De vita longa, ed. by Leo Suavius (pseud. of Jacques Gohorry). Paris: Rovilius,1567. For background on Gohorry and the compendium see Allen G. Debus: The Chemi-

cal Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and Medicine in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centu-ries, 2 vols. continuously paginated. New York 1977, pp. 146Ð148.

18 Paracelsus, Compendium, p. 304.

19 Paracelsus, Pyrophilia vexationumque, ed. and trans. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein and GerardDorn. Basel: Peter Perna, 1568. Sudhoff places the work, also known as Coelum philoso-phorum, with other spuria in vol. 14, pp. 405Ð420. In his Bibliographia Paracelsica, he sug-gested that Dorn may have been employed at PernaÕs firm (p. 174).

20 Paracelsus, Compendium, sig. zz. 7r.

21 Paracelsus, Compendium, sig. bb5v.




stein and the second edition of De vita longa , which Gohorry had dismissedas a poor imitation of the work of Paracelsus.22

Quite apart from the personal charges , Dorn had good reason to res-pond. He wanted to clarify the teachings of Paracelsus at a time when themedical establishment was beginning to debate their usefulness. Gohorry

was an amateur chemist and botanist, but not a physician. He was attrac-ted to odd causes, such as alchemical allegories, and seemed to care moreabout magic than medicine. He devoted considerable space to reflectionson commerce with spirits, and thus took Paracelsus backward into theMiddle Ages when Dorn and others hoped to move his ideas forward.

The Englishman Robert Burton was frankly amused by GohorryÕs fascina-tion with the spirit world and wrote in his famous Anatomy of Melancholy :

Leo Suavius [GohorryÕs pseudonym], a Frenchman, (out of some Platonists) willhave the air to be as full of them [i.e., spirits] as snow falling in the skies and thatthey may be seen, and withal sets down the means how men may see them; bygazing steadfastly on the sun lighted by its brightest rays, &c., & saith moreoverhe tried it, proved the dish before eating . . . 23

GohorryÕs interest in spirits fanned the flames lit by medical traditionalists, who accused Paracelsus of using illicit magic to achieve his ends.24 Dorn would soon respond to such charges by the Swiss physician and theologi-an Thomas Erastus (1524Ð1583),25 and we shall see that English champi-ons of Paracelsus made similar efforts to play down the role of spirits inmedicine.

In due course, Dorn prepared his own commentary on the five-bookDe vita longa , published the year after PernaÕs death.26 His commentary onthe Archidoxa , including the shorter tract on long life, appeared the next

_____________

22 Paracelsus, Compendium, sigs bb62-bb8v. In GohorryÕs defense it may be noted thatseveral books of doubtful authorship were printed under the name of Paracelsus during theÒthirdÓ period of Paracelsian publication, and that the work on which Bodenstein andDorn collaborated in 1568 was among the first of them; see note 19 above.

23 Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan-Smith. New York1927, p. 160; part 1, section 2, member 1, subsection 2. It should be understood that theEnglish noun platonic was commonly applied to alchemists and other occultists; seeOxford English Dictionary, ãplatonic".

24 See the comments on Gohorry and Paracelsus in D. P. Walker: Spiritual and Demonic

Magic from Ficino to Campanella. London 1958, pp. 96Ð106. Following the comments ofGohorry, Walker treats the magic of Paracelsus as Òdemonic,Ó but he begins by saying Pa-racelsus does not seem ÒinteligibleÓ and shows no Òcoherent patterns of thought.Ó

25 The Òmodest admonitionÓ appeared the prefatory pages of Gerard Dorn: De natura lucephysica. Frankfurt a. M.: [Christoph Corvin], 1583. or background on the charges of E-rastus see Allen G. Debus: The English Paracelsians. New York 1965, pp. 37Ð38.

26 Paracelsus: Libri v. De vita longa, brevi et sana, ed. by Gerard Dorn. Frankfurt: ChristoffRab, 1583. A further response to Gohorry appears in the expositio following book 5, chap-ter 1 (pp. 162Ð164).



Thomas Willard354

year and was among his last publications.27 As BodensteinÕs edition of thefour-book De vita longa began a remarkable run of posthumous interest inParacelsian manuscripts, DornÕs comments on the five-book version hel-ped to mark the end of an era.

The publishing history of Vom langen Leben and its companion tract Derenovatio is much more complicated. Although not printed during the au-thorÕs lifetime, they seem to have survived in many manuscript copies. Insome, the two tracts were included with the books of the Archidoxa ; inothers they appeared as adjunct texts. The evidence is complex, 28 but theinference is simple. Early readers of Paracelsus regarded these two tracts

as books of secrets, rather like the books of the Archidoxa Ð a work knownin Latin translations as one Òconcerning the secrets of the mysteries ofnature.Ó29

Although written in German, the Archidoxa was first published in aLatin translation printed in Cracow in 1569.30 The volume showed signsof careful preparation, with marginal notes and an index prepared by thePolish physician Johannes Gregor Macer. It was arranged in ten parts, orbooks, with the twin tracts on restoration and long life coming ninth andtenth. The arrangement must have been based on a manuscript tradition,for it was repeated in the first German edition of the Archidoxa , preparedby the Swiss Paracelsian Michael Toxites ( nŽ SchŸtz; 1514Ð1581). Toxiteshad his doubts about the arrangement and included a query at the end ofthe book on long life, asking whether it was indeed the tenth book. 31 He

found some confirmation when Perna issued his own version of the Arch- idoxa later in the year.32 The Perna version had no editorial apparatus, butmay well have been typeset from a manuscript provided by Bodenstein. It _____________

27 Gerard Dorn: Comentaria in Archidoxorum libros x. Frankfurt a.M.: [Christoph Corvinus],1584.

28 Sudhof devotes much of his forword to the tracts of 1526Ð1527 to the problem of the Archidoxa and related texts, including Vom langen Leben. See vol. 3, pp. v-li, esp. the firsttwenty-five pages. Also see his earlier essay ãEin Beitrag zur Bibliographie der Paracelsistenim 16. JahrhundertÒ. In: Centralblatt fŸr Bibliothekeswesen 10 (1893), pp. 316Ð326, 386Ð 407.

29 Paracelsus, Archidoxorum Aureoli Ph. Theophrasti Paracelsi De secretis naturae mysteriislibri decem, ed. and trans. by Gerard Dorn. Basel: Peter Perna, 1570.

30 Paracelsus: Archidoxae . . . Paracelsi . . . ac mysteriorum naturae scrutatoris & artificis

absolutissimi. Libri x, ed. by Adam Schršter. Cracow: Mathias Wirzibiet, 1569. Schršter al-so prepared an edition of Paracelsus, De preparationibus, also published by Wirzibet in1569 (Sudhoff item 107). Schršter states that he prepared the edition from a Latin textgiven him by Count Albert Laski (1527Ð1605) and ostensibly edited by Paracelsus; seeSudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, pp. 168Ð174.

31 Paracelsus: Archidoxa Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi . . . Zehen BŸcher, ed. by Michael Toxites. Stra§burg: Theodosius Rihel, 1570, p. 322.

32 Paracelsus: Archidoxorum . . . X. BŸcher. Basel: Peter Perna, 1570; Sudhoff item 116. Ihave used PernaÕs reprint of 1572.




too treated the essay on long life as the tenth book; however, it placed thecompanion book on restoration immediately after the opening book onthe microcosm. Toxites used PernaÕs sequence when his book was re-printed in 1574.33 (See Fig. 1.) The same sequence was used in DornÕs1570 translation, also published by Perna.34

The ten-book sequence made good sense, for Paracelsus began withpromises of going beyond the ancients and introducing new medicinesand treatments. He referred to a final book Òconcerning the uses of those

which precede itÓ ( vom dem brauch der andern all ),35 but he threatened tosuppress it so that it would not fall into the hands of idiots. He maintained

that his true disciples could deduce the applications of the first ninebooks, and there is no more likely culmination of those books than in thepreservation of life. Partly because De vita longa is pervaded by same con-cerns about going beyond the ancients and leaving a legacy to deservingfollowers, it seems possible that the book Vom langen Leben was intendedas the tenth book of the Archidoxa , and the later De vita longa as the exten-sion for those who were in on the secrets of Paracelsus.

Less than two weeks after Toxites signed his preface, another editorcompleted the introduction to yet another version of the same text. Onthe evidence of his portrait, Johann Albert Wimpfen was a thirty-year-oldphysician and philosopher. He had written a reasoned book on the diffe-rences between the ancient medicine of Galen and the modern medicineof Paracelsus,36 and he thought he had obtained a good manuscript of the

Archidoxa . Unlike the earlier editions, it had only eight books of the tenbooks mentioned in the prologue, plus a placeholder for a ninth book

which had been planned Òbut not writtenÓ ( sed non scriptus ). (See Fig. 2.)Compared to the Toxites edition, the Wimpfen edition shows fewer at-tempts to modernize the spelling and punctuation. This may reflect eitherhis scholarly precision or the haste of his publisher, which is indicated bythe printerÕs on the last page.37 Wimpfen prepared only one other volumeof Paracelsian texts, a group of Òsimilar tractsÓ based partly on a volume

_____________

33 Paracelsus: Archidoxa Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi . . . Zehen BŸcher, ed. by Michael

Toxites. Stra§burg: Christian MŸller, 1574.34 See note 29 above.

35 Waite, vol. 2, p. 5; Sudhoff, vol. 3, pp. 95Ð96.

36 Johannes Albertus Wimpinaeus: De concordia Hippocraticorum et Paracelsistarum. Mu-nich: Adam Berg, 1569. For a discussion of the book see Debus, The Chemical Philoso-phy, pp. 135Ð139.

37 Paracelsus: Archidoxa ex Theophrasia, ed. Johannes Albertus Wimpinaeus. Munich: AdamBerg, 1570, sig. g4r. The printer does not provide an errata sheet but asks readers to advisehim of any errors they note.



Thomas Willard356

published by Toxites.38 His edition of the Archidoxa might have been over-looked were it not for a singular claim. In a prefatory note, Wimpfen saidhe presented the several works in the volume Òas Paracelsus has left themin his own handwritingÓ ( wie sie Theophrastus in aigner handscirift verlassenhat ).39 With these words, he implied that he used a manuscript prepared byParacelsus, and not simply that he had heard of one that omitted thebooks on renovation and long life. It was a strong claim for the textÕspriority, and a good selling point, but it was also an easy claim to make.

The title page of yet another edition of the Archidoxa , printed in Colognein the same year, said it followed a manuscript in the authorÕs handwriting

( au§ des authors Handschrift ) and gave the text as he himself ordered it ( wie erselbst ordiniert ).40 Similarly, a revised reprint of DornÕs ten-book editionincluded a title-page note that it was translated from the handwritten ma-nuscript of Paracelsus himself ( ex ipsius Paracelsus autographo ),41 although thefirst edition made no such claim and the revision removed the two dispu-ted books. Nor were the claims necessarily false. Paracelsus could haveprepared copies for several students, who in turn could have copied thetext in a hand very like his own.

Either Wimpfen decided the paired books were more important to the Archidoxa than the eight-book structure admitted, or his publisher wanteda greater claim on the book-buyerÕs attention, for a reprint later that yearoffered ÒTwelve Books of ArchidoxaÓ divided into two parts.42 The newtitle page gave assurance that the twelve books were arranged in the order

indicated at the beginning of book 1 ( wie die zu anfang des ersten Buchs nachordnung verzeichnet ).

In any case, the claim in the Wimpfen edition made it attractive toHuser as he worked through a manuscript that he thought was in the au-thorÕs handwriting ( au§ Theophrast eigener Handschrift ).43 In an editorial note,Huser explained that his manuscript had different chapter numbers. His

_____________

38 Paracelsus: Etliche tractetlein zur Archidoxa gehšrig, ed. by Johannes Albertus Wimpi-naeus. Munich: Adam Berg, 1570; cf. Paracelsus, Ettliche tractatus . . . Paracelsi, ed. by Mi-chael Toxites. Stra§burg: Christian MŸller, 1570.

39 Paracelsus: Archidoxa ex Theophrastia, sig. *4v.

40 Paracelsus: Archidoxorum Theophrastiae. Cologne: Heirs of Arnold Birkman, 1570. I have

not seen a copy of this edition, so cannot know how accurately it follows the Munich editi-on prepared by Wimpinaeus. Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, pp. 198Ð203, suggests itcombines the text of Toxites with the arrangement of Wimpinaeus.

41 Title-page note in Paracelsus: Archidoxorum seu de secretis mysteriis, libri decem, trans. byGerard Dorn (Basel: Peter Perna, 1582).

42 Paracelsus: Arciodoxa D. Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi. . . zwšlf BŸcher. Munich: AdamBerg, 1570. The books on renovation and long life are preceded by tracts on antimony andtinctures.

43 See HuserÕs marginal note in the ãRegister der SchriftenÒ (sig. *2v).




manuscript jumped from book 2 to 4, and he opted to create the missingbook 3 by shortening book 2 Òon the mystery of the elementsÓ and pla-cing the practical notes Òon the separation of the elementsÓ in a separatebook.44 This became the standard arrangement, preserved in almost allsubsequent editions.

HuserÕs edition of the works of Paracelsus is regarded as the editio princeps. SudhoffÕÕs edition gives volume and page numbers from Huser,much as scholary editions of Aristotle give Bekker numbers. From Huseronward, editors have treated the two works on long life as pendants to the

Neun BŸcher Archidoxa , rather than constituent parts.45 Even DornÕs Latin

translation was affected. The order was preserved throughout his lifeti-me,46 but it was altered afterward. The Munich editor and publisher Zach-arias Palthen, who prepared the first comprehensive Latin edition of the

works of Paracelsus, followed HuserÕs edition closely, but added new ma-terial in the middle to get the ten books that Paracelsus promises in theprologue.47 Later still, the Geneva-based editor Fridericus Bitiskius deletedthe material that Palthen inserted, but added a Òkey . . . from an old Ger-man codex.Ó48 (See Fig. 3.) He explained his addition in a long prefatorynote to the reader. Like Huser, Palthenius and Bitiskius placed the bookson regeneration and long life immediately after the Archidoxa.

Bitiskius boasted that his translation was actually better than the origi-nal texts,49 and in one respect he was right. He gave the whole of Vomlangen Leben , as Dorn translated it, whereas Huser omitted the last para-

graph as it appeared in the editions of Wimpinaeus and others. Not only isthe longer ending more eloquent; it returns to the first book of the Arch- idoxa and to concerns that Paracelsus voices there about keeping Òmiraclesand marvelsÓ from idiots in the medical profession:

Hoc optaremus a Domino deo, nobis concedi videlicet, ut libere, contentuque si-ne, de labore Sophiae liceret scribere (sic ut Idiotae non vilipenderent & intelli-gerent) ea solum quae nos docuit experintia. Verum propter istos nobis tacendumest cum patientia de miraculis, & magnalibus laboris, in quo terra sancta Sophiae

_____________

44 Huser, p. 5.

45 Compare the sequence of texts in Huser, pp. 1Ð113 with that in Sudhoff, vol. 3, pp. 86Ð 308. Waite generally follows the similar sequence in the Latin folio edited by FredericusBitiskius: Paracelsus: Opera omnia, medico-chemico-chirurgica. Geneva: de Tournes, 1658,

vol. 2, pp. 1Ð73 (Sudhoff 381). This edition follows the first Latin folio .46 Paracelsus: Operum Latine redditorum, vol. 1. Basel: Peter Perna, 1575.

47 Paracelsus: Opera medico chimicorum, 11 vols. in 4. Frankfurt a. M.: Palthenius, 1603Ð 1605

48 Paracelsus: Opera omnia, medico-chemico-chirurgica, ed. by Fridericus Bitiskius. Geneva:de Tournes, 1658, vol. 2, p. 35.

49 Isabel Pantin: ÒThe Role of Translations in European Scientific Exchanges in the Sixteenthand seventeenth centuriesÒ. In: Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe. Ed. by PeterBurke and R. Po-Chia Hsia. Cambridge, England, 2007, pp. 163Ð179, esp. pp. 172Ð173.



Thomas Willard358

quintum esse reservatur. Cum igitur ea tacere nos oporteat, in animo nostro scri-bere dum taxat volumus, ut in perpetuum nobiscum sepulta manenat absquetermino vitae. De vita longa dictum sit hactenus, utpote nostris ac illis, qui foelicinecnon subtili sun ingenio praediti.50

[This we could wish conceded to us by the Lord God, that we might write freely, without the contempt of idiots, what experience has taught us about this work of wisdom. But, on account of those idiots, one has patiently to hold oneÕs tongue with regard to the miracles and marvels of that work of wisdom, wherein is re-served the earth of the wise. Since, then, I must be silent about this, I determineto describe it only among my secrets, that it may remain buried within me,though without any end of life. Thus far have I written on the subject of LongLife for our own and other disciples who are endowed by a happy and subtle in-telligence.]51

The same remarks appeared in WimpfenÕs edition:

Und wer unser wunsch von Gott / das wir onverschmehung der Idioten solltenschreiben vom labore Sophiae , was allein unsere experients au§ weist / so mŸssten

wir schweigen und dulden / das gro§ wunder laboris Sophia e, darinne terra Quintumesse reserviert. Dieweil wir aber hie[r] schweigen mŸssen / wšllen wirs inn unsergemŸt unzerbrechlich einschreiben / ewig ohne end bey uns zubleiben / und unsdas leben o[h]ne ein Termin segen: darbey wir also de vita longa genug gesagt ha-ben den unsern und den hšhern / die da angezŸndt sein mit allen subtilieten.52

Sixteenth-century readers of these final lines would have recognized Ð as Wimpfen did in his introduction Ð that Vom langen Leben continues ideasbegun in the Archidoxa , ideas to be withheld from hoi poloi. Modern readers

can see that Paracelsus regarded some works like the Archidoxa as exoteric,intended for the general reading public, and others as esoteric, meant onlyfor Òour ownÓ ( unsern ). Vom langen Leben belongs to the first category, De vita longa to the second.53

De vita longa represents a legacy Òburied within me, though without anyend of life.Ó Vom langen Leben was translated into English in 1656 andagain in 1894. Most of De vita longa was also translated in 1894. The trans-lations are fundamentally sound, but they reflect the prejudices of the

_____________

50 Paracelsus: Archidoxorum, trans. Dorn, pp. 247Ð248; cf. Paracelsus: Opera omnia, ed.Bitiskius, vol. 2, p. 53.

51 Waite, vol. 2, pp. 122Ð123.

52 Archidoxis ex Theophrastia, sig. g4r-v; cf. Archidoxorum . . . X. BŸcher. sig. h1v. Compare

Paracelsus, Sechster Theil der BŸcher und Schriften, ed. by Huser, p. 80. At this point,PernaÕs German edition is identical, while the Toxites edition has several textual variants.

53 Nevertheless, Vom langen Leben is a fine statement of esoteric medicine as the wordesotericism is now understood. A recent translation of the Sudhoff text into Spanish has afull introduction and extensive annotations to this effect as well as numerous illustrationsfrom alchemical and other esoteric texts. See Paracelso: El Libro de la larga vida, ed. andtrans. by HŽctor AvilŽs Resina. Madrid 2007 (Colleccion Medicina Tradicional de Occiden-te). The translator seems to be associated with the homeopathic Heliosar Spagyrica in Toledo and its parent organization, the Sociedad de Estudios e Investigaciones Spagyricas.




translators and of the audiences for which they were intended. The seven-teenth-century translation seems to follow the Huser text, as it omits thefinal paragraph found in the other editions. The nineteenth-century trans-lation explicitly follows the Bitiskius edition.54

The 1656 translation was published as the appendix to excerpts fromParacelsian books of surgery, the Grosse Wundartzney and Kleine Wundartz- ney . The translator may have been a physician or chemist, for he made itclear in the introductory note ÒTo the ReaderÓ that he was interestedmainly in the chemical remedies:

Paracelsus Opinion concerning Spirits and Ghosts, and many other his Philoso-

phick Opinions, which indeed are not ordinary; I do not approve them, nor will Ihere refute them: his Physical [i.e., medical] Practice I do approve, and doubtless,his cures and Physical Experiments which he hath left to us in his Writings (thebest part of which are in the following Treatises) are very good; as the experi-ences of many since his death, who have tryed them, do testifie to us; (viz. Crolli-us, Baptista Van-helmont, Dorneus, and many other famous Physicians, who ha-

ve followed his way altogether . . . .55

A note on the title page says the tracts in the volume have been ÒFaithfully Englished, by W. D.,Ó who has been identified as one William Dugard.56 However, the adverb selectively would be more appropriate, for he toldreaders he Òabbreviated Ó the second of three main tracts, Ò giving you onely thecures .Ó57 Moreover, he silently omitted whole sentences of Vom langen Le- ben . At the same time, he added chapter divisions with explanatory hea-

dings and transitional sentences, all of which made the remaining materialmore accessible.Indeed, he presented Paracelsus as a reasonable man, expressing sur-

prise that some thought otherwise:

And certainly Basil, which is one of the most famous Universities of the World, would never have chosen him to be their Publique Professor of Physick [i.e., me-dicine], if he had been a Mountebank or a weak man: He was chosen to be theirProfessor, when he was but thirty years of age, and there taught Physick publickly

_____________

54 Waite, vol. 1, p. xv. Hence the minor discrepancies between some German quotations inthis essay and their English translations.

55 Paracelsus His Dispensatory and Chirurgery, ed. and trans. by W. D. London: PhilipChetwind, 1656, sigs. A6v-A7r. In addition to Gerard Dorn, the translator mentionsOswald Croll and John Baptist Van Helmont, both familiar to English readers in sixteenth-century translations.

56 Cf. Charles Webster: The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626Ð1660.London 1975, p. 107. Also see ÒDugard, William (1606Ð1662).Ó In: Dictionary of NationalBiography. London 1921Ð1922, vol. 6, pp. 133Ð134. The identification is uncertain, but Ishall use DugardÕs name for convenienceÕ sake.

57 Paracelsus His Dispensatory, sig. A8v.



Thomas Willard360

many years, and many came thither to hear his Physick Lectures from all parts ofGermany, from Spain, Italy, France, Hungaria, Poland, Denmark, &c.58

The error of this statement will be obvious to a modern reader, but maysimply reflect the general lack of information about the life of the Paracel-sus.

DugardÕs translation appeared almost a century after the first refe-rences to Paracelsus in English-language books of medicine and well afterthe period covered by the late Allen G. Debus in The English Paracelsians (1965). During that period, Paracelsian texts in English were characterizedby a ÒcompromiseÓ such as Dugard later made: the chemical medicines

were promoted but not the cosmology on which they were based.59

By1656, however, there was a new interest in esoteric ideas, and a new waveof occult publication made possible by the breakdown of censorshipduring the English Civil Wars. In the next 30 years a great many books onalchemy and alchemical medicine were published in England. The Ca- talogue of Chymicall Books prepared by the London publisher WilliamCooper between 1673 and 1688 includes 15 Paracelsian volumes.60 Thesame period saw the translation and publication of many works by JacobBšhme, a professed follower of Paracelsus, thus promoting a new wave ofesoteric piety in authors like Jane Leade and William Law.

The second translation of Vom langen Leben was made in 1894, duringa second wave of occult publication in England. It appeared in an antho-logy edited by the American-born occultist Arthur Edward Waite (1857Ð

1942), a member of several Masonic and Rosicrucian societies. Waite was working for an English lord who practiced alchemy and wanted access tothe writings of Paracelsus.61 He himself regarded alchemy as a secret tradi-tion of knowledge about the true nature of man and thus as spiritual sci-ence rather than a physical one. He assumed that the Òexoteric medicineÓof Paracelsus would be Òof inferior importance to the modern student,Ócompared to the esoteric practice.62 He placed the book ÒOn Long LifeÓafter the Archidoxa in a volume devoted to ÒHermetic Medicine and Her-

_____________

58 Paracelsus His Dispensatory, sigs. A7v-A8r.

59 Cf. Debus: The English Paracelsians. New York 1965, pp. 49Ð85. Debus documentsEnglish responses to Paracelsus from 1562 to 1640 and describes the official position of

the Royal College of Physicians as the ÒElizabethan CompromiseÓ.60 William CooperÕs A Catalogue of Chymicall Books, 1673Ð1688: A Verified Edition, ed. by

Stanton J. Linden. New York 1987, pp. 77Ð79. Linden does not accept the attribution toDugard.

61 R. A. Gilbert: A. E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts. Wellingborough, England 1987, pp.95Ð96. Gilbert identifies the likely translator as the Julius Kohn, an Austrian emigrŽ whoseidentity was unknown to Waite. Kohn also translated Solomon Trismosin: Splendor Solis.London 1920.

62 Waite, vol. 1, p. xvi.




metic Philosophy,Ó but for some reason he put it before the book onÒRenovation and Restoration.Ó His translation tends to be word for word,

whereas DugardÕs concentrates on the general sense. Where Dugard hasÒimage,Ó Waite gives ÒhomunculusÓ. Where Dugard identifies Òwitch-craft,Ó Waite has the literal Òincantations.Ó Dugard gives uses the English

word ÒunknownÓ to translate the German verborgen , while Waite preservesthe Latin ÒoccultÓ.63 It would be tedious to quote whole paragraphs forcomparison; suffice it to say that the plain English of Dugard comesacross as more sane and lucid than the Latinate prose in Waite.

Waite had little regard for De vita longa and relegated it to an appendix,

explaining:De vita longa shews Paracelsus at his darkest and, it may be added, at his worst.From beginning to end it is not only unintelligible, but almost incapable of trans-lation. . . . The present version has been reasonably compressed, but it can onlybe affirmed that it interprets the original about as accurately as can be expected.64

He preserved the additional section on nature spirits, which Gohorry hadrejected; however, he removed the book containing alchemical treatmentsof 14 specific diseases, ranging from life-threatening ones to skin afflic-tions. WaiteÕs remains the only translation available to readers of English,it is unlike any version of the treatise in any other language. As DugardÕs

version of Vom langen Leben makes it appear more reasonable, WaiteÕs version of De vita longa makes it seem less so. The removal of all Òexote-ricÓ material helps prove his point that the whole treatise resists translati-

on.English scholarship on the two treatises is scarce and occasionally

misleading. Like the translations prepared by Dugard and Waite, they tendto emphasize one side only of the body-soul equation. Walter Pagel(1898Ð1983), a German-trained pulmonologist doing research at the Well-come Institute in London, turned away from the medical ideas of Paracel-sus when he came to De vita longa and emphasized Ð some say overempha-sized Ð the Neoplatonic ideas that Paracelsus learned from MarsilioFicino.65 Pagel openly differed with Kurt Goldammer on the extent ofFicinoÕs influence.66 Meanwhile, he championed the insights of C. G. Jungin what remains the longest essay on De vita longa since DornÕs commenta-

_____________

63 Compare Waite, vol. 2, p. 116 and p. 120, respectively, to Paracelsus His Dispensatory, pp.389 and pp. 400Ð402.

64 Waite, vol. 2, p. 323 n.

65 Walter Pagel: Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of theRenaissance. 2nd ed. Basel 1982, pp. 218Ð226.

66 Pagel: Paracelsus, pp. 226Ð227.



Thomas Willard362

ry, which Jung in turn championed.67 JungÕs essay became available toEnglish readers in 1967 with the publication of Alchemical Studies , volume15 of his Collected Works, and it has influenced the view of Paracelsus

without attracting much interest to the tracts on long life.68 JungÕs in-fluence is apparent, for example, in Charles PoncŽÕs preface to the paper-back reprint of WaiteÕs edition Ð an essay which PoncŽ later included in abook of Òreflections on Jungian psychology.Ó69 In the preface he descri-bed alchemy as a purely psychic science Ð Òthe archetypal language of thesoulÓ and Òthe product of the Soul ImaginingÓ.70 Similarly, the American

Jungian James Hillman has declared that the astronomy of Paracelsus Ð

the system of correspondences linking humans to the stars Ð Òrefers to theimaginal realmÓ.71 These writers have simply confirmed the position that Jung took a generation earlier. Jung acknowledged that Paracelsus owed adebt to Ficino, as everyone had done since Bodenstein first presented the

work, but he devoted all his time to working out the authorÕs Òsecret doct-rineÓ ( Geheimlehre ) and made Òno attempt to evaluate the treatise as a who-leÓ.72

JungÕs pages on DornÕs commentary have drawn attention to an im-portant text. However, the whole essay promotes the view of Paracelsusas an occasional and aphoristic thinker. The impression has been enforcedby the anthology that JungÕs associate Jolande Jacobi prepared in the yearthat Jung wrote the essay,73 an anthology that remains the standard in theEnglish-speaking world and has been reissued in German with a new int-

roduction by Gerhart Wehr, author of several books on Jung.74 The Eng-

_____________

67 Pagel: Paracelsus, p. 122 and n. 334. JungÕs reading of Paracelsus has its detractors; see,e.g., Andrew Cunningham: ãParacelsus Fat and Thin: Thoughts on Reputations and Reali-tiesÒ. In: Paracelsus: The Man and His Reputation, His Ideas and Their Transformation,ed. by Ole Peter Grell. Leiden 1998 (Studies in the History of Christian Thought, 85), pp.53Ð77, esp. pp. 57Ð64.

68 C. G. Jung: ãParacelsus as a Spiritual PhenomenonÒ. In: Alchemical Studies, trans. R. F. C.Hull. Princeton 1967 (Bollingen Series, 20), pp. 109Ð189; originally published as C. G. Jung: ãParacelsus als geistige ErscheinungÒ. In: Paracelsica: Zwei Vorlesungen Ÿber den Arzt und Philosophen Theophrastus. Zurich 1942, pp. 43Ð176.

69 Charles PoncŽ: ãForeword: In Praise of BombastÒ. In: The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, ed. by A. E. Waite; Boulder, CO ,1976, vol 1. 6 pages, unpaginated.

Reprinted in Charles PoncŽ: Working the Soul: Reflections on Jungian Psychology. Ber-keley, CA 1988, pp. 11Ð18.

70 PoncŽ: ãForewordÒ, vol. 1, p. 6.

71 James Hillman: A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman, ed. by Thomas Moore.New York 1991, p. 147.

72 Jung: ãParacelsus as a Spiritual PhenomenonÒ, p. 134 and n. 4.

73 Theophrastus Paracelsus: Lebendiges Erbe, ed. by Jolande Jacobi. Zurich: Rascher, 1942.

74 Paracelsus: Selected Writings, ed. by Jolande Jacobi, trans. by Norbert Gutermann, 2nd ed.Princeton 1958 (Bollingen Series, 28); Paracelsus, Artz und Gottsucher an der Zeitenwen-




lish edition has even inspired a novel about Paracelsus, written in frag-ments like those in JacobiÕs anthology.75 Paracelsus is a highly quotable

writer, even in English translation. But he is also a systematic thinker Ðmore systematic than any collection of fragments could suggest. I submitthat his writing on long life are not the incomprehensible jumble of ideasthat Waite has made it out to be. They two tracts develop according toplans announced at the outset, and in keeping with the general plan of the

Archidoxa and other early work of Paracelsus. When we look at them moreclosely, we may be surprised to see how they develop step by step fromthe authorÕs basic working principles. We may also find a better balance of

theory and practice, as well as medical and spiritual concerns, than thestudies just mentioned would suggest. The tracts on long life make the most sense in the larger context of

the authorÕs medical theory as articulated in the Archidoxa and later deve-loped in the Paragranum and Paramirum . The Archidoxa grows from an ope-ning essay on the microcosm of man to a long section on elixirs that canpreserve bodies far beyond their normal limits, Òso that they may abidehundreds or thousands of years without corruption or change.Ó76 As wehave seen, some early editions, like that of Michael Toxites, included Vomlangen Leben as the final book, so that the Archidoxa concluded with theconservation of human life. In similar fashion, the Paramirum starts withthe tria prima of salt, sulfur, and mercury; continues with treatment ofspecific diseases; and ends with discussion of the spiritual body, Òcreated

out of the mouth of God.Ó77 In trying to equate the spiritual body of Ne-oplatonism and the resurrected body of Christian Scripture, Paracelsusretraces a path he took in the final pages of De vita longa.

We have seen that the earlier tract on long life is commonly paired with a tract on regeneration as Die beiden BŸcher De renovatione et restaurationeund Vom langen Leben. One editor has called Die beiden BŸcher a Òtwo-faced

work,Ó one face looking to Neoplatonism and the other to Hermeticism.78 There is the dream of life prolonged through medicine, but also a theoryof matter and spirit very different from that of modern science. Even so,there is a realization that the procedures of alchemy, though applicable tothe chemical medicine, have their limitations.

_____________de: Eine Auswahl aus seinem Werk, ed. by Jolande Jacobi with an introduction by Gerhard Wehr. Olten and Freiburg i. Br. 1991.

75 Evan S. Connell: The AlchymistÕs Journal. London and New York 1992.

76 Waite, vol. 2, p. 69; cf. Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 184.

77 See Paracelsus: Essential Theoretical Writings, ed. and trans. by Andrew Weeks. Leiden2008, p. 495 (Paramirum, book 2, chapter 8).

78 Theophrastus Paracelsus Werke, ed. by Will-Erich Peuckert, vol. 1: Medizinische Schriften.Basel 1965, p. 450.



Thomas Willard364

In the first book of this pairing, Paracelsus explains that true renovationcannot occur in a man in the way that it occurs in a metal. A metal can bereduced to its primal substance, and recreated in an incorruptible body.But a man cannot be similarly reduced:

die restauratio und renovatio sollent also in dem menschen verstanden werden,das sein humor radicalis, den der spiritus vitae treibt und ubet, nit hinter sich ge-zogen werde, sonder gesterkt und fŸr sich getriben. als ein baum, dem da gehol-fen wird zu der blŸe und zu der frucht, und darnach, so das abfelt, widerumb ge-fšrdert wird zu tun wie vor.79

[restoration and renovation must be understood this way: that manÕs radical mo-isture, acting upon and energizing the spirit of life, shall not be diminished or dri-

ven back, but rather shall be increased in its powers and pushed forward, as a treeto which aid is given for the production of its flowers and fruits, so that whenthese drop off and are done with others are again procreated as before.]80

But while man himself cannot be restored to his Adamic state, his illnessescan be restored to health in a sort of alchemical procedure:

aber zuverstan von der lepra ist also ein umbkeren in dem leib, das nit alein lepra,sonder so ein sterkere krankheit, dan lepra ist, wer, verzert und ausgetriben wird.nit in form, das lepra gescheiden werde vom leib, wie purum ab impuro, sonderin den weg, das lepra sich convertirt in sanitatem, wie ein kupfer das golt wird,oder ein eisen das kupfer wird, des sich dan niemants verwundern sol.81

[concerning leprosy, or any more severe disease which may exist, it is well toknow that it undergoes transmutation in the body, not, indeed, that there is a se-paration of the pure from the impure, but that the leprosy is converted into

health, as copper or iron are transmuted into gold.]82

Paracelsus proceeds to list the things that restore health and sets downfour Òmysteries,Ó concerning the Òfirst entitiesÓ of minerals, gems, herbs,and liquors. The related book on long life picks up here.

Paracelsus begins Vom langen Leben by saying that he will now showhow medicines can be used to prolong life. He will do so in two ways, firstby exploring the theory of extending life, then by discussing the practiceof preparing and prescribing medicines to this end. On the theoreticalside, he argues that disease does not necessarily result in death, for dise-ases can be remedied and life can be conserved. Indeed, conservation is a key

word in the tract. Paracelsus regards life as a flame that requires fuel, Òaburning and living fireÓ that feeds on wood and reduces it to smoke and

ash.83 Here we have the whole tria prima, with the principles of sulfur, _____________

79 Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 205.

80 Waite, vol. 2, p. 125.

81 Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 208. For the transmutation of an illness into its corresponding form ofhealth see J.-M. Rietsch in the present volume.

82 Waite, vol. 2, p. 128.

83 Waite, vol. 2. p. 112; cf. Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 228.




mercury, and salt represented in the flame, smoke, and ash, respectively.84 Just as a wood fire can be kept going by adding logs to it and shielding itfrom wind and rain, so a human life can be prolonged. Paracelsus notesthat there are different requirements at different times of life Ð in youth,and maturity, and old age Ð and that very few have met all of them. Thepoor cannot afford medical advice, and the rich lead Òirregular livesÓ andignore the advice they get. Paracelsus nevertheless proceeds with the ad-

vice, admitting that others have given the obvious parts of it. The adviceconcerns diet first, then environment, and finally matters of mental health.He notes that physical and mental health alike are influenced by the

heavens, but leaves that aside as pertaining to ÒastronomyÓ rather thanmedicine as such. The term Òlong lifeÓ includes a reference to the first and most familiar

of the aphorisms of Hippocrates, commonly known by its first four words: ÒLife is short, art longÓ ( Vita brevis, ars longa ). Paracelsus takes thisto mean that diseases progress faster in those who suffer than do the di-agnoses, let alone the treatments. He concludes Òthat such long an art

would not serve the brief life ( das ein solche lange kunst nicht wol dient demkurzen leben ), and he asserts that the art of Hippocrates must be supple-mented with mysteries of nature, arcana, and other mighty works ( mysteriender natur, arcanen und andern magnalien ).85 With these mysteries, he movesbeyond what he calls the ancient medicine to something rather new. Hetakes the title De vita longa from Marsilio Ficino, the Italian Neoplatonist,

who assigned it to the second of three books comprising his De triplici vita.Ficino stated, ÒHippocrates was right in saying that art is long and that weare unable to pursue it unless we have a long lifeÓ (Quibus sane de causis,artem esse longam una cum Hippocrate recte concludimus, nec posse noseam, nisi vitae longitudine consequi).86

Ficino was a medical doctor as well as a scholar who translated Platoand others under the patronage of Cosimo de Medici. He worked on theancient assumption that the body decayed as its constituent ÒhumorsÓbecame unbalanced. He proposed to help scholars prolong their lives bysoaking up healthful influences from the environment. He recommendedsunshine and wine, music and exercise, and much else that a naturally

_____________

84 Andrew Weeks: Paracelsus: Speculative Theory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation. Albany, NY, 1997, p. 109.

85 ÒAlia explicatio primi aphorismi Hippocratis,Ó Sudhoff, vol. 4, p. 539. See Robert E. Sch-leuter: ÒThe First Aphorism of Hippocrates as Explained by Paracelsus,Ó Annals of Science1.4 (Oct. 1936): pp. 453Ð461. Dorn defines magnalia as Òthe work of GodÓ (opus Dei); seehis Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi. Frankfurt [Christoph Rab], 1583, p. 63.

86 Marsilio Ficino: The Book of Life, trans. Charles Boer. Woodstock, CT, 1994, p, 38; Marsi-lio Ficino: De vita libri tres, ed. by Martin Plessner. Hildesheim and New York 1978, sig.f1r.



Thomas Willard366

melancholy scholar might ignore. He took seriously the possibility thatplanets could influence humans for better or worse, and his approach waslater ridiculed as a sort of astrological medicine. Nevertheless, this wasFicinoÕs most popular treatise in the sixteenth century and almost the onlymedical work that influenced Paracelsus. The latest edition to be publis-hed before his death included FicinoÕs defense of astrological medicineand a new treatise on its importance for a healthy life.87

Paracelsus begins De vita longa with an opening nod to Hippocratesand Ficino:

our life is long, for neither spirits nor the light of Nature affirm that it is short.

The life of the ignorant is short, with art it is long. What is shorter than art? Whatis longer than life, at least among those who are not superstitious?88

[praetera vita nostra vita nempe longa est, quam nec spiritus, nec lumen naturaebrevem esse aiunt. ignorantium vero brevis, cum arte longa. brevius arte quid? vi-ta vero quid longius, inter mortales saltem non superstitiosos?]89

He then goes beyond Hippocrates, even as DanteÕs pigrim goes beyond Virgil ( Inferno 4.150), noting that the ancient medicine lacked the light ofChristian revelation:

This was the mistake of Hippocrates throughout all his prescriptions, namely,that he administered to the body instead of to the soul, and that he proposed topreserve the mortal by means of the mortal. The body is a creature, but no so thelife, and it is indeed nothing but the daughter of death. Therefore, from Archadescended that which is immortal. But you will say that the Hippocratic Muse is

not altogether to be referred to death. Be it so, but you will find a much easier way to health, since the Magnale [great work of God] has descended from above.For God gave unto Hippocrates only those things which are creatures, andamong these even the chief mysteries were not imparted in their fullness. To thisbody God has added another body which is to be regarded as celestial, that, na-mely, which exists in the body of life. Hereof I, Theophrastus, affirm that this isthe work and this the labour.90

[atqui huc omnia sua excerpta retulit Hippocrates, corpusculumque illud per ma-nibus sumere, tanquam subiectum longae vitae, et mortale mortali conservare de-crevit, quum in eo nulla unquam fuerit vita, quae ex illius fonte manarit. corpusenim creatura est at non vita, nihilque minus mortis filla. igitur ex archa eadescendit, quae est immortalis. non prorsus referenda est, inquies, Hippocraticamusa ad mortalitatem. esto, at multo faciliorem viam ad sanitatem invenias,quandoquidem e superis descendit magnale istud. nihil enim praeter ea, quae cre-

aturae sunt, Hippocrati tribuit deus, imo nec ei ea plene quae creaturae sunt in-signia mysteria dedit: sed ad rem. huic corpori deus adiunxit aliud quoddam, puta

_____________

87 Marsilio Ficino: De vita libri tres. Basel: BarthŽlemy Westheymer, 1541. The new tract isthe work of Guilemus Insulanus (d. 1561).

88 Waite, vol. 2, p. 323.

89 Sudhoff, vol. 3, p. 249.

90 Waite, vol. 2, pp. 324Ð325.




coeleste, id quod in corpore vitae existit, de quo Theophrastus ego, hoc opus, hiclabor est.]91

With these last words, Paracelsus echoes the sybil in VirgilÕs Aeneid (6.129). It is easy to descend to the land of the dead, but difficult to returnto the land of the living. Hoc opus, hic labor est.

Paracelsus works on the ancient theory that the bodyÕs health comesfrom a balance of blood, choler, bile, and phlegm (the four humors from

which it was made). Paracelsus thinks that health requires a balance of fire,air, earth, and water (the four elements from which the primal limbus ori-ginated) but also a balance of salt, sulfur, and mercury (not the common

kitchen variety but the three principles, or tria prima , found in all complexbodies). He also thinks that the mixture of elements in a body can be cor-rupted by outside influences, which he likened to rust on iron in the ear-lier tract on regeneration.92 Hence his reputation as an early proponent ofthe infectious theory of disease. Moreover, he suggests a weakened sub-stance can be strengthened by exposure to a concentrated essence orquintessence. Thus his reputation as the father of homeopathic medicine.In fact, he is not a strict homeopath; he proposes to treat worms, scabies,and syphillis with chemicals that will fight them off. But once he coveressome allopathic cures in book 2 of De vita longa , he moves on to homeopa-thic treatments.

This longer text is commonly considered not only difficult and confu-sed, but disordered and deliberately obscured in the manner of many al-

chemical texts. Waite thought it almost unintelligible, as we have seen, and Jung found it hard to understand (Òschwer verstŠndlichÓ).93 Even JacquesGohorry, throughout his exposition, implied that it makes sense only inlight of FicinoÕs earlier work Ð a point that the intellectual historian D. P.

Walker has underscored.94 All of this reinforces the image of a drunkengenius dictating to a weary amanuensis. Nevertheless, De vita longa hassigns of careful composition, including book and chapter divisions andtopic sentences like those that Dugard added to his rendering of Vomlangen Leben. What is more, there is evidence of schematic thinking.

In the earlier tract on long life, Paracelsus distinguishes three stages ofhuman life Ð youth, maturity, and old age Ð and discusses diseases com-mon to each of them. In the later tract, he identifies three kinds of life:

mortal life, immortal life and, in between them, long life. Biblical traditionsets the human life span at 70 years (Psalm 90: 10) or, the at most, 120

_____________

91 Sudhoff, vol. 3, pp. 250Ð251.

92 Waite, vol. 2, p. 124.

93 See note 64 above and C. G. Jung: Paracelsica: Zwei Vorlesungen Ÿber den Arzt undPhilosophen Theophrastus. ZŸrich 1942, p. 82.

94 See note 24 above.



Thomas Willard368

years (Genesis 6: 3). Immortal life is by definition eternal. However, theBible tells of men who lived upwards of 900 years, including Adam, Noahand, most famously, NoahÕs grandfather Methuselah. Meanwhile, Herme-tic tradition maintains that Hermes Trismegistus was an Egyptian prince

who preserved his life by practicing what he preached. Citing such examp-les, Paracelsus claims that life can be extended up to 900 years, and heassigns a similar lifespan to the elemental beings of Alpensagen : the wildpeople or people of fire, air, earth, and water. The number is not entirelyrandom; Plutarch gives a similar age for the nymphs of Classical myth.95

Paracelsus is not especially interested in stories of his elemental beings

or in their legendary names. Indeed, he remarks that the names were givento them by people who did not understand what they represented,96 andhe invents still more names for them in De vita longa. The important thingfor him is that they can pass from a world of pure fire, air, earth, or waterinto our world of mixed elements and can interact with humans on occa-sion. They owe their long lives to the relative purity of their bodies, whichare not contaminated with other elements. But because they are notdescended from Adam they do not have souls breathed into them by Godand they can only hope for eternal life if they somehow receive GodÕsgrace.

Perhaps these elemental beings owe some of their appeal to a biblicalprophecy, found in the deuterocanonical book of Wisdom (19: 18Ð21).

This prophecy is that the relations of the elements can be changed just as

a stringed instrument can be retuned, and that someday men may be ableto live in water or fire. Scholars think the prophecy shows the influence ofStoic philosophy and the theory that the elements are connected by divinebreaths ( pneumata ), but the same prophecy had an obvious appeal to al-chemists. Paracelsus and others maintain the legend of Elias Artista, amaster alchemist who will transform the world at the end of time.97 Hetakes comfort in the opening dialogue of the apocryphal Fourth Book ofEzra, where the prophet is told that the age will end when there is a pre-ordained number of people like himself.98 Stories of encounters with sa-lamanders and Melusines, who can live in fire or water, strike Paracelsusas confirmation that the Millennium was fast approaching. Such storiesalso hint that there are be other worlds than our own, perhaps the only

_____________

95 Plutarch, De defectu oraculorum, ¤11.

96 Paracelsus: ãA Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the OtherSpiritsÒ. In: Paracelsus, Four Treatises of É Paracelsus, p. 231.

97 See the treatise ãNova disquisitio de Helias ArtistaÒ, Theatrum Chemicum, vol. 4, pp. 214Ð 246. The legend is developed in ConnellÕs Paracelsian novel, cited in note 75.

98 4 Esd. 2: 36 (in most Bibles 2 Esd. 4: 36). Paracelsus refers to this prophecy in the ÒkeyÓthat Bitiskius inserts as the tenth book of the Archidoxa (trans. by Waite in vol. 2, p. 83).




possibility available in the pre-Copernican era. The alternate, or fairytale, world of the elemental beings represents a threshold between mortal andimmortal life Ð the promise of a prolonged, though still limited, lifespan.99

The Old Testament tells of two men who do not die but are taken upto heaven: Enoch before the Great Flood (Genesis 5: 22) and Elijah af-terward (2 Kings 2: 11). Their names appear in various permutations in Devita longa as Paracelsus discusses the ÒEnochdiani,Ó which Waite interpretsas belonging to Òthe race of Enoch and Elias.Ó100 These creatures arefarther across the threshold than the elementals, closer to the world of theimmortals. In writing about them, Paracelsus arguably came closer to the

Òinner alchemyÓ of Chinese medicine than any Western alchemist hadcome. As the emphasis shifts from gold-making to soul-making, Paracel-sus and his disciples enter a new concern with immortal adepts that conti-nues into modern movements like the Theosophical Society.101 The Taoistclassic Qing-Jing Jing , known as Cultivating Stillness in one translation andDas Tao der Weisheit in another Ð is specifically concerned with the attain-ment of long life through the attunement of the earthly and heavenly bo-dies, and it holds out the prospect of immortal life.102 In the process,heaven is born from earth, yang from ying, and the spirit is strengthened

with herbs and other medicines. As a Ming Dynasty commentator wrote:

If mortals in this world do not want to die,They must lengthen their lives, add oilto the lamp, and preserve the great harmony.103

In moving from mortal life to long life and immortal life, Paracelsus moves from one body to another: from the physical body to the astral bodyand the spiritual body.

Mortal life Long life Immortal life

Physical health Purity Spiritual health

Human beings(Psalm 90: 10)

Mythic beings andGodÕs elect (e.g., Me-thuselah)

Enoch, Elijah; theredeemed (John 3:15)

_____________

99 The fairytale quality of ParacelsusÕs life and work is well considered in Sergius Golowin,

Paracelsus im MŠrchenland: Wanderer zwischen den Welten . Basel 1980.100 Waite, vol. 2, pp. 346, 365.

101 For the influence of Paracelsus on Rosicrucian and other esoteric traditions see Thomas Willard: ãRosicrucian Sign Lore and the Origin of LanguageÒ. In: Theorien vom Ursprung derSprache , ed. by Joachim Gessinger and Wolfert von Rahden, 2 vols. Berlin and New York1989, vol. 1, pp. 133Ð157.

102 Cultivating Stillness: A Taoist Manual for Transforming Body and Mind , ed. and trans. by Eva Wong. Boston 1992; Das Tao der Weisheit , ed. and trans. by Hilmar Klaus. Aachen 2008.

103 Cultivating Stillness, p. 20.



Thomas Willard370

Physical body (thesoma psychikon of 1Cor.15.44)

Astral body (the somaepourania of 1Cor.15.40)

Spiritual body (thesoma pneumatikon of1Cor.15.44)

Body Soul Spirit

Salt Sulfur Mercury

Sense Imagination (Òthe star inmanÓ)

Reason

Table 1. Varieties of Life

Like his older contemporary Cornelius Agrippa, he maintains that Godhad created three worlds and not just one: the elemental world of nature;the celestial world of the stars and planets; and the supernatural world ofthe angels and archangels. The physical body is made from the elementsand belongs in the natural or sublunary world. The astral body originatesin the celestial world; and the spiritual body, created by the breath of God,has its origin in the supercelestial world.104 This does not mean that thethree bodies are necessarily separated, either in space or in time. Theapostle Paul wrote of different bodies, terrestrial and celestial, and of theseed that grows into something new: ÒIt is sown a natural body; it is raiseda spiritual bodyÓ (1 Corinthians 15: 44). However, Paracelsus maintainsthat all men have two bodies, earthly and heavenly. He also claims that the

different bodies have different kinds of perception: sensory perception inthe physical body and ÒimaginationÓ in the astral body.105 By Òimaginati-onÓ he of course does not mean simple fantasy, or the chance associationof ideas formed on sensory impressions. He means Òextrasensory percep-tionÓ in the way the term was first used: Òperception by means that areoutside of the recognized senses.Ó106

Over the course of five books, Paracelsus proceeds from one body tothe next. In the first book he discusses life in general. In the second heoffers alchemical remedies for fourteen specific afflictions of the physicalbody, and in the third he treats the preparation of elixirs to promote goodhealth by aligning the body with the planets and stars. The fourth bookcontinues the emphasis on astrological medicine, but adds the analogy of

_____________104 The principal text on the bodies of man is the Astronomia Magna (Sudhoff, vol. 12, pp. 1Ð 443). Also see Pagel: Paracelsus, pp. 65Ð72 and Paracelsus, Philosophie der Grossen undder Kleinen Welt: Aus der ÇAstronomia MagnaÈ, ed. and trans. by Gunhild Pšrksen. Basel2008.

105 Dorn glosses imaginatio as Òthe star in man, the celestial and supercelestial body (astrum inhomine, coeleste & supercelestie corpus; Dictionarium, 56). The definition is reproduced inMartin Ruland: Lexicon Alchemiae (Frankfurt: Johann Andrea, 1661), 264.

106 Oxford English Dictionary, ãextra-sensoryÒ.




the elemental beings who enjoy longer lives through their purer natureand their freedom from the curse of Adam. Finally, the fifth and mostenigmatic book turns to the spiritual body. In the bookÕs final chapter,Paracelsus states:

what shall I say in this place of those things which the sagacious muse embracesin her canons together with the matrix of the four Scaiolae, which sleep in you,and render your temples anodynic? I occasion so great an astonishment in youthat you shall come even to take heed of a poppy. But I confine myself to thecosmographic life, where both the place and the body of Jesihach appear.Further, the things I prescribe I do prescribe beyond the forces of the body andthe place. Whosoever understands these things the same has a lawful claim upon

the title of a spagyrist.107 [quid dicam hoc de his, quae musa sagax in canonibus suis una cum matricequatuor scaiolarum complectitur, quae vobiscum indormiscunt, tymporaque in

vobis anodynica reddunt. et ego vos etiam atque etiam in tantum stuporem adu-co, ut in notitiam papaveris redigamini, sed missa facio illa, et in hoc solum la-boro, quod in superioribus libris hactenus monui, in cosmographica scilicet vita,ubi cum locus tum corpus Iesihach apparent. porro etian quae praescribo, praeterloci ac corporis vires, idque spagirice praescribo, hyrdomantice et pyrotechni-cus.]108

It is hard to know where to begin. The last of these neologisms, Òspagy-rist,Ó is also the best known. It refers to an alchemist who can dissolveand coagulate matter, purifying and recombining substances after the me-dieval motto solve et coagula .109 Dorn identifies the ÒScaiolaeÓ as spiritual

powers of the mind and soul ( spirituales mentis & animi vires ), identifyingthem with the four elements and drawing comparison to the rapture ofElijah, the baptism of Christ, and the experience of Holy Communion.110 Even Dorn is stumped by Òthe place and body of Jesihach,Ó of which hecan only say, ÒIt is supernatural.Ó111 But the whole chapter is captured inthe term Òcosmographic life.Ó There is a point beyond which the life livedon earth blends into the life of the cosmos, and beyond which even thelong life of nymphs and salamanders pales at the prospect of eternallife.112 When one realizes that the physician must tend to the soul as wellas the mind and body, and to the spirit as well as the soul, one sees that

_____________

107 Waite, vol. 2, p. 346. Waite omits the last two nouns, which may be translated Òhydro-

mancerÓ and Òpyrotechnician.Ó108 Sudhoff, vol. 3. p. 289.

109 See Dorn: Dictionarium, p. 86; also Oxford English Dictionary, ãspagyricÒ.

110 Dorn: Dictionarium, pp. 83Ð84. They could well be sensation, imagination, understanding,and will Ð the four Òpowers of the soulÓ discussed by Ramon Lull, of whom Paracelsus hasjust spoken, albeit slightingly.

111 Dorn: Dictionarium, p. 54.

112 See DornÕs commentary on the chapter in Paracelsus, pp. 175Ð179. Also see the commen-tary in Gian Carlo Benelli: Storia di un altro occidente. Rome 2000, pp. 252Ð254.



Thomas Willard372

health extends to religion for Paracelsus, and that the physical body isconnected through the cosmos to the Creator. For this reason, Paracelsusmaintains that anatomy must go beyond dissection to include the study ofmanÕs place in the cosmos and in the plan of GodÕs creation.113 Althoughhe studied medicine in Padua, and knew about the innovations of Vesali-us, he has little use for autopsy and dissection, which he calls the anatomyof cadavers ( anatomia cadaverum ). He prefers to study and strengthen theindividual bodyÕs place in the cosmos, in a process that Dorn terms spa-gyric anatomy ( anatomia spagirica ).114

Paracelsus refers to the celestial body as the inner body, and the phy-

sical body as the outer one, making them rather like nesting dolls, oneinside the other. They are comparable to the different koshas , or sheaths,of Hinduism, moving ever inward from the physical body to the body ofbliss, with Brahma or God at the center. Just as in Hindu and Yogic tradi-tion, the heart is the site of perception and imagination is the main faculty.

Paracelsus wrote the tracts on long life before the age of thirty-five,the traditional midpoint in life, and he died before the age of fifty. Hiscritics were delighted to note that he could not preserve his own life, letalone the lives of his patients. But he had a ready answer for them in thepages of his Paragranum :

Ich will nach meinem Tode wider euch ausrichten als vorher. Ob ihr schon mei-nen Leib fre§t, so habt ihr nur einen Dreck gefressen. Der Theophrastus wirdmit euch streiten ohne den Leib.115

[I will oppose you more after my death than before. If you have eaten my body,you have eaten crap. Theophrastus will argue with you without his body.]

Indeed, he left the considerable literary corpus that scholars are still edi-ting, translating, and interpreting. In my own small contribution, I havedrawn attention to two little-studied works on longevity. I have suggestedthat they develop more systematically than recent scholarship indicatesand have noted their significance in extending the ideas of the Archidoxa.

I have passed over neologisms that puzzled readers from Dorn to Jung and beyond Ð for example, the ÒaquasterÓ (literally the Òstar waterÓ) which Dorn identified with a vision of something that exists but not as athing Ð a notion which Jung found to be, of all the ideas in Paracelsus,

_____________113 See Thomas Willard: ãDonneÕs Anatomy Lesson: Vesalian or ParacelsianÒ. In: John Donne Journal , 3.1 (1984), pp. 34Ð61.

114 Gerard Dorn: ãDe Tenebris contra Naturam, et Vita BreviÒ. In: Theatrum Chemicum, vol.1, p. 460.

115 Quoted with a comment in Sergius Golowin: Paracelsus: Mediziner, Heiler, Philosoph.Munich 1991, p. 198. The same line is adapted in Pirmin Meier: Paracelsus: Arzt und Pro-phet: AnnŠherungen an Theophrastus von Hohenheim. ZŸrich and Munich 1998 (Pendo-Pocket, 8), p. 361 (first published in 1993).




Òthe closest to the modern concept of the unconscious.Ó116 Perhaps, likethe first English translator of Vom langen Leben , I have made Paracelsusseem more rational than he really was. But I trust I have made the pointthat he views life in a system that reaches beyond the health of the bodyto the health of the soul and spirit and so connects his concerns with me-dicine and religion. His message to the world is that one needs both religi-on and medicine. Because we have met in the former setting of a sixte-enth-century Dominican monastery, it may be worth noting that his voiceanticipates one in Gustav MeyrinkÕs most esoteric novel. The young heroof Der wei§e Dominikaner hears the voice in a dream:

Jegliches Geschehen, das in unser Leben tritt, hat seinen Zweck; Sinnloses gibt esnicht; eine Krankheit, die den Menschen befŠllt, gibt ihm die Aufgabe: vertreibemich mit der Kraft des Geistes, damit die Kraft des Geistes erstarke und wiederHerr werde Ÿber die Stofflichkeit, wie sie es einst gewesen vor dem üSŸndenfallÔ.

Wer das nicht will und sich mit üArzneienÔ begnŸgt, der hat den Sinn des Lebensnicht erfa§t; er bleibt ein kleiner Junge, der die Schule schwŠnzt.117

[Each event in our life has its purpose; it is not meaningless. A sickness that be-falls a man gives him the message: Drive me away with the power of the spirit,and thus reinforce the spiritÕs strength and make it once more the Lord over thematerial world as it was once before the Fall. Whoever is unwilling to do that,and relies entirely on medicaments, has missed the meaning of life. He is still asmall boy skipping school.]

It sounds rather like the voice of Paracelsus and like his advice on livingthe long, cosmographic life.

_____________

116 Dorn: Dictionarium, p. 17; Jung, ãParacelsus as a Spiritual PhenomenonÒ, p. 140.

117 Gustav Meyrink: Der Wei§e Dominikaner: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Unsichtbaren. Vienna1921, pp. 59Ð60.



Thomas Willard374

Fig. 1. Arrangement of books in the Archidoxa as edited by Michael Toxites. Second edition,

Stra§burg: Christian MŸller, 1574 (Sudhoff 158). Source: MŸnchener Digitale Bibliothek (VD16

P 397).




Fig. 2. Arrangement of books in the Archidoxa as edited by Johannes Albertus Wimpenaeus.

Munich: Adam Berg, 1570 (Sudhoff 120). Source: Google Books.



Thomas Willard376

Fig. 3. Arrangement of books in the Archidoxa as edited by Fridericus Bitiskius. Geneva: de

Tournes, 1658 (Sudhoff 381). Under the last title are included two ÒdifferentÓ ( varii ) tracts on

long life. Source: Google Books.

Bibliography

The Alchemy Website. ãPeter Perna, BaselÒ,http://www.alchemywebsite.com/printer_perna.html (last accessed on July 11, 2010).Ball, Philip: The DevilÕs Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science .

New York 2006.Benzenhšfer, Udo: Paracelsus . Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997 (1st edition by Ernst Kaiser,

published 1969).Burton, Robert: Anatomy of Melancholy . Ed. by Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan-Smith. New

York 1927.Connell, Evan S.: The AlchymistÕs Journal . London and New York 1992.




Cultivating Stillness: A Taoist Manual for Transforming Body and Mind. Ed. andtrans. by Eva Wong. Boston 1992.

Cunningham, Andrew: ãParacelsus Fat and Thin: Thoughts on Reputations and Reali-tiesÒ. In: Paracelsus: The Man and His Reputation, His Ideas and Their Transformation .Ed. by Ole Peter Grell. Leiden 1998 (Studies in the History of Christian Thought,85), pp. 53Ð77.

Das Tao der Weisheit . Trans. Hilmar Klaus. Aachen 2008.Debus, Allen G.: The Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and Medicine in the Sixteenth

and Seventeenth Centuries . 2 vols. New York 1977. Ð The English Paracelsians . New York 1965.Domandl, Sepp: ãParacelsus, Weyrer, Oporin: Die HintergrŸnde des Pamphlets von

1555Ò. Paracelsus Werk und Wirkung: Festgabe fŸr Kurt Goldammer zum 60. Geburtstag .

Ed. by Sepp Domandl. Vienna 1975, pp. 53Ð70.Dorn, Gerard: Comentaria in Archidoxorum libros x. Frankfurt a. M.: [Christoph Corvin],

1584 (Sudhoff 200). Ð De natura luce physica. Frankfurt a. M.: [Christoph Corvin], 1583. Ð ãDe tenebris contra naturam, et vita breviÒ. In: Theatrum Chemicum , vol. 1, pp. 457Ð

472 . Ð Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi. Ed. by Gerard Dorn. Frankfurt: [Christoff Rab],

1583 (Sudhoff 198).ãDugard, WilliamÒ. In: The Dictionary of National Biography. 22 vols. London 1921Ð1922,

vol. 6, pp. 133Ð134.Ficino, Marsilio: The Book of Life . Trans. by Charles Boer. New edition. Woodstock,

CT: Spring, 1994 (1st published 1980). Ð De vita libri tres . Basil: BarthŽlemy Westheymer, 1541 (first published 1498). Ð De vita libri tres . Ed. by Martin Plessner. Hildesheim and New York 1978 (facsimile

of 1498 edition).Gantenbein, Urs Leo: ãDer frŸhe Paracelsismus in der SchweizÒ. In: Nova Acta Para-

celsica 10 (1996), pp. 14Ð46.Gilbert, R. A.: A. E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts. Wellingborough, England 1987.Golowin, Sergius: Paracelsus: Mediziner, Heiler, Philosoph . Munich 1991.

Ð Paracelsus im MŠrchenland: Wanderer zwischen den Welten . Basel 1980 (first published1962).

Hieronymus, Frank: ãParacelsus-Druck in BaselÒ, In: Heinz Schott and Ilana Zinguer,eds., Paracelsus und seine internationale Rezeption in der frŸhen Neuzeit. Brill 1998 (Stu-dies in Intellectual History, 86), pp. 36Ð57.

Hillman, James: A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman . Ed. by Thomas Moore.New York 1991.

Jung, C. G.: ãParacelsus als geistige ErscheinungÒ. In: Paracelsica: Zwei Vorlesungen Ÿberden Arzt und Philosophen Theophrastus . ZŸrich 1942, pp. 43Ð176.

Ð ãParacelsus as a Spiritual PhenomenonÒ. In: Alchemical Studies . Trans. R. F. C. Hull.Princeton 1967, pp. 109Ð189 (Bollingen Series, 20).Meier, Pirmin: Paracelsus: Arzt und Prophet: AnnŠherungen an Theophrastus von Hohenheim.ZŸrich and Munich 1998 (Pendo-Pocket, 8; first published 1993).Meyrink, Gustav: Der Wei§e Dominikaner: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Unsichtbaren . Vienna

1921.ÒNova disquisitio de Helias Artista.Ó In: Theatrum Chemicum , vol. 4, pp. 214Ð246.The Oxford English Dictionary . 2nd ed. Oxford and New York 1989 (1st ed.1928).



Thomas Willard378

Pagel. Walter: Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renais- sance . 2nd ed. Basel 1982 (1st edition 1958).

Pantin, Isabel: ÒThe Role of Translations in European Scientific Exchanges in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuriesÒ. In: Cultural Translation in Early Modern Euro-

pe . Ed. by Peter Burke and R. Po-Chia Hsia. Cambridge, England, 2007, pp. 163Ð 179.

Paracelsus: Archidoxa ex Theophrastia. Ed. by Johannes Albertus Wimpinaeus. Munich: Adam Berg, 1570 (Sudhoff 119).

Ð Archidoxa Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi . . . Zehen BŸcher . Ed. by Michael Toxites. Stra§-burg: Theodosius Rihel, 1570. (Sudhoff 118). Reprinted Stra§burg: Christian MŸl-ler, 1574 (Sudhoff 158).

Ð Archidoxa D. Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi. . . zwšlf BŸcher . Ed. by Johannes Albertus

Wimpinaeus. Munich: Adam Berg, 1570 (Sudhoff 129). Ð Archidoxae . . . libri x , ed. and trans. by Adam Schršter. Cracow: Mathias Wirzibiet,

1569 (Sudhoff 108). Ð Archidoxorum . . . x. BŸcher . Basel: Peter Perna, 1570 (Sudhoff 116Ð117). Reprint

1574 (Sudhoff 142). Ð Archidoxorum Aureoli Ph. Theophrasti Paracelsi de Secretis naturae mysteriis libri decem . Ed.

and trans. by Gerard Dorn. Basel: Peter Perna, 1570 (Sudhoff 123). Ð Archidoxorum seu de secretis naturae mysteri is, libri decem . Trans. by Gerard Dorn. Basel:

Peter Perna, 1582 (191). Ð Archidoxorum Theophrastiae. Cologne: Heirs of Arnold Birkman, 1570 (Sudhoff 121). Ð Artz und Gottsucher an der Zeitenwende: Eine Auswahl aus seinem Werk. Ed. by Jolande

Jacobi with an introduction by Gerhard Wehr. Olten and Freiburg i. Br.1991 (1stpublished 1942).

Ð ãA Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, Salamanders, and on the Other SpiritsÒ. In:

Four Treatises Ò, pp. 213Ð253. Ð Compendium, ex optimus quibusque eius libris, cum scholiis in libros IIII eiusdem De vita longa .

Ed. by Leo Suavius (pseud. of Jacques Gohorry). Paris: Rovilius, 1567 (Sudhoff89). Reissued Basel: Peter Perna, 1568 (Sudhoff 99).

Ð Essential Readings . Ed. by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Berkeley, CA, 1999 (EssentialReadings).

Ð Essential Theoretical Writings . Ed. and trans. by Andrew Weeks. Leiden 2008 (AriesBook Series, 5).

Ð Etliche Tractetlein zur Archidoxa gehšrig . Ed. by J. A. Wimpinaeus. Munich: Adam Berg,1570 (Sudhoff 128).

Ð Ettliche tractatus . . . Paracelsi . Ed. by Michael Toxites. Stra§burg: Christian MŸller,1570 (Sudhoff 120).

Ð Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus. Ed. and trans. by HenryE. Siegrist et al. Baltimore 1941.

Ð The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings . Ed. by Arthur Edward Waite. 2 vols. London1894. Ð Libri quatuor De vita longa . Ed. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein. Basel: Peter Perna, 1560 (Sud-

hoff 29). Ð Libri v. De vita longa . Ed. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein. Basel: Peter Perna, 1562 (Sudhoff

46). Reprinted [1666] (Sudhoff 503). Ð Libri v. De vita longa, brevi et sana . Ed. by Gerard Dorn. Munich: Christoff Rab, 1583

(Sudhoff 196).




Ð El Libro de la larga vida Paracelso. Ed. and trans. by HŽctor AvilŽs Resina. Madrid 2007(Colleccion Medicina Tradicional de Occidente).

Ð Operum Latine redditorum . Vol. 1. Basel: Peter Perna, 1575 (165). Ð Operum medico-chimicorum . 9 vols. Frankfurt a. M.: Zacharias Palthenius, 1603Ð1605

(Sudhoff 258Ð263, 269Ð274). Ð Opera omnia, medico-chemico-chirurgica . Ed. by Fredericus Bitiskius. 3 vols. Geneva: de

Tournes, 1658 (Sudhoff 381Ð383). Ð Paracelsus His Dispensatory and Chirurgery . Ed. and trans. by W. D. London: Philip

Chetwind, 1656 (Sudhoff 376). Ð Philosophie der Grossen und der Kleinen Welt: Aus der ÇAstronomia MagnaÈ , ed. and trans.

by Gunhild Pšrksen. Basel 2008. Ð Pyrophilia vexationumque , Ed. and trans. by Adam ˆ Bodenstein and Gerard Dorn.

Basel: Peter Perna, 1568 (Sudhoff 101). Ð SŠmtliche Werke . Ed. by Karl Sudhoff and Wilhelm Matthiessen. Part 1: Medizinische,

naturwissenschaftliche und philosophische Schriften . 14 vols. Munich 1922Ð1933. Ð Sechster Theil der BŸcher und Schriften . . . Paracelsi. Ed. by Johann Huser. Frankfurt:

Heirs of Johann Wechel, 1603 (Sudhoff 255). 1st ed. 1590 (Sudhoff 221). Ð Selected Writings . Ed. by Jolande Jacobi, trans. by Norbert Gutermann. 2nd ed.

Princeton 1958 (Bollingen Series, 28; 1st ed. 1951). Ð Theophrastus Paracelsus: Lebendiges Erbe. Ed. by Jolande Jacobi. Zurich 1942. Ð Theophrastus Paracelsus Werke. Ed. by Will-Erich Peuckert. 5 vols. Basel and Stuttgart

1965Ð1968.PoncŽ, Charles: ãForeword: In Praise of BombastÒ. In: Paracelsus. The Hermetic and

Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus . Ed. by Arthur Edward Waite. Reprint. Boulder,CO, 1976, vol 1, 6 pages, unnumbered.

Ð Working the Soul: Reflections on Jungian Psychology . Berkeley, CA 1988.

Ruland, Martin: Lexicon Alchemiae . Frankfurt: Johann Andrea, 1661 (first published1612).

Schleuter, Robert E.: ãThe First Aphorism of Hippocrates as Explained by Paracel-susÒ. In: Annals of Science 1.4 (Oct. 1936), pp. 453Ð461.

Sudhoff, Karl: Bibliographia Paracelsica: Besprechung der unter Theophrast von Hohenheim's1527Ð1893 erschienen Druckschriften. Berlin 1894.

Ð ãEin Beitrag zur Bibliographie der Paracelsisten im 16. JahrhundertÒ. In: Centralblatt fŸr Bibliothekeswesen 10 (1893), pp. 316Ð326, 386Ð407.

Theatrum Chemicum . 6 vols. Stra§burg: Zetzner, 1659Ð1661. Trismosin, Solomon: Splendor Solis. Trans. by J. K. London 1920. Walker, D. P.: Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. London 1958. Webster, Charles: The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626Ð1660. Lon-

don 1975. Ð Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time . New Haven and London

2008. Weeks, Andrew: Paracelsus: Speculative Theory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation. Al-bany, NY, 1997.

Willard, Thomas: ãDonneÕs Anatomy Lesson: Vesalian or Paracelsian?Ò. In: JohnDonne Journal 3.1 (1984), pp. 34Ð61.

Ð ãRosicrucian Sign Lore and the Origin of LanguageÒ. In: Theorien vom Ursprung derSprache . Ed. by Joachim Gessinger and Wolfert von Rahden. 2 vols. Berlin andNew York 1989, vol. 1, pp. 133Ð157.



Thomas Willard380

William CooperÕs A Catalogue of Chymicall Books, 1673Ð1688: A Verified Edition . Ed. byStanton J. Linden. New York 1987.

Willoughby, Edwin Eliott: Fifty PrintersÕ Marks. Berkeley, CA 1947. Wimpinaeus, Johannes Albertus: De concordia Hippocraticorum et Paracelsistarum. Munich:

Adam Berg, 1569.

living the long life

Documents