Editing Paracelsus (section)

==Biography==

Paracelsus was born in {{ill|Egg an der Sihl|de|Egg SZ}},<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Duffin|first1=C. J|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hGpIAgAAQBAJ|title=A History of Geology and Medicine|last2=Moody|first2=R. T. J|last3=Gardner-Thorpe|first3=C.|date=2013|publisher=Geological Society of London|isbn=978-1-86239-356-1|pages=444|language=en}}</ref> a village close to the [[Etzel Pass]] in [[Einsiedeln]], [[canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]]. He was born in a house next to a bridge across the [[Sihl river]]. His father Wilhelm (d. 1534) was a chemist and physician, an illegitimate descendant of the [[Duchy of Swabia|Swabia]]n noble {{ill|Georg Bombast von Hohenheim|lt=Georg|de}} [[Bombast von Hohenheim]] (1453–1499), [[Commander (order)|commander]] of the [[Knights Hospitaller|Order of Saint John]] in [[Rohrdorf, Baden-Württemberg|Rohrdorf]].<ref>Müller-Jahncke, Wolf-Dieter, "Paracelsus" in: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' 20 (2001), [http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11859169X.html 61–64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506114531/http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11859169X.html |date=6 May 2016 }}.</ref>

Paracelsus' mother was probably a native of the [[Einsiedeln]] region and a [[Indentured servitude|bondswoman]] of [[Einsiedeln Abbey]], who before her marriage worked as superintendent in the abbey's hospital.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = The Western Medical Tradition|last = Wear|first = Andrew|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 1995|location = Cambridge|pages = 311}}</ref> Paracelsus in his writings repeatedly made references to his rustic origins and occasionally used ''Eremita'' (from the name of Einsiedeln, meaning "hermitage") as part of his name.<ref>
C. Birchler in ''Verhandlungen der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft'' 52 (1868),
 [https://books.google.com/books?id=VksWAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA9  9f].
A letter sent in 1526 from Basel to his friend Christoph Clauser, physician in Zürich, one of the oldest extant documents written by Paracelsus, is signed ''Theophrastus ex Hohenheim Eremita''.
Karl F. H. Marx, ''Zur Würdigung des Theophrastus von Hohenheim'' (1842), [https://archive.org/details/zurwrdigungdest00marxgoog/page/n31 p. 3].</ref>

Paracelsus' mother probably died in 1502,<ref name="BBKL">{{BBKL|p/paracelsus|band=6|autor=Johannes Schaber|artikel=Paracelsus, lat. Pseudonym von {Philippus Aureolus} Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim|spalten=1502–1528}}</ref> after which Paracelsus's father moved to [[Villach]], [[Duchy of Carinthia|Carinthia]], where he worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister.<ref name="BBKL"/> Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining, and natural philosophy.<ref name=":0" /> He received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of [[St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal]].<ref name="BBKL" /> It is likely that Paracelsus received his early education mainly from his father.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Crone|first=Hugh D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPYfCb9vClsC&pg=PA36|title=Paracelsus: The Man who Defied Medicine : His Real Contribution to Medicine and Science|date=2004|publisher=Albarello Press|isbn=978-0-646-43327-1|pages=36–37|language=en}}</ref> Some biographers have claimed that he received tutoring from four bishops and [[Johannes Trithemius]], abbot of [[Sponheim]].<ref name=":9" /> However, there is no record of Trithemius spending much time at [[Einsiedeln]], nor of Paracelsus visiting [[Sponheim]] or [[Würzburg]] before Trithemius's death in 1516.<ref name=":9" /> All things considered, Paracelsus almost certainly received instructions from their writings, and not from direct teaching in person.<ref name=":9" /> At the age of 16, he started studying medicine at the [[University of Basel]], later moving to [[Vienna]]. He gained his [[medical doctorate]] from the [[University of Ferrara]] in 1515 or 1516.<ref name="BBKL" /><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://web.unife.it/centro/paracelsus/archivi/c_2005_hexagon_winter2005.pdf |author1=Marshall James L |author2=Marshall Virginia R |title=Rediscovery of the Elements: Paracelsus |journal=The Hexagon of Alpha Chi Sigma |issn=0164-6109 |oclc=4478114 |issue=Winter |year=2005 |pages=71–8 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928105224/http://web.unife.it/centro/paracelsus/archivi/c_2005_hexagon_winter2005.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2006 }}</ref>

===Early career===
[[File:Paracelsus.jpg|thumb|The Louvre copy of the lost portrait by [[Quentin Matsys]],<ref>Matsys' portrait may have been drawn from life, but it has been lost. At least three copies of the portrait are known to have been made in the first half of the 17th century: one by an anonymous Flemish artist, kept in the Louvre (shown here), one by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], kept in [[Brussels]], and one by a student of Rubens', now kept in [[Uppsala]].</ref> source of the iconographic tradition of "fat" Paracelsus<ref>Andrew Cunninghgam, "Paracelsus Fat and Thin: Thoughts on Reputations and Realities" in: Ole Peter Grell (ed.), ''Paracelsus'' (1998), 53–78 [https://books.google.com/books?id=_m1Mf52bK70C&pg=PA57 (p. 57)].</ref>]]
"Paracelsus sought a universal knowledge"<ref name=":05">{{Cite book|last=Goodrick - Clarke|first=Nicholas|title=Paracelsus Essential Readings|publisher=North Atlantic Books|year=1999|location=Berkeley, California|pages=16}}</ref> that was not found in books or faculties. Thus, between 1517 and 1524, he embarked on a series of extensive travels around Europe. His wanderings led him from [[Italy]] to [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], [[England]], [[Germany]], [[Scandinavia]], [[Poland]], [[Russia]], [[Hungary]], [[Croatia]], [[Rhodes]], [[Constantinople]], and possibly even [[Egypt]].<ref name=":05" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=Borzelleca|first=Joseph|date=January 2000|title=Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology|journal=Toxicological Sciences|volume=53|issue=1|pages=2–4|doi=10.1093/toxsci/53.1.2|pmid=10653514|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paracelsus|title=Parcelsus|last=Hargrave|first=John G.|date=December 2019|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=9 April 2020|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326025758/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paracelsus|url-status=live}}</ref>  During this period of travel, Paracelsus enlisted as an army surgeon and was involved in the wars waged by [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], [[County of Holland|Holland]], [[Denmark]], and the [[Tatars]]. Then Paracelsus returned home from his travels in 1524.<ref name=":05" /><ref name=":13"/><ref name=":22"/>

In 1524, "[a]fter visiting his father at [[Villach]] and finding no local opportunity to practice, he settled in [[Salzburg]]" as a physician,<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Goodrick-Clarke|first=Nicholas|title=Paracelsus Essential Readings|publisher=North Atlantic Books|year=1999|location=Berkeley, California|pages=16}}</ref><ref name=":13"/><ref name=":22"/> and remained there until 1527.<ref name=":13" /> "Since 1519/20 he had been working on his first medical writings, and he now completed ''Elf Traktat'' and ''Volumen medicinae Paramirum'', which describe eleven common maladies and their treatment, and his early medical principles."<ref name=":03" /> While he was returning to [[Villach]] and while he worked on his first medical writings, "he contemplated many fundamental issues such as the meaning of life and death, health, the causes of disease (internal imbalances or external forces), the place of humans in the world and in the universe, and the relationship between humans (including himself) and God."<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":22" />

===Basel (1526–1528)===
[[File:11-11-24-basel-by-ralfr-035.jpg|thumb|The [[University of Basel]], where Paracelsus started working as a professor in 1527]]
In 1526, he bought the rights of citizenship in [[Strasbourg]] to establish his own practice. But soon after, he was called to [[Basel]] to the sickbed of printer [[Johann Frobenius]] and reportedly cured him.<ref name=":2" /> During that time, the [[Dutch Renaissance]] [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] [[Erasmus of Rotterdam]], also at the [[University of Basel]], witnessed the medical skills of Paracelsus, and the two scholars initiated a dialogue, exchanging letters on medical and theological subjects.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 2558048 | pmid=21380327 | volume=7 | issue=164 | title=Letter From Paracelsus to Erasmus | journal=Prov Med J Retrosp Med Sci | pages=142| year=1843 }}</ref>

In 1527, Paracelsus was a [[city physician]] ({{Lang|de|Stadtarzt}}) in Basel with the privilege of lecturing at the [[University of Basel]]. At that time, Basel was a centre of Renaissance humanism, and Paracelsus here came into contact with [[Erasmus of Rotterdam]], [[Wolfgang Lachner]], and [[Johannes Oekolampad]]. When Erasmus fell ill while staying in Basel, he wrote to Paracelsus: "I cannot offer thee a reward equal to thy art and knowledge—I surely offer thee a grateful soul. Thou hast recalled from the shades Frobenius who is my other half: if thou restorest me also thou restorest each through the other."<ref>E.J. Holmyard (1957). ''Alchemy.'' Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, p. 162. Retrieved 22 May 2021.</ref>

Paracelsus' lectures at Basel university unusually were given in German, not Latin.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Drago |first1=Elisabeth |title=Paracelsus, the Alchemist Who Wed Medicine to Magic |date=3 March 2020 |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/paracelsus-the-alchemist-who-wed-medicine-to-magic |publisher=Science History Institute |access-date=6 May 2022 |archive-date=17 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617234405/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/paracelsus-the-alchemist-who-wed-medicine-to-magic |url-status=live }}</ref> He stated that he wanted his lectures to be available to everyone. He published harsh criticism of the Basel physicians and apothecaries, creating political turmoil to the point of his life being threatened. In a display of his contempt for conventional medicine, Paracelsus publicly [[Book burning|burned]] editions of the works of [[Galen]] and [[Avicenna]]. On 23 June 1527, he burnt a copy of Avicenna's ''[[Canon of Medicine]]'', an enormous tome that was a pillar of academic study, in market square.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=Charles |title=Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time |page=13 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |year=2008 }}</ref> He was prone to many outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory, and ridiculed anybody who placed more importance on titles than practice: 'if disease put us to the test, all our splendour, title, ring, and name will be as much help as a horse's tail'.<ref name=":2" /> During his time as a professor at the University of Basel, he invited [[barber-surgeon]]s, [[alchemist]]s, [[apothecary|apothecaries]], and others lacking academic background to serve as examples of his belief that only those who practised an art knew it: "The patients are your textbook, the sickbed is your study."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|first1=Arthur Edward|last1=Waite|title = The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus|publisher = James Elliott and Co|year = 1894|location = London}}</ref> Paracelsus was compared with [[Martin Luther]] because of his openly defiant acts against the existing authorities in medicine.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442424/Paracelsus/5504/Career-at-Basel|title=Paracelsus|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=23 September 2014|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006224030/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442424/Paracelsus/5504/Career-at-Basel|url-status=live}}</ref> But Paracelsus rejected that comparison,<ref>{{cite book |title=Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wO244WXEBKcC&q=paracelsus+luther&pg=PA40 | page=40| isbn=9783805535182 | last1=Pagel | first1=Walter | year=1982 | publisher=Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers }}</ref> famously stating: "I leave it to Luther to defend what he says and I will be responsible for what I say. That which you wish to Luther, you wish also to me: You wish us both in the fire."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive_2006/1023.shtml |title=Divinity School at the University of Chicago &#124; Publications |website=divinity.uchicago.edu |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610120041/http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive_2006/1023.shtml |archive-date=10 June 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> A companion during the Basel years expressed a quite unflattering opinion on Paracelsus: "The two years I passed in his company he spent in [[binge drinking|drinking]] and [[gluttony]], day and night. He could not be found [[sobriety|sober]] an hour or two together, in particular after his departure from Basel."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ball |first=Philip |title=The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance of Magic and Science |page=205 |publisher=William Heinemann |location=London |year=2006 }}</ref> Threatened with an unwinnable lawsuit,{{clarify|date=September 2023}} he left Basel for [[Alsace]] in February 1528.

===Later career===
[[File:300704 beratzhausen-oberpfalz-paracelsus-denkmal 1-480x640.jpg|thumb|Monument to Paracelsus in [[Beratzhausen]], [[Bavaria]]]]
In Alsace, Paracelsus took up the life of an [[Itinerant groups in Europe|itinerant]] physician once again. After staying in [[Colmar]] with [[Lorenz Fries]], and briefly in [[Esslingen am Neckar|Esslingen]], he moved to [[Nuremberg]] in 1529. His reputation went before him, and the medical professionals excluded him from practising.

The name ''Paracelsus'' is first attested in this year, used as a pseudonym for the publication of a ''Practica'' of political-[[astrology|astrological]] character in Nuremberg.<ref>''Practica D. Theophrasti Paracelsi, gemacht auff Europen, anzufahen in den nechstkunftigen Dreyssigsten Jar biß auff das Vier und Dreyssigst nachvolgend, Gedruckt zu Nürmberg durch Friderichen Peypus M. D. XXIX.'' [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10198676?page=5 (online facsimile)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412041415/https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10198676?page=5 |date=12 April 2023 }}</ref> Pagel (1982) supposes that the name was intended for use as the author of non-medical works, while his real name ''Theophrastus von Hohenheim'' was used for medical publications. The first use of ''Doctor Paracelsus'' in a medical publication was in 1536, as the author of the ''Grosse Wundartznei''. The name is usually interpreted as either a [[Latinisation of names|Latinization]] of ''Hohenheim'' (based on ''[[:wikt:celsus|celsus]]'' "high, tall") or as the claim of "surpassing [[Aulus Cornelius Celsus|Celsus]]". It has been argued that the name was not the invention of Paracelsus himself, who would have been opposed to the humanistic fashion of Latinized names, but was given to him by his circle of friends in Colmar in 1528. It is difficult to interpret but does appear to express the "paradoxical" character of the man, the prefix "[[:wikt:παρά|para]]" suggestively being echoed in the titles of Paracelsus's main philosophical works, ''Paragranum'' and ''Paramirum'' (as it were, "beyond the grain" and "beyond wonder"), a ''paramiric'' treatise having been announced by Paracelsus as early as 1520.<ref>Pagel (1982), p. 5ff.</ref>

The great medical problem of this period was [[syphilis]], possibly recently imported from the [[West Indies]] and running rampant as a [[pandemic]] completely untreated. Paracelsus vigorously attacked the treatment with [[guaiacum|guaiac wood]] as useless, a scam perpetrated by the [[Fugger]] of Augsburg as the main importers of the wood in two publications on the topic. When his further stay in Nuremberg had become impossible, he retired to [[Beratzhausen]], hoping to return to Nuremberg and publish an extended treatise on the "French sickness"; but its publication was prohibited by a decree of the Leipzig [[faculty of medicine]], represented by [[Heinrich Stromer]], a close friend and associate of the Fugger family.<ref>Ingrid Kästner,
in Albrecht Classen (ed.), ''Religion und Gesundheit: Der heilkundliche Diskurs im 16. Jahrhundert'' (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_qmCqQfxLn0C&pg=PA166 p. 166].</ref>

In [[Beratzhausen]], Paracelsus prepared ''Paragranum'', his main work on [[medical philosophy]], completed 1530. Moving on to [[St. Gallen|St. Gall]], he then completed his ''Opus Paramirum'' in 1531, which he dedicated to [[Joachim Vadian]]. From St. Gall, he moved on to the land of [[Appenzell]], where he was active as [[lay preacher]] and healer among the [[peasantry]]. In the same year, he visited the mines in [[Schwaz]] and [[Hall in Tirol|Hall]] in [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]], working on his book on miners' diseases. He moved on to [[Innsbruck]], where he was once again barred from practising. He passed [[Sterzing]] in 1534, moving on to [[Merano|Meran]], [[Veltlin]], and [[St. Moritz]], which he praised for its healing springs. In Meran, he came in contact with the socioreligious programs of the [[Anabaptist]]s. He visited [[Pfäfers Abbey]], dedicating a separate pamphlet to its baths (1535). He passed [[Kempten]], [[Memmingen]], [[Ulm]], and [[Augsburg]] in 1536. He finally managed to publish his ''Die grosse Wundartznei'' ("The Great Surgery Book"), printed in [[Ulm]], [[Augsburg]], and [[Frankfurt]] in this year.<ref>Pagel (1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wO244WXEBKcC&pg=PA26 p. 26].</ref>

His ''Astronomia magna'' (also known as ''Philosophia sagax'') was completed in 1537 but not published until 1571. It is a treatise on [[hermeticism]], [[astrology]], [[divination]], [[theology]], and [[demonology]] that laid the basis of Paracelsus's later fame as a "prophet". His [[motto]] ''[[Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest]]'' ("Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself") is inscribed on a 1538 portrait by [[Augustin Hirschvogel]].

===Death and legacy===
{{further|#Reception and legacy}}
In 1541, Paracelsus moved to [[Salzburg]] where he died on 24 September. He was buried in St. Sebastian's cemetery in Salzburg. His remains were relocated inside St. Sebastian's church in 1752.

After his death, the movement of [[Paracelsianism]] was seized upon by many wishing to subvert the traditional [[Galen]]ic physics, and his therapies became more widely known and used. His manuscripts have been lost, but many of his works which remained unpublished during his lifetime were edited by Johannes Huser of Basel during 1589 to 1591. His works were frequently reprinted and widely read during the late 16th to early 17th centuries, and although his "[[occult]]" reputation remained controversial, his medical contributions were universally recognized: a 1618 ''pharmacopeia'' by the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in London included "Paracelsian" remedies.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|title = International Year of Chemistry 2011: Paracelsus: In Praise of Mavericks|journal = Clinical Chemistry|date = 1 June 2011|issn = 0009-9147|pages = 932–934|volume = 57|issue = 6|doi = 10.1373/clinchem.2011.165894|first = Marek H.|last = Dominiczak|doi-access = free}}</ref>

The late 16th century saw substantial production of Pseudo-Paracelsian writing, especially letters attributed to Paracelsus, to the point where biographers find it impossible to draw a clear line between genuine tradition and legend.<ref>Joachim Telle, "Paracelsus in pseudoparacelsischen Briefen", ''Nova Acta Paracelsica'' 20/21 (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=BGY22fzhPqwC&pg=PA147 147–164].</ref>