Paracelsus Birthday Highlights
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Paracelsus Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
About Paracelsus Paracelsus had been a well-known Swiss physician in medical history.Paracelsus is originally from Egg an der Sihl, close to the Etzel Pass in Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Old Swiss Confederacy (present-day Switzerland). He illustrated the concept of science in a distinct way and justified the participation of chemistry and toxicology in medicine.Paracelsus followed the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies as one of the early 16th-century physicians. He followed astrology, the works of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. He contradicted the concepts of Aristotle and Galen, also the hypothesis of humor, but bore the notion of the four elements (water, air, fire, and earth). He described the elements using an egg, where like an eggshell, air surrounded the world, the white part is like fire, and earth and water make the yolk. He also mentioned four elemental beings: Salamanders, which correspond to fire, Sylphs, which correspond to air, Undines, which correspond to water, and Gnomes, which correspond to earth.Paracelsus believed that science and religion are intertwined. His religious beliefs made him follow the paths of science, which he described as direct messages from God. He claimed that science is not only to learn more about the world, but to interpret those divine signs, and even his profession as a physician requires faith in God. He wished every physician acquired the least amount of knowledge in chemistry and philosophical medicine. His medical cures were studied by Rosicrucians in the 1600s.Paracelsus mentioned that to become a physician, one needs to have a solid academic leash on natural sciences, especially chemistry. He manifested the chemical theory and the implication of minerals in medicine. He believed in the idea of tripartite alternatives, a solid, permanent element (salt), combustible element (sulfur), and fluid and changeable element (mercury). He felt the principles of these elements could be the remedy to all diseases. His hermetical beliefs established a concept, where he attested that health depends on the harmony of humans (microcosm) and nature (macrocosm). He did not go for the then conventional medical treatment of soul-purification, but rather explained how humans should balance the minerals in their bodies to evade certain illnesses and how the nourishment for each part of the body could be useful to humans.Paracelsus reintroduced the use of opium to Western Europe during the German Renaissance. He made an opium tincture, called laudanum but the ingredients differ considerably from 17th-century laudanum. He also created liniment opodeldoc, in which the ingredients were a mixture of soap in alcohol, some herbal essences, mostly wormwood, and camphor. He built antisepsis, called ‘Die große Wundarzney’ with his experiences as an army physician in the Venetian wars. The ingredients contained cow dung, feathers, and other noxious concoctions. As a military surgeon, when everyone accepted infection as a natural part of the healing and suggested sewing or plastering the wounds directly, Paracelsus suggested cleaning and protecting the wounds first, and also advised regulating their diets. He was the one to discover that Syphilis could only be spread by physical contact and it could be treated by measured doses of mercury.After chemistry and biology, Paracelsus got interested in toxicology. In the ‘Third Defence’, he explained the concept of dose-response. Although physicians claimed that his chemical remedies were too toxic as therapeutic agents, they acknowledged the fact that the way he conceptualized toxicology, was far beyond conventional medicine.Paracelsus’ Net Worth, Earnings & Spending HabitsWhat was Paracelsus’ net worth?The net worth of Paracelsus is not known.How much did Paracelsus earn per year?The annual salary of Paracelsus is known.Height, Age & Physical AttributesHow tall was Paracelsus?The height or any physical attributes of Paracelsus were not documented.How old was Paracelsus?Paracelsus was given birth to in 1493 and on September 24, 1541, he died at the age of 47.Childhood And EducationParacelsus is originally from Egg an der Sihl, Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Old Swiss Confederacy (present-day Switzerland). Wilhelm was his father.Wilhelm was a part of Bombast von Hohenheim, the Swabian noble family. He belonged from Gais in Appenzell and worked as a chemist and physician. Some believe that Wilhelm was the baseborn son of Georg Bombast von Hohenheim, who served as a commander to the Order of Saint John in Rohrdorf. Paracelsus’ mother belonged to the Einsiedeln region. She served as a superintendent in the abbey hospital and for Einsiedeln Abbey as a bonds-woman. In his writings, he used ‘Eremita’ (gotten from Einsiedeln, which means ‘heritage’) as part of his name. His mother died in 1502 and his father relocated to Villach, Carinthia. He was a physician to pilgrims and residents of Villach, Carinthia.Paracelsus was primarily home-schooled in chemistry, mineralogy, botany, natural philosophy, medicine, and mining, by his father. Later he attended the convent school of St. Paul’s Abbey in the Lavanttal and also acquired theological education from local clerics. Some believed that he was tutored by Johannes Trithemius, the abbot of Sponheim but there was no firm evidence supporting that statement. Presumably, he was inspired by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim’s writing but did not receive any direct teaching from him. He attended the University of Basel to study medicine and later got his medical doctorate from the University of Ferrara (1515-1516).Family, Romance, And RelationshipWho was Paracelsus dating? (OR) Who was Paracelsus’ partner?Any marital relationship of Paracelsus was not documented.Career And Professional HighlightsBest Known For…From 1517 to 1524 Paracelsus travelled around Europe and gathered a vast knowledge of medicine, which could not be found in any book or faculty.His extensive travels included Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Russia, Hungary, Rhodes, Constantinople, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Croatia, and Egypt.After graduating from the University of Ferrara, Paracelsus started traveling as an army surgeon. He served in the wars, waged by Venice, Denmark, Holland, and the Tartars. His travel ended in 1524, and he went to his father at Villach for a visit, he could not find a place to practice, which made him settle in Salzburg as a physician. He stayed there from 1524 to 1527 and started working on his first article. His early medical principles were Elf Traktat and Volumen Medicinae Paramirum, which circled around the eleven common maladies and their cures. In his journal, he wrote about several fundamental concepts such as humanity’s place in the world and in the universe, the meaning of life and death, and the origins of sickness.In 1526, Paracelsus made some settlements to be a citizen in Strasbourg and established his own practice. Later he moved to Basel because he was appointed for the treatment of printer Johann Frobenius, eventually curing him. The medical skills of Paracelsus impressed the Dutch Renaissance humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam, who was already present at the University of Basel at that moment. Briefly after, they came together to work on several medical and theological subjects. In 1527, Basel became a center of Renaissance humanism. Eventually, Paracelsus advanced his medical education and became a licensed physician in Basel, also commendable enough to offer lectures at the University of Basel. At the institute, he befriended Wolfgang Lachner, Johannes Oekolampad, and Erasmus of Rotterdam.Within a few years, Paracelsus became a professor of Medicine at Basel University. Most of his lectures at the university were presented in German, not Latin because he wanted everyone to grasp his vision. The Basel physicians and apothecaries were overtly criticized for plotting political turmoil against Paracelsus. He despised conventional medicine and burnt the works of Galen and Avicenna publicly, including a copy of ‘Canon of Medicine’ by Avicenna(a pillar of academic study, in market square). He ridiculed, sometimes even verbally abused people, who were more adherent to titles than practice. At the university, he summoned apothecaries, barber-surgeons, alchemists, and those with no academic credentials to justify his concept ‘The patients are your textbook, the sickbed is your study’.In the time of his Basel years, one of his associates accused Paracelsus of being an alcoholic. In February 1528, he moved to Alsace and served as an ambulatory physician again. In 1529, he was forced to resettle in Nuremberg, after his short time in Colmar and Esslingen but because of his bad reputation, he was excluded from practicing. In that era, Syphilis was running rampant as a pandemic (imported from the West Indies, completely untreated). The Fugger of Augsburg was accused of scamming the treatment with guaiac wood, where Paracelsus had been sidelined because he wanted to go public. However, the publication was called off by the Leipzig faculty of medicine’s Heinrich Stromer.Paracelsus moved to Beratzhausen and there he finished writing ‘Paragranum’ in 1530. Later he went to St. Gall and finished off his ‘Opus Paramirum’ in 1531. Again he relocated to Appenzell, a town in northeastern Switzerland, and served as a healer and preacher to the commoners. He also traveled from the mines in Schwaz and Hall in Tyrol to Innsbruck and from Sterzing to Meran, Veltlin, and St. Moritz. In Meran, he was involved with the Anabaptists. He also traveled through Kempten, Memmingen, Ulm, and Augsburg. In 1536, he published his ‘Die grosse Wundartznei’ and completed ‘Astronomia magna’ in 1537 (which was based on demonology, divination, theology, astrology, and hermeticism, printed in 1571).Although Paracelsus’ autographs were lost after his death, his unpublished works and therapies started getting published. Despite his ill-reputation, from the late 16th to early 17th century, his medical works were frequently discussed in modern medicine. In the late 16th century, the Pseudo-Paracelsian writing started emerging and at some point, it became impossible to differentiate the mock-ups from real.Some of Paracelsus’ well-known works are ‘de Gradibus Et Compositionibus Receptorum Naturalim’, ‘Von Der Bergsucht Oder Bergkranckheiten’, ‘Practica, Gemacht Auff Europen’, ‘Prognosticatio Ad Vigesimum Quartum Annum Duratura’, ‘Vom Holtz Guaico’, and ‘Die große Wundarzney’. Some of his books were translated into English including ‘The Hermetic And Alchemical Writings Of Paracelsus’ (translator: Arthur Edward Waite), ‘Paracelsus: His Life and Doctrines’ (translator: Franz Hartmann), ‘Paracelsus: Selected Writings’ (translator: Norbert Guterman), ‘Paracelsus: Essential Readings’ (translator: Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke), and ‘Paracelsus: Essential Theoretical Writings’ (translator: Andrew Weeks).Other Interesting Paracelsus Facts And TriviaParacelsus was argumentative with conventional scientists in medicine. He advocated novelty, ingenuity,, and scholarly efforts in looking for better, newer methods of treating maladies.Paracelsus’ motto was ‘Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest,’ meaning ‘Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself.‘On September 24, 1541, Paracelsus died in Salzburg, he moved there most likely on the invitation of Ernest of Bavaria. His remains were buried in St Sebastian’s Cemetery, later in 1752, they were moved inside St Sebastian’s church.Augustin Hirschvogel published a woodcut portrait of Paracelsus in 1538, which became the oldest surviving portrait so far. Three 17th-century copies have survived as well, by an anonymous Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, and by a student of Rubens.A few portrayals of Paracelsus have been mentioned in modern literature. His life was first portrayed in a historical novel (published in 1830) by Dioclès Fabre d’Olivet. In 1835 Robert Browning came up with a long poem about his life.In 1899, the play ‘Paracelsus’ was plotted by Arthur Schnitzler. He was also recognized in Martha Sills-Fuchs’ play ‘Völkisch’, as the prophetic healer of the German people.During 1917–1926 the ‘Paracelsus-Trilogie’ was published by Kolbenheyer.Paracelsus’ life was portrayed in the German drama film ‘Paracelsus’ (1943), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.We would love your help! If you have a photo of Paracelsus, either of them alone or a selfie that you would be happy to share, please send it to [email protected].If you have knowledge or information that you think would help us improve this article, please contact us.
Paracelsus Birthday Highlights
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Paracelsus Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
Paracelsus had been a well-known Swiss physician in medical history.
Paracelsus Birthday Highlights
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Paracelsus Birthday Highlights
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Birth Name Theophrastus von Hohenheim
Place Of Birth Egg an der Sihl, Switzerland Age 530 years old
Birth Date September 23 1493
Paracelsus Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
Paracelsus Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
Child Star? no Occupation Alchemist Education & Qualifications University of Ferrara
Parents Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, Elsa Oschner
