Paracelsianism

Early modern medical movement

Title page of Benedictus Figulus's 1608 edition of Kleine Wund-Artzney, based on lecture notes by Basilius Amerbach the Elder (1488–1535) of lectures held by Paracelsus during his stay in Basel (1527).

Paracelsianism (also Paracelsism; German Paracelsismus

) was an early modern medical movement based on the theories and therapies of Paracelsus. It developed in the second half of the 16th century, during the decades following Paracelsus' death in 1541, and it flourished during the first half of the 17th century, representing one of the most comprehensive alternatives to learned medicine, the traditional system of therapeutics derived from Galenic physiology. Based on the principle of maintaining harmony between the microcosm, Man; and macrocosm, Nature.

Paracelsianism fell rapidly into decline in the later 17th century, but left its mark on medical practices; it was responsible for the widespread introduction of mineral therapies and several other formerly esoteric techniques.

Sources

• Allen George Debus. The English Paracelsians. University Of Chicago Press, 1968. (original publication 1965)
• Allen George Debus. The French Paracelsians. Cambridge University Press, 2002. (original publication 1991)
• Didier Kahn, Alchimie et paracelsisme en France à la fin de la Renaissance (1567-1625) [Cahiers d’Humanisme et Renaissance 80]. Geneva: Droz, 2007.
• Wilhelm Kühlmann and Joachim Telle, eds. Corpus Paracelsisticum: Dokumente frühneuzeitlicher Naturphilosophie in Deutschland. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2001-.
  • Vol. 1: Der Frühparacelsismus, Band 1 (2001): earliest documents of c. 1560
  • Vol. 2: Der Früh paracelsismus, Band 2 (2004): final do séc. XVI ( Michael Toxites , Gerhard Dorn ; Georg Fedro, Markus Ambrosius, Laurentius Span, Balthasar Flöter, Gallus Etschenreutter, Bartholomäus Scultetus (1540–1614), Pietro Perna, Theodor Zwinger, Johann Albrecht)
  • Vol. 3: Der Früh paracelsismus, Band 3 (2013): textos de 1569-1613 (Johann Hiller, Jonas Freudenberg, Adam Schröter , Lambert Wacker, Salomão Trismosin, Georg Forberger, Johannes Montanus , Johann Fischart , Johann Franke, Bernard Gilles Penot , Johannes Huser, Johann Schauberdt, Johann Thölde, Joachim Tancke, Benedictus Figulus.)
• Jole Shackelford. A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine: The Ideas, Intellectual Context, and Influence of Petrus Severinus (1540/2-1602). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004.

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