n When your given name is Philippus AureolusnTheophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim you might be forgiven for favouring anshorter, snappier soubriquet. Von Hohenheim adopted the moniker Paracelsus,nwhich is certainly a great deal shorter and which means ‘greater than Celsus’,n(Celsus was a Roman physician of the first century about whom we know nothing,nalthough eight books of his De Medicina remain).
n
n
n
 |
| Celsus |
n
n
n
nHe was German-Swiss,nborn at the end of 1493 (the date varies in the biographies), in Einsiedeln,nwhere his father, Wilhelm, was a medical doctor. A small, delicate boy,nPhilippus frequently accompanied his father on his professional duties andnreceived the basis of a solid humanist education from him.
n
n
n
 |
| Dr Wilhelm von Hohenheim |
n
n
n
nIn 1502, the familynmoved to Villach, Carinthia, when Dr von Hohenheim was appointed townnphysician, and young Philippus began his education in the Bergschule there,nbefore moving to Benedictine school at St Paul’s monastery, Lavanttal, and atnabout the age of sixteen he began attending the university in Basle.
n
n
n
 |
| Einsiendeln (as in 1577) |
n
n
n
nThis wasnthe time when he began to call himself Paracelsus, following the currentnfashion among students to Latinise their names, and indicates that even as anteenager, Paracelsus felt that his knowledge outstripped that of the Romannphysician. This may well be the case, as medical training at the time involvedna strict adherence to the works of the ancients, particularly Galen,nHippocrates, Avicenna and Celsus, and it is easy to imagine the young man’snimpatience with the dusty, tired and dull lectures of the pedants andnscholiasts of the old universities.
n
n
n
 |
| Paracelsus – Chirurgische – 1618 edition |
n
n
n
nParacelsus studied with the miningnengineers and chemists in the local mines and travelled to Würzburg to visitnthe occultist Abbot Trithemius, also travelling widely across Europe, attendingnthe universities in the major cities he visited. He went first to Vienna,nCologne and Paris, then to Montpellier, where he studied the works of thenMoorish doctors, before travelling to Bologna, Padua and Ferrara, where henreceived his doctorate.
n
n
n
 |
| Paracelsus |
n
n
n
nHe also made a visit to England, probably to Oxford,nand maybe to the tin mines of Cornwall and the lead mines of Cumberland, butnleft when he heard that there was war raging in the Netherlands, where henenrolled as an army surgeon. From there, he moved on to Denmark and Sweden, wherenthe army doctor also made visits to the mines, to become better acquainted withnthe miners’ practices and their diseases, metallurgy and mineralogy.
n
n
n
 |
| Paracelsus – Of the Transmutation of Metals – 1657 edition |
n
n
n
nHe spentnmany more years as an itinerant physician, all the while visiting new countriesnand extending his intellectual horizons. He wrote later,
n
n
n
n“The universitiesndo not teach all things so a doctor must seek out old wives, gipsies,nsorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessonsnfrom them.”n
n
n
nAs his learning grew, so did his reputation and he becamenwidely known as being able to cure those cases of which that the doctorculinhad despaired. This, of course, caused outrage, jealousy and shenanigans, andnhe had to flee many towns in fear of his life. He returned to Basel, where hensettled and began to teach his new syllabus, in direct opposition to thenestablished medical school, and he began to attract a great audience, not onlynfrom students, but including barber-surgeons, bath-men and apothecaries.
n
n
n
 |
| Example of Paracelsus’ handwriting |
n
n
n
nParacelsus taught chemistry, pharmacology and herbalism, he refused to wear thenflamboyant robes and rings associated with doctors, preferring instead a plain,ndark-grey, damask gown and black cap;
n
n
n
n“A doctor should be full ofnexperience, not hung about with red coats and spangles.”n
n
n
nHe made his ownnmedicines in his laboratory and refused to charge the high prices demanded bynthe establishment, finding their ineffective pills and potions to be worthless.nOn the feast of St John, the students of Basel would build a bonfire in frontnof their university and on it Paracelsus symbolically burned the works of Galennand Avicenna, a deliberate challenge to the authority of the ancients. Henignored the usual university summer break and continued to teach, in the Germannlanguage, and his lecture-hall was always filled to overflowing.
n
n
n
 |
| Paracelsus – Of the Supreme Mysteries of Nature – 1656 edition |
n
n
n
nHe took hisnmore advanced students with him on his house calls to the sick, teaching themndiagnoses through observation, he supplemented his lectures with practicalndemonstrations and led expeditions into the countryside to collect herbs. Hentook the poorer students into his own household, and fed and clothed them,nteaching them all he could, and in return they acted as his secretaries,nbecoming his assistants when they had sufficient knowledge and experience.
n
n
n
 |
| Anti-Paracelsus propaganda picture |
n
n
n
nAsnmay be well imagined, none of this went down well with the faculties and thenauthorities. Rumours and accusations began to circulate – he taught in German,nit was said, because he knew no Latin. He did not have a degree at all, theynwhispered. He had not paid the requisite fees that were necessary in Basel tonpractice medicine. He was a quack, a sorcerer, an alchemist, they said; he wasna drunk, a heretic and a glutton. He was arrogant, egotistical and bombasticn(although his name was Bombastus, this is not the origin of thenmeaning of the word bombast as high-spoken, empty language. The word isna corruption of the French bombace, meaning cotton wadding, which innturn is a corruption of the Latin Bombyx and the Greek βόμβυξ – ‘silk’,n‘silkworm’, and simply means overly-padded-out).
n
n
n
nBut mud, when flung, tendsnto stick.
n
n
n
nTomorrow, what happened next.
n
n
n
n
