Paracelsus was born and raised in the village of Maria Einsiedeln in
Switzerland. His father, Wilhelm Bombast von
Hohenheim, was a Swabian chemist and physician; his mother was
Swiss. As a youth he worked in nearby mines as an analyst. At the age of 16 he started studying medicine at the
University of Basel, later moving to Vienna. He gained his
doctorate degree from the
University of Ferrara.
His wanderings as an itinerant physician and sometime journeyman miner took him through
Germany, France, Hungary, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and
Russia. In Russia, he was taken prisoner by the Tartars and brought before the Grand Cham at whose court he became a great favorite. Finally, he accompanied the Cham's son on an embassy from
China to
Constantinople.
Paracelsus rejected
Gnostic traditions, but kept much of the
Hermetic, neoplatonic, and
Pythagorean philosophies from
Ficino and
Pico della Mirandola; however, Hermetical science had so much
Aristotelian theory that his rejection of Gnosticism was practically meaningless. In particular, Paracelsus rejected the
magic theories of
Agrippa and
Flamel; Paracelsus did not think of himself as a magician and scorned those who did, though he was a practicing
astrologer, as were most, if not all of the university-trained physicians working at this time in Europe.
Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus' medicine. In his
Archidoxes of Magic Paracelsus devoted several sections to astrological talismans for curing disease, providing talismans for various maladies as well as talismans for each sign of the
Zodiac. He also invented an alphabet called the
Alphabet of the Magi, for engraving angelic names upon
talismans.
Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in
medicine. He used the name "zink" for the element
zinc in about 1526, based on the sharp pointed appearance of its crystals after smelting and the old German word "zinke" for pointed. He used experimentation in learning about the
human body.
His hermetical views were that sickness and
health in the body relied on the harmony of man, the
microcosm, and
Nature, the
macrocosm.
He took an approach different from those before him, using this analogy not in the manner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them.
(Debus & Multhauf, p.6-12)
He summarized his own views: "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of
gold and
silver.
For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines." (Edwardes, p.47) (also in:
Holmyard, Eric John. Alchemy. p. 170)
Paracelsus gained a reputation for being arrogant, and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe. He held the chair of medicine at the
University of Basel for less than a year; while there his colleagues became angered by allegations that he had publicly burned traditional medical books. He was forced from the city after having legal trouble over a physician's fee he sued to collect.
He then wandered
Europe, Africa and
Asia Minor, in the pursuit of hidden knowledge. He revised old manuscripts and wrote new ones, but had trouble finding publishers. In 1536, his
Die grosse Wundartzney (The Great Surgery Book) was published and enabled him to regain fame.
He died in 1541 in
Salzburg, and was buried according to his wishes in the cemetery at the church of St Sebastian in Salzburg. His remains are now located in a tomb in the porch of the church.
After his death, the movement of
Paracelsianism was seized upon by many wishing to subvert the traditional
Galenic physick- and thus did his therapies become more widely known and used.
His
motto was "alterius non sit qui suus esse potest" which means "let no man that can belong to himself be of another"
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