Editing Paracelsus

{{Short description|Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493 – 1541)}}
{{other uses|Paracelsus (disambiguation)}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=January 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[Renaissance philosophy]]
| name        = Paracelsus
| image       = Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Wellcome V0004455.jpg
| caption     = 1538 portrait by [[Augustin Hirschvogel]]
| birth_name  = Theophrastus von Hohenheim
| birth_date  = c. 1493<ref name=birth_date>Pagel (1982) p. 6, citing
K. Bittel, "Ist Paracelsus 1493 oder 1494 geboren?", ''Med. Welt'' 16 (1942), p. 1163, J. Strebel, ''Theophrastus von Hohenheim: Sämtliche Werke'' vol. 1 (1944), p. 38.
The most frequently cited assumption that Paracelsus was born in late 1493 is due to
Sudhoff, ''Paracelsus. Ein deutsches Lebensbild aus den Tagen der Renaissance'' (1936), p. 11.</ref>
| birth_place = [[Einsiedeln|Egg]], [[canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]],<ref>Einsiedeln was under the jurisdiction of Schwyz from 1394 onward; see
{{HLS|710|Einsiedeln}}</ref> [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss Confederacy]]<br>{{small|(now Switzerland)}}
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=yes|1541|09|24|1493|11|11}}
| death_place = [[Salzburg]], [[Archbishopric of Salzburg|Salzburg]]<br>{{small|(now Austria)}}
| education   = {{plainlist|
* [[University of Basel]]
* [[University of Ferrara]]<br />([[M.D.]], 1515/16)}}
| other_names = Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, Doctor Paracelsus
| school_tradition = [[Renaissance humanism]]
| influences  = [[Pythagoreanism]], [[Neoplatonism]], [[Hermeticism]], [[Johannes Trithemius]], [[Marsilio Ficino]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jung|first=C. G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2XfBQAAQBAJ|title=The Spirit of Man in Art and Literature|date=18 December 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-53356-6|pages=7|language=en}}</ref>
| influenced  = [[Thomas Muffet]],<ref>Geoffrey Davenport, Ian McDonald, Caroline Moss-Gibbons (Editors), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bGPZSDzOCxYC ''The Royal College of Physicians and Its Collections: An Illustrated History''], Royal College of Physicians, 2001, p. 48.</ref> [[Franciscus Sylvius]],<ref>Digitaal Wetenschapshistorisch Centrum (DWC) – KNAW: [http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/wp-content/berkelbio/54.sylvius.pdf "Franciscus dele Boë"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211181258/https://dwc.knaw.nl/wp-content/berkelbio/54.sylvius.pdf |date=11 December 2022 }}</ref> [[Sir Thomas Browne]],<ref>''Manchester Guardian'', 19 October 1905</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.levity.com/alchemy/sir_thomas_browne.html|title=The physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne|website=www.levity.com|access-date=13 August 2015|archive-date=1 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401193135/http://www.levity.com/alchemy/sir_thomas_browne.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Jan Baptist van Helmont]], [[Adam Haslmayr]], [[Gabriel François Venel]] (''disputed''),<ref>{{Cite book | last = Josephson-Storm | first = Jason | title = The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | date = 2017 | page = 55 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ5yDgAAQBAJ | isbn = 978-0-226-40336-6 | access-date = 1 July 2018 | archive-date = 18 October 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231018080456/https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ5yDgAAQBAJ | url-status = live }}</ref> [[Jane Bennett (political theorist)|Jane Bennett]],<ref name=CISSC>{{cite web|title=CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy|url=http://cissc.concordia.ca/lecturesconferencesandevents/2012-13/?share=1|publisher=Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal|access-date=9 February 2018|date=22 March 2013|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728234301/http://cissc.concordia.ca/lecturesconferencesandevents/2012-13/?share=1|archive-date=28 July 2014}}</ref> [[Giorgio Agamben]]<ref>Josephson-Storm (2017), 238</ref>
| notable_ideas = {{plainlist|
* [[Toxicology]]
* "[[The dose makes the poison]]"}}
}}
{{Esotericism}}

'''Paracelsus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|p|æ|r|ə|ˈ|s|ɛ|l|s|ə|s}}; {{IPA|de|paʁaˈtsɛlzʊs|lang}}; {{c.}} 1493<ref name=birth_date/> – 24 September 1541), born '''Theophrastus von Hohenheim''' (full name '''Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim'''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ltxLAAAAcAAJ ''Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus, genannt Bombast von Hohenheim: ein schweizerischer Medicus, gestorben 1541''], Hilscher, 1764, p. 13.</ref><ref>The name ''Philippus'' is only found posthumously, first on Paracelsus's tombstone. Publications during his lifetime were under the name ''Theophrastus ab Hohenheim'' or ''Theophrastus Paracelsus'', the additional name ''Aureolus'' is recorded in 1538. Pagel (1982), 5ff.</ref>), was a Swiss<ref>Paracelsus self-identifies as Swiss (''ich bin von Einsidlen, dess Lands ein Schweizer'') in ''grosse Wundartznei'' (vol. 1, p. 56) and names Carinthia as his "second fatherland" (''das ander mein Vatterland''). Karl F. H. Marx, ''Zur Würdigung des Theophrastus von Hohenheim'' (1842), [https://archive.org/details/zurwrdigungdest00marxgoog/page/n31 p. 3].</ref> physician, [[alchemist]], [[lay theologian]], and philosopher of the [[German Renaissance]].<ref>Allen G. Debus, [https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/pdf/paracelsus.pdf "Paracelsus and the medical revolution of the Renaissance"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127133211/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/pdf/paracelsus.pdf |date=27 January 2012 }}—A 500th Anniversary Celebration from the National Library of Medicine (1993), p. 3.</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Paracelsus |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442424/Paracelsus |access-date=24 November 2011 |archive-date=25 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125194235/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442424/Paracelsus |url-status=live }}</ref>

He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "[[Medical Renaissance|medical revolution]]" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of [[toxicology]]".<ref name="toxsci.oxfordjournals.org">{{cite web|url=http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/1/2.full|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324033717/http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/1/2.full|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 March 2013|title=Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology|access-date=23 September 2014}}</ref> Paracelsus also had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by [[Rosicrucians]] in the 17th century. [[Paracelsianism]] is the early modern medical movement inspired by the study of his works.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/17496977.2017.1361060|title=Paracelsus and Roman censorship – Johannes Faber's 1616 report in context|journal=Intellectual History Review|volume=28|issue=2|pages=5|year=2017|last1=De Vries|first1=Lyke|last2=Spruit|first2=Leen|doi-access=free|hdl=2066/182018|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==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>

==Philosophy==

{{Hermeticism|expand=Historical figures}}
As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]], [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]], and [[Pythagoras|Pythagorean]] philosophies central to the Renaissance, a world-view exemplified by [[Marsilio Ficino]] and [[Pico della Mirandola]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} [[Astrology]] was a very important part of Paracelsus's medicine and he was a practising [[astrologer]], as were many of the university-trained physicians working at that time in Europe. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease. {{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Paracelsus's approach to science was heavily influenced by his religious beliefs. He believed that science and religion were inseparable, and scientific discoveries were direct messages from God. Thus, he believed it was mankind's divine duty to uncover and understand all of His message.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Pagel|first=W.|title=''Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance''|publisher=S. Karger|year=1982|pages=54–57}}</ref> Paracelsus also believed that the virtues that make up natural objects are not natural, but supernatural, and existed in God before the creation of the universe. Because of this, when the Earth and the Heavens eventually dissipate, the virtues of all natural objects will continue to exist and simply return to God.<ref name=":5" /> His philosophy about the true nature of the virtues is reminiscent of [[Aristotle|Aristotle's]] idea of the natural place of elements. To Paracelsus, the purpose of science is not only to learn more about the world around us, but also to search for divine signs and potentially understand the nature of God.<ref name=":5" /> If a person who doesn't believe in God became a physician, he would not have standing in God's eyes and would not succeed in their work because he did not practice in his name. Becoming an effective physician requires faith in God.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Jacobi|first=J.|title=''Paracelsus - Selected Writings''|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1995|pages=71–73}}</ref> Paracelsus saw medicine as more than just a perfunctory practice. To him, medicine was a divine mission, and good character combined with devotion to God was more important than personal skill. He encouraged physicians to practice self-improvement and humility along with studying philosophy to gain new experiences.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Borzelleca|first=J.|title=''Profiles in Toxicology - Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology''|publisher=Toxicological Sciences|year=2000|pages=2–4}}</ref>

== Chemistry and alchemy ==
=== Chemistry in medicine ===
Paracelsus was one of the first medical professors to recognize that physicians required a solid academic knowledge in the natural sciences, especially [[chemistry]]. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in [[medicine]].

=== Zinc ===
He was probably the first to give the [[Chemical element|element]] ''[[zinc]]'' (''zincum'') its modern name,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Habashi |first=Fathi |url=http://www.zinc.org/general/ZP-Discovering_the_8th_Metal1.pdf |title=Discovering the 8th metal |publisher=International Zinc Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150606210821/http://www.zinc.org/general/ZP-Discovering_the_8th_Metal1.pdf |archive-date=6 June 2015 |url-status=dead}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Hefner Alan |title=Paracelsus |url=http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/paracelsus.html |access-date=28 October 2005 |archive-date=21 December 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051221183615/http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/paracelsus.html |url-status=live }}</ref> in about 1526, likely based on the sharp pointed appearance of its crystals after smelting (''zinke'' translating to "pointed" in German). Paracelsus invented chemical therapy, chemical urinalysis, and suggested a biochemical theory of digestion.<ref name=":2" /> Paracelsus used chemistry and chemical analogies in his teachings to medical students and to the medical establishment, many of whom found them objectionable.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Borzelleca |first=Joseph F. |date=1 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 |issn=1096-6080 |pmid=10653514 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Hydrogen ===
Paracelsus in the beginning of the sixteenth century had unknowingly observed [[hydrogen]] as he noted that in reaction when [[acids]] attack [[metals]], gas was a [[by-product]].<ref name="Rigden2003">{{cite book |author=John S. Rigden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhFxn_lUvz0C |title=Hydrogen: The Essential Element |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-674-01252-3 |page=10}}</ref> Later, [[Théodore de Mayerne]] repeated Paracelsus's experiment in 1650 and found that the gas was flammable. However, neither Paracelsus nor de Mayerne proposed that hydrogen could be a new element.<ref>{{cite web |author=Doug Stewart |title=Discovery of Hydrogen |url=http://www.chemicool.com/elements/hydrogen.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007075447/http://www.chemicool.com/elements/hydrogen.html |archive-date=7 October 2014 |access-date=20 November 2014 |publisher=Chemicool}}</ref>

=== Elements ===
{{See also|Chemical element#History}}

==== Classical elements ====
Paracelsus largely rejected the philosophies of [[Aristotle]] and [[Galen]], as well as the [[Humorism|theory of humours]]. Although he did accept the concept of [[the four elements]]—water, air, fire, and earth; he saw them as a foundation for other properties on which to build.<ref name="Pagel, Walter 1958">Pagel, Walter. ''Paracelsus; an Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance''. Basel: Karger, 1958. Print.</ref> In a posthumously published book entitled, ''[[A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits]]'', Paracelsus also described four [[elemental]] beings, each corresponding to one of the [[Classical elements|four elements]]: [[Salamanders in folklore and legend|Salamanders]], which correspond to fire; [[Gnomes]], corresponding to earth; [[Undines]], corresponding to water; and [[Sylphs]], corresponding to air.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silver |first=Carole B. |title=Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-19-512199-6 |pages=38}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Paracelsus |title=''Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus'' |publisher=JHU Press |year=1996 |pages=222}}</ref>

==== Elements, heaven and Earth ====
Paracelsus often viewed fire as the [[Firmament]] that sat between air and water in the heavens. Paracelsus often uses an egg to help describe the elements. In his early model, he claimed that air surrounded the world like an egg shell. The egg white below the shell is like fire because it has a type of chaos to it that allows it to hold up earth and water. The earth and water make up a globe which, in his egg analogy, is the yolk. In ''De Meteoris'', Paracelsus claims the firmament is the heavens.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kahn |first=Didier |title=''Unifying Heaven and Earth: Essays in the History of Early Modern Cosmology'' |publisher=Universitat de Barcelona |year=2016}}</ref>

==== ''Tria prima''<!-- [[tria prima]] redirects to this section: when changing the title of the section header, please also change the redirect target -->====
[[File:Vitriol.png|alt=Seventeenth century alchemical emblem showing the four Classical elements in the corners of the image, alongside the tria prima on the central triangle|thumb|The four classical elements (in the corners) with the ''tria prima'' (on the points of the big triangle)]]
From his study of the elements, Paracelsus adopted the idea of tripartite alternatives to explain the nature of medicines, which he thought to be composed of the '''{{lang|la|tria prima}}''' ('three primes' or [[principle (chemistry)|principles]]): a combustible element (sulphur), a fluid and changeable element (mercury), and a solid, permanent element (salt). The first mention of the mercury-sulphur-salt model was in the ''Opus paramirum'' dating to about 1530.<ref name="Webster, Charles 2008">Webster, Charles. Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time. New Haven: Yale UP, 2008. Print.</ref> Paracelsus believed that the principles sulphur, mercury, and salt contained the poisons contributing to all diseases.<ref name="Pagel, Walter 1958" /> He saw each disease as having three separate cures depending on how it was afflicted, either being caused by the poisoning of sulphur, mercury, or salt. Paracelsus drew the importance of sulphur, salt, and mercury from medieval alchemy, where they all occupied a prominent place. He demonstrated his theory by burning a piece of wood. The fire was the work of sulphur, the smoke was mercury, and the residual ash was salt.<ref name="Webster, Charles 2008" /> Paracelsus also believed that mercury, sulphur, and salt provided a good explanation for the nature of medicine because each of these properties existed in many physical forms. The ''tria prima'' also defined the human identity. Salt represented the body; mercury represented the spirit (imagination, moral judgment, and the higher mental faculties); sulphur represented the soul (the emotions and desires). By understanding the chemical nature of the ''tria prima'', a physician could discover the means of curing disease. With every disease, the symptoms depended on which of the three principles caused the ailment.<ref name="Webster, Charles 2008" /> Paracelsus theorized that materials which are poisonous in large doses may be curative in small doses; he demonstrated this with the examples of magnetism and static electricity, wherein a small magnet can attract much larger pieces of metal.<ref name="Webster, Charles 2008" />

===== ''Tria prima'' in ''The Sceptical Chymist'' =====
[[File:Portret van Robert Boyle, RP-P-OB-4578 (cropped).jpg|thumb|192x192px|Robert Boyle]]
[[File:Sceptical chymist 1661 Boyle Title page AQ18 (3).jpg|thumb|225x225px|Title page of ''The Sceptical Chymist'']]
Even though Paracelsus accepted the four classical elements, in [[Robert Boyle|Robert Boyle's]] ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]],'' published in 1661 in the form of a dialogue between friends, ''Themistius,'' the [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] of the party, speaks of the three principles as though they were meant to replace, rather than complement, the classical elements and compares Paracelsus' theory of the elements unfavourably with that of Aristotle:

{{Blockquote|text=This Doctrine is very different from the whimseys of ''Chymists'' ... whose ''Hypotheses'' ... often fram’d in one week, are perhaps thought fit to be laughed at the next; and being built perchance but upon two or three Experiments are destroyed by a third or fourth, whereas the doctrine of the four Elements was fram’d by ''Aristotle'' after he had ... considered those Theories of former Philosophers, which are now with great applause revived... And had so judiciously detected ... the ... defects of former ''Hypotheses'' concerning the Elements, that his Doctrine ... has been ever since deservedly embraced by the letter’d part of Mankind: All the Philosophers that preceded him having in their several ages contributed to the compleatness of this Doctrine... Nor has an ''Hypothesis'' so ... maturely established been called in Question till in the last Century ''Paracelsus'' and some ... Empiricks, rather then ... Philosophers ... began to rail at the Peripatetick Doctrine ... and to tell the credulous World, that they could see but three Ingredients in mixt Bodies ... instead of Earth, and Fire, and Vapour, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury; to which they gave the canting title of Hypostatical Principles: but when they came to describe them ...’tis almost ... impossible for any sober Man to find their meaning.{{Sfn|Boyle|1661|p=23-24}}}}

Boyle—speaking through other characters—rejected both Paracelsus' three principles (sulfur, mercury, and salt), and the “Aristotelian” elements (earth, water, air, and fire), or any system with a pre-determined number of elements. In fact, Boyle's arguments were mainly directed against Paracelsus’ theory as being the one more in line with experience, so that arguments against it should be at least as valid against the Aristotelian view.

{{Blockquote|text=Much of what I am to deliver ... may be indifferently apply’d to the four Peripatetick Elements, and the three Chymical Principles ... the Chymical ''Hypothesis'' seeming to be much more countenanc’d by Experience then the other, it will be expedient to insist chiefly upon the disproving of that; especially since most of the Arguments that are imploy’d against it, may, by a little variation, be made ... at least as strongly against the less plausible, ''Aristotelian'' Doctrine.{{Sfn|Boyle|1661|p=36}}}}

== Contributions to medicine ==
[[File:Einsiedeln IMG 6265.JPG|thumb|Memorial in [[Einsiedeln]], erected in 1941 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Paracelsus's death, on the initiative of art historian Linus Birchler, first president of the Swiss Paracelsus Society<ref>The sculpture shows an "Einsiedeln woman with two healthy children" (''Einsiedler Frau mit zwei gesunden Kindern'') as a symbol of "motherly health". A more conventional memorial, a [[:File:Paracelsus geburtsort gedenkstein.jpg|plaque]] showing the portrait of Paracelsus, was placed in Egg, Einsiedeln, in 1910 (now at the Teufelsbrücke, {{coord|47.1675|N|8.7668|E|}}).
The 1941 monument was harshly criticized as "dishonest kitsch" (''verlogener Kitsch'') in the service of a conservative Catholic "cult of motherhood" (''Mütterlichkeitskult'')  by Franz Rueb in his (generally iconoclastic) ''Mythos Paracelsus'' (1995), p. 330.</ref>]]

=== Hermeticism ===
His [[Hermeticism|hermetic]] beliefs were that sickness and health in the body relied upon the harmony of humans ([[macrocosm and microcosm|microcosm]]) and nature ([[macrocosm]]). He took a different approach 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. As a result of this hermetical idea of harmony, the universe's macrocosm was represented in every person as a microcosm. An example of this correspondence is the [[doctrine of signatures]] used to identify curative powers of plants. If a plant looked like a part of the body, then this signified its ability to cure this given anatomy. Therefore, the root of the [[orchid]] looks like a testicle and can therefore heal any testicle-associated illness.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Western Medical Tradition|last = Wear|first = Andrew|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 1995|location = Cambridge|pages = 314}}</ref> Paracelsus mobilized the [[Macrocosm and microcosm|microcosm-macrocosm]] theory to demonstrate the analogy between the aspirations to salvation and health. As humans must ward off the influence of evil spirits with morality, they must also ward off diseases with good health.<ref name="Webster, Charles 2008" />

Paracelsus believed that true anatomy could only be understood once the nourishment for each part of the body was discovered. He believed that one must therefore know the influence of the stars on these particular body parts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = The Western Medical Tradition|last = Wear|first = Andrew|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 1995|location = Cambridge|pages = 315}}</ref> Diseases were caused by poisons brought from the stars. However, 'poisons' were not necessarily something negative, in part because related substances interacted, but also because only the dose determined if a substance was poisonous. Paracelsus claimed in contrast to Galen, that like cures like. If a star or poison caused a disease, then it must be countered by another star or poison.<ref name=":1" /> Because everything in the universe was interrelated, beneficial medical substances could be found in herbs, minerals, and various chemical combinations thereof. Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism that is pervaded by a uniting, life-giving spirit, and this in its entirety, humans included, was 'God'. His beliefs put him at odds with the Catholic Church, for which there necessarily had to be a difference between the creator and the created.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Alex Wittendorff |author2=Claus Bjørn |author3=Ole Peter Grell |author4=T. Morsing |author5=Per Barner Darnell |author6=Hans Bjørn |author7=Gerhardt Eriksen |author8=Palle Lauring |author9=Kristian Hvidt |title = Tyge Brahe |language=da | publisher = Gad  | year = 1994 |isbn=87-12-02272-1 }} p44-45</ref> Therefore, some have considered him to be a Protestant.<ref name="Helm Winkelmann 2001 p. 49">{{cite book | last1=Helm | first1=J. | last2=Winkelmann | first2=A. | title=''Religious Confessions and the Sciences in the Sixteenth Century'' | publisher=Brill | series=Studies in European Judaism, Volume 1 | year=2001 | isbn=978-90-04-12045-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZbx3O9cVHoC&pg=PA49 | access-date=4 February 2023 | page=49 | archive-date=4 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204173453/https://books.google.com/books?id=vZbx3O9cVHoC&pg=PA49 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Dorner 2004 p. 1-PA179">{{cite book | last=Dorner | first=I.A. | title=History of Protestant Theology | publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-59244-610-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rglLAwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA179 | access-date=4 February 2023 | page=1-PA179 | archive-date=4 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204173452/https://books.google.com/books?id=rglLAwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA179 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hargrave 1951 p. ">{{cite book | last=Hargrave | first=J. | title=''The Life and Soul of Paracelsus'' | publisher=Gollancz | year=1951 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mwwAAAAYAAJ | access-date=4 February 2023 | page= | archive-date=3 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103152005/https://books.google.com/books?id=0mwwAAAAYAAJ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brockliss Jones 1997 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Brockliss | first1=L.W.B. | last2=Jones | first2=C. | title=''The Medical World of Early Modern France'' | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1997 | isbn=978-0-19-822750-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Th9rAAAAMAAJ | access-date=4 February 2023 | page= | archive-date=4 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204173448/https://books.google.com/books?id=Th9rAAAAMAAJ | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Discoveries and treatments ===
Paracelsus is frequently credited with reintroducing [[opium]] to [[Western Europe]] during the [[German Renaissance]]. He extolled the benefits of opium, and of a pill he called laudanum, which has frequently been asserted by others to have been an opium tincture. Paracelsus did not leave a complete recipe, and the known ingredients differ considerably from 17th-century [[laudanum]].<ref name="Sigerist">{{cite journal |last1=Sigerist |first1=H. E. |title=Laudanum in the Works of Paracelsus |journal=Bull. Hist. Med. |date=1941 |volume=9 |pages=530–544 |url=http://www.samorini.it/doc1/alt_aut/sz/sigerist-laudanum-in-the-work-of-paracelsus.pdf |access-date=5 September 2018 |archive-date=9 October 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.samorini.it/doc1/alt_aut/sz/sigerist-laudanum-in-the-work-of-paracelsus.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Paracelsus invented, or at least named a sort of [[liniment]], [[opodeldoc]], a mixture of [[soap]] in [[ethanol|alcohol]], to which [[camphor]] and sometimes a number of [[herb]]al essences, most notably [[Artemisia (genus)|wormwood]], were added. Paracelsus's recipe forms the basis for most later versions of liniment.<ref>Michael Quinion, ''World Wide Words'', [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-opo1.htm May 27, 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331000838/http://worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-opo1.htm |date=31 March 2017 }}</ref>

His work ''Die große Wundarzney'' is a forerunner of [[antisepsis]]. This specific empirical knowledge originated from his personal experiences as an army physician in the [[Ottoman–Venetian War|Venetian wars]]. Paracelsus demanded that the application of cow dung, feathers and other noxious concoctions to wounds be surrendered in favour of keeping the wounds clean, stating, "If you prevent infection, Nature will heal the wound all by herself."<ref name=":2" /> During his time as a military surgeon, Paracelsus was exposed to the crudity of medical knowledge at the time, when doctors believed that infection was a natural part of the healing process. He advocated for cleanliness and protection of wounds, as well as the regulation of diet. Popular ideas of the time opposed these theories and suggested sewing or plastering wounds.<ref name="TO MEDICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE J. M 1917 pp. 390-402" /> Historians of syphilitic disease credit Paracelsus with the recognition of the inherited{{clarify|date=October 2019}} character of [[syphilis]]. In his first medical publication, a short pamphlet on syphilis treatment that was also the most comprehensive clinical description the period ever produced, he wrote a clinical description of syphilis in which he maintained that it could be treated by carefully measured doses of mercury.<ref name="TO MEDICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE J. M 1917 pp. 390-402" /> Similarly, he was the first to discover that the disease could only be contracted by contact.<ref name=":2" />

[[Hippocrates]] put forward the theory that illness was caused by an imbalance of the [[humorism|four humours]]: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. These ideas were further developed by [[Galen]] into an extremely influential and highly persistent set of medical beliefs that were to last until the mid-1850s. Contrarily, Paracelsus believed in three humours: salt (representing stability), sulphur (representing combustibility), and mercury (representing liquidity); he defined disease as a separation of one humour from the other two. He believed that body organs functioned alchemically, that is, they separated pure from impure.<ref name=":3" /> The dominant medical treatments in Paracelsus's time were specific diets to help in the "cleansing of the putrefied juices" combined with purging and [[bloodletting]] to restore the balance of the four humours. Paracelsus supplemented and challenged this view with his beliefs that illness was the result of the body being attacked by ''outside'' agents. He objected to excessive bloodletting, saying that the process disturbed the harmony of the system, and that blood could not be purified by lessening its quantity.<ref name="TO MEDICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE J. M 1917 pp. 390-402">THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PARACELSUS TO MEDICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE J. M. Stillman The Monist, Vol. 27, No. 3 (JULY 1917), pp. 390–402</ref> Paracelsus believed that fasting helped enable the body to heal itself. 'Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within.' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.targethealth.com/post/short-history-of-fasting|title=Short History of Fasting &#124; Jun 05, 2017|access-date=14 April 2020|archive-date=22 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622052356/https://www.targethealth.com/post/short-history-of-fasting|url-status=live}}</ref>

Paracelsus gave birth to clinical diagnosis and the administration of highly specific medicines. This was uncommon for a period heavily exposed to cure-all remedies. The [[Germ theory of disease|germ theory]] was anticipated by him as he proposed that diseases were entities in themselves, rather than states of being. Paracelsus prescribed [[black hellebore]] to alleviate certain forms of [[arteriosclerosis]]. Lastly, he recommended the use of iron for "poor blood" and is credited with the creation of the terms "chemistry," "gas," and "alcohol".<ref name=":2" />

During Paracelsus's lifetime and after his death, he was often celebrated as a wonder healer and investigator of those [[Traditional medicine|folk medicines]] that were rejected by the fathers of medicine (e.g. Galen, Avicenna). It was believed that he had success with his own remedies curing the plague, according to those that revered him. Since effective medicines for serious infectious diseases weren't invented before the 19th century, Paracelsus came up with many prescriptions and concoctions on his own. For infectious diseases with fever, it was common to prescribe [[diaphoretic]]s and [[Herbal tonic|tonic]]s that at least gave temporary relief. Also many of his remedies contained the famed "[[theriac]]", a preparation derived from oriental medicine sometimes containing opium. The following prescription by Paracelsus was dedicated to the village of [[Sterzing]]:

{{Poemquote
|text=Also sol das trank gemacht werden, dadurch die pestilenz im schweiss ausgetrieben wird: (So the potion should be made, whereby the pestilence is expelled in sweat:)
eines guten gebranten weins...ein moß,  (Medicinal brandy)
eines guten tiriaks zwölf lot,  (Theriac)
myrrhen vier lot, (Myrrh)
wurzen von roßhuf sechs lot, (Tussilago sp.)
sperma ceti,
terrae sigillatae ietlichs ein lot,  (Medicinal earth)
schwalbenwurz zwei lot,  (Vincetoxicum sp.)
diptan, bibernel, baldrianwurzel ietlichs ein lot (Dictamnus albus, Valerian, Pimpinella)
gaffer ein quint. (Camphor)
Dise ding alle durch einander gemischet, in eine sauberes glas wol gemacht, auf acht tag in der sonne stehen lassen, nachfolgents dem kranken ein halben löffel eingeben... (Mix all these things together, put them into a clean glass, let them stand in the sun for eight days, then give the sick person half a spoonful...)
|author=E. Kaiser |title="Paracelsus. 10. Auflage. Rowohlt's Monographien. p. 115"  |source=''Reinbek bei Hamburg. 1090-{{ISBN|3-499-50149-X}}'' (1993)
}}

One of his most overlooked achievements was the systematic study of minerals and the curative powers of alpine [[mineral spring]]s. His countless wanderings also brought him deep into many areas of the [[Alps]], where such therapies were already practised on a less common scale than today.<ref>Natura Sophia. [http://www.naturasophia.com/Paracelsus.html Paracelsus and the Light of Nature] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022165401/http://www.naturasophia.com/Paracelsus.html |date=22 October 2013 }}. Retrieved 26 November 2013</ref> Paracelsus's major work ''On the Miners' Sickness and Other Diseases of Miners'' ({{langx|de|Von der Bergaucht und anderen Bergkrankheiten}}) presented his observation of diseases of miners and the effects of various minerals and metals in the human organism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corn|first=Jacqueline K.|date=1975|title=Historical Perspective to a Current Controversy on the Clinical Spectrum of Plumbism|url=https://www.milbank.org/wp-content/uploads/mq/volume-53/issue-01/53-1-Historical-Perspective-to-a-Current-Controversy-on-the-Clinical-Spectrum-of-Plumbism.pdf|journal=[[Milbank Quarterly]]|volume=53|issue=1|page=95|pmid=1094321|type=|access-date=28 September 2021|archive-date=28 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928235305/https://www.milbank.org/wp-content/uploads/mq/volume-53/issue-01/53-1-Historical-Perspective-to-a-Current-Controversy-on-the-Clinical-Spectrum-of-Plumbism.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Toxicology===
Paracelsus extended his interest in chemistry and biology to what is now considered [[toxicology]]. He clearly expounded the concept of dose response in his ''Third Defence'', where he stated that "Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison." (''Sola dosis facit venenum'' "[[The dose makes the poison|Only the dose makes the poison]]")<ref>Paracelsus, dritte defensio, 1538.</ref> This was used to defend his use of inorganic substances in medicine as outsiders frequently criticized Paracelsus's chemical agents as too toxic to be used as therapeutic agents.<ref name=":3" /> His belief that diseases locate in a specific organ was extended to inclusion of target organ toxicity; that is, there is a specific site in the body where a chemical will exert its greatest effect. Paracelsus also encouraged using experimental animals to study both beneficial and toxic chemical effects.<ref name=":3" /> Paracelsus was one of the first European scientists to introduce chemistry to medicine. He advocated the use of inorganic salts, minerals, and metals for medicinal purposes. He held the belief that organs in the body operated on the basis of separating pure substances from impure ones. Humans must eat to survive and they eat both pure and impure things. It is the function of organs to separate the impure from the pure. The pure substances will be absorbed by the body while the impure will exit the body as excrement.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Hanegraaf|first=W.|title=Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541)|publisher=Brill|year=2007|pages=509–511}}</ref> He did not support [[Hippocrates]]' theory of the [[Four temperaments|four humours]]. Instead of four humours, Paracelsus believed there were three: salt, sulphur, and mercury, which represent stability, combustibility, and liquidity respectively. Separation of any one of these humours from the other two would result in disease.<ref name=":6" /> To cure a disease of a certain intensity, a substance of similar nature but the opposite intensity should be administered. These ideas constitute Paracelsus's principles of similitude and contrariety, respectively.<ref name=":6" />

===Psychosomatism===
[[File:Swiss-Commemorative-Coin-1993-CHF-20-obverse.png|thumb|180px|Swiss [[Coins of the Swiss franc|20 franc]] coin commemorating the 500th anniversary Paracelsus' birth]]
In his work ''Von den Krankeiten'' Paracelsus writes: "Thus, the cause of the disease [[chorea]] lasciva [[Sydenham's chorea]], or St. Vitus' Dance] is a mere opinion and idea, assumed by imagination, affecting those who believe in such a thing. This opinion and idea are the origin of the disease both in children and adults. In children the case is also imagination, based not on thinking but on perceiving, because they have heard or seen something. The reason is this: their sight and hearing are so strong that unconsciously they have fantasies about what they have seen or heard."<ref>{{Citation |title=The History of Psychotherapy: From Healing Magic to Encounter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7VGgQi3NJY8C&q=their+sight+and+hearing+are+so+strong+that+unconsciously+they+have+fantasies+about+what+they+have+seen+or+heard&pg=PA200 |page=200 |isbn=9780876682807 |last1=Ehrenwald |first1=Jan |year=1976 |publisher=Jason Aronson |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103151920/https://books.google.com/books?id=7VGgQi3NJY8C&q=their+sight+and+hearing+are+so+strong+that+unconsciously+they+have+fantasies+about+what+they+have+seen+or+heard&pg=PA200#v=snippet&q=their%20sight%20and%20hearing%20are%20so%20strong%20that%20unconsciously%20they%20have%20fantasies%20about%20what%20they%20have%20seen%20or%20heard&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Paracelsus called for the humane treatment of the mentally ill as he saw them not to be possessed by evil spirits, but merely "brothers" ensnared in a treatable malady.<ref>{{cite book |author=Paracelsus |title=The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus |orig-year=1894 |editor-last1=Waite |editor-first1=Arthur Edward |publisher=Shambhala Publications, Inc. |publication-date=1976 |publication-place=Berkeley, California |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0394731840/page/n7/mode/1up?q=%22brothers%22 |isbn=0394731840 |access-date=28 May 2025 |quote=He called for the humane treatment of the mentally ill (but was again ignored for several centuries), seeing in them not creatures possessed by evil spirits but “brothers” ensnared in a treatable malady. – Charles Poncé in the Foreward }}</ref> Paracelsus is one of the first physicians to suggest that mental well-being and a moral conscience had a direct effect on physical health. He proposed that the state of a person's psyche could cure and cause disease. Theoretically, a person could maintain good health through sheer will.<ref name=":6" /> He also stated that whether or not a person could succeed in their craft depended on their character. For example, if a physician had shrewd and immoral intentions then they would eventually fail in their career because evil could not lead to success.<ref name=":7" /> When it came to mental illness, Paracelsus stressed the importance of sleep and sedation as he believed sedation (with [[History of general anesthesia|sulphur preparations]]) could catalyse healing and cure mental illness.<ref name=":8" />

==Reception and legacy==
===Portraits===
[[File:Paracelsus-03.jpg|thumb|The 1540 portrait by Hirschvogel]]
[[File:Paracelsus 1567.jpg|thumb|The 1567 "Rosicrucian" portrait]]
[[File:Effigies Paracelsi Medici Celeberrimi FA 2000.001.203.jpg|thumb| Engraving by Pieter Van Sompel, before 1643; after [[Pieter Soutman]] ]]
[[File:Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Wellcome V0004461.jpg|thumb|Full-body portrait from the Dutch edition of [[Gottfried Arnold]]'s ''History of the Church and of Heresy'' (1701), engraving by [[Romeyn de Hooghe]]]]
The oldest surviving portrait of Paracelsus is a woodcut by [[Augustin Hirschvogel]], published in 1538, still during Paracelsus's lifetime. A still older painting by [[Quentin Matsys]] has been lost, but at least three 17th-century copies survive, one by an anonymous [[Flemish people|Flemish]] artist, kept in the [[Louvre]], one by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], kept in Brussels, and one by a student of Rubens, now kept in [[Uppsala]]. Another portrait by Hirschvogel, dated 1540, claims to show Paracelsus "at the age of 47" (''sue aetatis 47''), i.e. less than a year before his death. In this portrait, Paracelsus is shown as holding his sword, gripping the spherical pommel with the right hand. Above and below the image are the mottos ''Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest'' ("Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself") and ''Omne donum perfectum a Deo, inperfectum a Diabolo'' ("All perfect gifts are from God, [all] imperfect [ones] from the Devil"); later portraits give a German rendition in two rhyming couplets (''Eines andern Knecht soll Niemand sein / der für sich bleiben kann allein /all gute Gaben sint von Got / des Teufels aber sein Spot'').<ref>Werneck in ''Beiträge zur praktischen Heilkunde: mit vorzüglicher Berücksichtigung der medicinischen Geographie, Topographie und Epidemiologie'', Volume 3 (1836), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wW8_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA214 212–216] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164816/https://books.google.com/books?id=wW8_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA214 |date=26 March 2023 }}.
''Neues Journal zur Litteratur und Kunstgeschichte'', Volume 2 (1799), [https://books.google.com/books?id=iEdMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA249 246–256].</ref> Posthumous portraits of Paracelsus, made for publications of his books during the second half of the 16th century, often show him in the same pose, holding his sword by its pommel.

The so-called "Rosicrucian portrait", published with ''Philosophiae magnae Paracelsi'' (Heirs of Arnold Birckmann, Cologne, 1567), is closely based on the 1540 portrait by Hirschvogel (but mirrored, so that now Paracelsus's left hand rests on the sword pommel), adding a variety of additional elements: the pommel of the sword is inscribed by ''[[Azoth]]'', and next to the figure of Paracelsus, the [[Bombast von Hohenheim]] arms are shown (with an additional border of eight [[cross patty|crosses patty]]).<ref>The von Hohenheim arms showed a blue (azure) bend with three white (argent) balls in a yellow (or) field (Julius Kindler von Knobloch, ''Oberbadisches Geschlechterbuch'' vol. 1, 1894, [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/kindlervonknobloch1898bd1/0146 p. 142] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124005910/http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/kindlervonknobloch1898bd1/0146 |date=24 January 2018 }}), i.e. without the border. Franz Hartmann, ''[https://archive.org/details/lifeanddoctrine00hartgoog Life and Doctrines]'' (1887), [https://archive.org/details/lifeanddoctrine00hartgoog p. 12] describes the
arms shown on the monument in St Sebastian church, Salzburg as  "a beam of silver, upon which are ranged three black balls".</ref> Shown in the background are "early [[Rosicrucian]] symbols", including the head of a child protruding from the ground (indicating rebirth). The portrait is possibly a work by [[Frans Hogenberg]], acting under the directions of Theodor Birckmann (1531/33–1586).

===Paracelsianism and Rosicrucianism===
{{further|Paracelsianism}}

Paracelsus was especially venerated by German [[Rosicrucianism|Rosicrucians]], who regarded him as a prophet, and developed a field of systematic study of his writings, which is sometimes called "[[Paracelsianism]]", or more rarely "Paracelsism". [[Francis Bacon]] warned against Paracelsus and the Rosicrucians, judging that "the ancient opinion that man was ''microcosmus''" had been "fantastically strained by Paracelsus and the alchemists".<ref>F. A. Yates, ''Rosicrucian Enlightenment'' (1972), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 p. 120].</ref>

"Paracelsism" also produced the first complete edition of Paracelsus's works. Johannes Huser of [[Basel]] (c. 1545–1604) gathered autographs and manuscript copies, and prepared an edition in ten volumes during 1589–1591.<ref>Huser quart edition (medicinal and philosophical treatises), ten volumes, Basel, 1589–1591; Huser's edition of Paracelsus's surgical works was published posthumously in Strasbourg, 1605.</ref>

The prophecies contained in Paracelsus's works on astrology and divination began to be separately edited as ''Prognosticon Theophrasti Paracelsi'' in the early 17th century. His prediction of a "great calamity just beginning" indicating the [[Eschatology|End Times]] was later associated with the [[Thirty Years' War]], and the identification of [[Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden]] as the "Lion from the North" is based in one of Paracelsus's "prognostications" referencing [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] 5:6.<ref>Eugen Weber, ''Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs Through the Ages'' (2000),  [https://books.google.com/books?id=nz5m0vZHYx8C&pg=PA86 p. 86].</ref>

[[Carl Gustav Jung]] studied Paracelsus. He wrote two essays on Paracelsus, one delivered in the house in which Paracelsus was born at Einsiedeln in June 1929, the other to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Paracelsus's death in 1941 at Zurich.<ref>C.W.C.G.Jung vol.15 'The Spirit of Man, Art and Literature' pub.RKP 1966</ref>

===In popular culture===
A number of fictionalized depictions of Paracelsus have been published in modern literature. The first presentation of Paracelsus's life in the form of a [[historical novel]] was published in 1830 by Dioclès Fabre d'Olivet (1811–1848, son of [[Antoine Fabre d'Olivet]]),<ref>''Un médecin d'autrefois. La vie de Paracelse'', Paris (1830), reprinted 1838,  German translation by Eduard Liber as '' Theophrastus Paracelsus oder der Arzt : historischer Roman aus den Zeiten des Mittelalters '', Magdeburg (1842).</ref> [[Robert Browning]] wrote a long poem based on the life of Paracelsus, entitled ''Paracelsus'', published 1835.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_D3YCAAAAQAAJ  ''Paracelsus'' (1835)]</ref> Meinrad Lienert in 1915 published a tale (which he attributed to [[Gall Morel]]) about Paracelsus's sword.<ref>The sword was said to contain the [[philosopher's stone]] in its pommel, and Morell's tale concerns Paracelsus's death (due to his being interrupted during the casting of a spell against poisoning) and his command that the sword should be thrown into the [[Sihl river]] after he dies.  Meinrad Lienert, "Der Hexenmeister" in: ''Schweizer Sagen und Heldengeschichten'', Stuttgart (1915).</ref>

[[Arthur Schnitzler]] wrote a verse play  ''Paracelsus'' in 1899. [[Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer]] wrote a novel trilogy (''Paracelsus-Trilogie''), published during 1917–26. Martha Sills-Fuchs (1896–1987) wrote three ''[[völkisch]]'' plays with Paracelsus as the main character during 1936–1939 in which Paracelsus is depicted as the prophetic healer of the [[German people]].<ref>Udo Benzenhöfer, "Die Paracelsus-Dramen der Martha Sills-Fuchs im Unfeld des 'Vereins Deutsche Volksheilkunde' Julius Streichers" in Peter Dilg, Hartmut Rudolph (eds.), ''Resultate und Desiderate der Paracelsus-Forschun'' (1993), 163–81.</ref>
The [[cinema of Germany|German]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] ''[[Paracelsus (film)|Paracelsus]]'' was made in [[1943 in film|1943]], directed by [[Georg Wilhelm Pabst]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/37218/Paracelsus/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218141535/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/37218/Paracelsus/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 February 2012 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2012 |title=NY Times: Paracelsus |access-date=13 September 2009}}</ref> Also in 1943, Richard Billinger wrote a play ''Paracelsus'' for the [[Salzburg Festival]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6oiD85C9HzUC&pg=PA73 p. 73].</ref>

Finnish writer [[Mika Waltari]]'s ''[[The Adventurer (novel)|The Adventurer]]'' (1948) has a scene fictionalizing Paracelsus's acquisition of his legendary sword. Paracelsus is the main character of [[Jorge Luis Borges]]'s short story "La rosa de Paracelso" (anthologized in ''[[Shakespeare's Memory (short story collection)|Shakespeare's Memory]]'', 1983). ''The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments'', borrowing from Jorge Luis Borges, is also a novel by [[William Leonard Pickard]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.oaktreereview.com/indigos-delivery-an-excerpt-from-the-rose-of-paracelsus/|title = Indigo's Delivery: An Excerpt from the Rose of Paracelsus|date = 16 April 2018|access-date = 11 December 2018|archive-date = 14 December 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181214065149/http://www.oaktreereview.com/indigos-delivery-an-excerpt-from-the-rose-of-paracelsus/|url-status = live}}</ref>

==Works==
{{wikisourcelang-inline|de|Paracelsus}}
{{library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=12313247}}
[[File:Aurora thesaurusque philosophorum 1577 title page.jpg|thumb|right|''Aurora thesaurusque philosophorum'', 1577]]
Because of the work of [[Karl Widemann]], who copied over 30 years the work of Paracelsus, many unpublished works survived.

; Published during his lifetime
* ''De gradibus et compositionibus receptorum naturalium'', 1526.
* ''Vom Holtz Guaico'' (on [[guaiacum]]), [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10164508?page=5 1529].
* ''Practica, gemacht auff Europen'' [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10198676?page=5 1529].
* ''Von der Frantzösischen kranckheit Drey Bücher'' (on [[syphilis]]), 1530.
* ''Von den wunderbarlichen zeychen, so in vier jaren einander nach im Hymmelgewelcke und Luft ersehen'' [http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0004/bsb00049983/images/index.html?seite=00001&l=de 1534]
* ''Von der Bergsucht oder Bergkranckheiten'' (on miners' diseases), 1534.
* ''Vonn dem Bad Pfeffers in Oberschwytz gelegen'' ([[Pfäfers Abbey|Pfäfers baths]]), 1535.
* ''Praktica Teutsch auff das 1535 Jar '' [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10198898?page=3 1535]
* ''Die große Wundarzney'' ("Great Book of Surgery"),  Ulm 1536 (Hans Varnier); Augsburg 1536 (Haynrich Stayner (=Steyner)),  Frankfurt 1536 (Georg Raben/ Weygand Hanen).
* ''Prognosticatio Ad Vigesimum Quartum annum duratura '' [http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0001/bsb00012441/images/index.html?id=00012441&groesser=&fip=qrsweayaeayafsdrwxdsydenen&no=2&seite=4 1536]

; Posthumous publications
* ''Wundt unnd Leibartznei''. Frankfurt: [[Christian Egenolff]], 1549 (reprinted 1555, 1561).
* ''Das Buch Paramirum'', Mulhouse: Peter Schmid, [https://archive.org/details/b24867330 1562].
* ''Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi schreiben Von Tartarjschen kranckheiten, nach dem alten nammen, Vom grieß sand vnnd [unnd] stein'', Basel, c. 1563.
* ''Das Buch Paragranvm Avreoli Theophrasti Paracelsi: Darinnen die vier Columnae, als da ist, Philosophia, Astronomia, Alchimia, vnnd Virtus, auff welche Theophrasti Medicin fundirt ist, tractirt werden'', Frankfurt, 1565.
* ''Opvs Chyrvrgicvm'', Frankfurt, 1565.
* ''[[A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits|Ex Libro de Nymphis, Sylvanis, Pygmaeis, Salamandris, et Gigantibus etc.]]'' Nissae Silesiorum, Excudebat Ioannes Cruciger (1566)
* ''Von den Krankheiten so die Vernunfft Berauben''. Basel, 1567.
* ''Philosophia magna, tractus aliquot'', Cöln, 1567.
* ''Philosophiae et Medicinae utriusque compendium'', Basel, 1568.
* ''Neun Bücher Archidoxis''. Translated into Latin by [[Adam Schröter]]. Kraków: [[Maciej Wirzbięta]], 1569.
* ''Zwölff Bücher, darin alle gehaimnüß der natur eröffnet'', 1570
* ''Astronomia magna: oder Die gantze Philosophia sagax der grossen und kleinen Welt '', Frankfurt, 1571.
* '' De natura rerum libri septem: Opuscula verè aurea; Ex Germanica lingua in Latinam translata per M. Georgium Forbergium Mysium philosophiae ac medicinae studiosum'', 1573.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=9udbAAAAcAAJ&dq=Diptan%2C+bibernel&pg=PP35 ''De Peste''], Strasbourg: Michael Toxites, Bey Niclauss Wyriot, 1574.
* ''Volumen Paramirum'', Strasbourg: Christian Mülller,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=lgg8AAAAcAAJ 1575].
* ''Metamorphosis Theophrasti Paracelsi: Dessen werck seinen meister loben wirt'', Basel, 1574.
* ''Von der Wundartzney: Ph. Theophrasti von Hohenheim, beyder Artzney Doctoris, 4 Bücher''. Basel: Peter Perna, 1577.
* ''Kleine Wundartzney''. Basel: Peter Perna, 1579.
* ''Opus Chirurgicum, Bodenstein'', Basel, 1581.
* Huser quart edition (medicinal and philosophical treatises), ten volmes, Basel, 1589–1591; Huser's edition of Paracelsus' surgical works was published posthumously in Strasbourg, 1605.
** vol. 1, ''In diesem Theil werden begriffen die Bücher, welche von Ursprung und herkommen, aller Kranckheiten handeln in Genere.'' Basel. 1589 [VD16 P 365] {{MDZ|00022502-1}}
** vol. 2, '' Dieser Theil begreifft fürnemlich die Schrifften, inn denen die Fundamenta angezeigt werde[n], auff welchen die Kunst der rechten Artzney stehe, und auß was Büchern dieselbe gelehrnet werde, Basel.'' 1589 [VD16 P 367] {{MDZ|00022503-6}}
**  vol. 3, '' Inn diesem Theil werden begriffen deren Bücher ettliche, welche von Ursprung, Ursach und Heylung der Kranckheiten handeln in Specie''. Basel, 1589 [VD16 P 369] {{MDZ|00022504-2}}
** vol. 4, ''  In diesem Theil werden gleichfals, wie im Dritten, solche Bücher begriffen, welche von Ursprung, Ursach unnd Heilung der Kranckheiten in Specie handlen.'' Basel, 1589 [VD16 P 371] {{MDZ|00022505-7}}
** vol. 5, ''Bücher de Medicina Physica '' Basel, 1589 {{MDZ|10164682-7}}
**  vol. 6, ''  In diesem Tomo seind begriffen solche Bücher, in welchen deß mehrer theils von Spagyrischer Bereitung Natürlicher dingen, die Artzney betreffend, gehandelt wirt. Item, ettliche Alchimistische Büchlin, so allein von der Transmutation der Metallen tractiren.'' Basel, 1590 [VD16 P 375] {{MDZ|00022506-2}}
**  vol. 7, ''  In diesem Theil sind verfasset die Bücher, in welchen fürnemlich die Kräfft, Tugenden und Eigenschafften Natürlicher dingen, auch derselben Bereitdungen, betreffent die Artzney, beschriben, werden.'' Basel, 1590 [VD16 P 376] {{MDZ|00022507-8}}
**  vol. 8, ''  In diesem Tomo (welcher der Erste unter den Philosophischen) werden solche Bücher begriffen, darinnen fürnemlich die Philosophia de Generationibus & Fructibus quatuor Elementorum beschrieben wirdt.'' Basel, 1590 [VD16 P 377] {{MDZ|00022508-3}}
**  vol. 9, ''  Diser Tomus (welcher der Ander unter den Philosophischen) begreifft solcher Bücher, darinnen allerley Natürlicher und Ubernatürlicher Heymligkeiten Ursprung, Ursach, Wesen und Eigenschafft, gründtlich und warhafftig beschriben werden''. Basel, 1591 [VD16 P 380] {{MDZ|00022509-3}}
**  vol. 10, ''  Dieser Theil (welcher der Dritte unter den Philosophischen Schrifften) begreifft fürnemlich das treffliche Werck Theophrasti, Philosophia Sagax, oder Astronomia Magna genannt: Sampt ettlichen andern Opusculis, und einem Appendice.'' Basel, 1591 [VD16 P 381] {{MDZ|00022510-5}}, Frankfurt 1603
**   ''Klage Theophrasti Paracelsi, uber seine eigene Discipel, unnd leichtfertige Ertzte, Darbeneben auch unterricht, wie er wil, daß ein rechter Artzt soll geschickt seyn, und seine Chur verrichten, und die Patienten versorgen, etc.; Auß seinen Büchern auff das kürtzste zusammen gezogen, Wider die Thumkünen selbwachsende, Rhumrhätige, apostatische Ertzte, und leichtfertige Alchymistische Landtstreicher, die sich Paracelsisten nennen; … jetzo zum ersten also zusammen bracht, und in Truck geben.''  1594 [VD16 P 383] {{MDZ|00015650-2}}
* ''Kleine Wund-Artzney''. Straßburg (Ledertz), [[Benedictus Figulus]]. 1608.
* ''Opera omnia medico-chemico-chirurgica'', Genevae, Vol. 3, 1658.
* '' Prognosticon Theophrasti Paracelsi'', vol. 4 of ''VI Prognostica Von Verenderung vnd zufaelligem Glueck vnd Vnglueck der ... Potentaten im Roemischen Reich, Auch des Tuercken vnd Pabst '' ed. Henricus Neotechnus, 1620.

; Modern editions
* ''Paracelsus: Sämtliche Werke: nach der 10 Bändigen Huserschen Gesamtausgabe (1589–1591) zum erstenmal in neuzeitliches deutsch übersetzt, mit Einleitung, Biographie, Literaturangaben und erklärenden Anmerkungen.'' Edited by Bernhard Aschner. 4 volumes. Jena: G. Fisher, 1926–1932.
* ''Paracelsus: Sämtliche Werke.'' Edited by Karl Sudhoff, Wilhelm Matthiessen, and Kurt Goldammer. Part I (Medical, scientific, and philosophical writings), 14 volumes (Munich and Berlin, 1922–1933). Part II (Theological and religious writings), 7 volumes (Munich and Wiesbaden, 1923–1986).
* ''Register zu Sudhoffs Paracelsus-Ausgabe. Allgemeines und Spezialregister: Personen, Orte, Pflanzen, Rezepte, Verweise auf eigene Werke'', Bußler, E., 2018, {{ISBN|978-90-821760-1-8}}
* ''Theophrastus Paracelsus: Werke.'' Edited by Will-Erich Peuckert, 5 vols. Basel and Stuttgart: Schwabe Verlag, 1965–1968.

=== Selected English translations ===
* ''The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus'', Two Volumes, translated by Arthur Edward Waite, London, 1894. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Q0MAAAAIAAJ (in Google books)], see also a revised 2002 edition [https://books.google.com/books?id=3dgsJJkVQKkC (preview only)] Partial contents: Coelum Philosophorum; The Book Concerning The Tincture Of The Philosophers; The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists; The Aurora of the Philosophers; Alchemical Catechism.
* ''Paracelsus: Essential Readings.'' Selected and translated by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1999.
* ''Paracelsus: His Life and Doctrines.'' Franz Hartmann, New York: Theosophical Publishing Co., 1918
* ''Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1494–1541). Essential Theoretical Writings.'' Edited and translated with a Commentary and Introduction by Andrew Weeks.  Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008, {{ISBN|978-90-04-15756-9}}.
* ''Paracelsus: Selected Writings'' ed. with an introduction by Jolande Jacobi, trans. Norbert Guterman, New York: Pantheon, 1951 reprinted Princeton 1988

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* {{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=R.|year=1661 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22914/22914-h/22914-h.htm |title=The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject |publisher=Printed by J. Cadwell for J. Crooke}}

==Further reading==
* Ball, Philip. ''The Devil's Doctor''. {{ISBN|978-0-09-945787-9}}. (Arrow Books, Random House.)
* {{cite journal | author = Debus Allen G. | author-link = Allen G. Debus | year = 1984 | title = History with a Purpose: the Fate of Paracelsus | journal = Pharmacy in History | volume = 26 | issue = 2| pages = 83–96 | jstor = 41109480 | pmid = 11611458 }}
* Forshaw, Peter (2015). [https://www.academia.edu/12729126/_Morbo_spirituali_medicina_spiritualis_convenit_Paracelsus_Madness_and_Spirits {{"'}}Morbo spirituali medicina spiritualis convenit: Paracelsus, Madness, and Spirits"], in Steffen Schneider (ed.), ''Aisthetics of the Spirits: Spirits in Early Modern Science, Religion, Literature and Music'', Göttingen: V&R Press.
* [[Thomas Fuller]] (1642). ''[https://archive.org/details/holystate1642full The Holy State]''.  [https://archive.org/details/holystate1642full p.&nbsp;56].
* {{Cite book|last=Hargrave|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mwwAAAAYAAJ|title=The Life and Soul of Paracelsus|date=1951|publisher=[[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]]|language=en}}
* [[Franz Hartmann]] (1910). ''[https://archive.org/details/lifeanddoctrine00hartgoog The Life and the Doctrines of Paracelsus]''.
* Moran, Bruce T. (2005). ''Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution'' (Harvard Univ. Press, 2005), Ch. 3.
* [[Walter Pagel|Pagel, Walter]] (1982). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=wO244WXEBKcC Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance]'' (2nd ed.). Karger Publishers, Switzerland. {{ISBN|3-8055-3518-X}}.
* Senfelder, L. (1911).[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11468a.htm "Theophrastus Paracelsus"]. ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]''.
* {{Cite book |last=Stoddart |first=Anna |year=1911 |title=The Life of Paracelsus |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofparacelsus00stoduoft |publisher=J. Murray}}
* Webster, Charles (2008). ''Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic, and Mission at the End of Time'' (Yale Univ. Press, 2008).

==External links==
{{commons category|Paracelsus}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Paracelsus |volume=20 |short=x}}

'''Online bibliographies and facsimile editions'''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180124070741/https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/entity/11859169X Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013151336/http://sunny.biblio.etc.tu-bs.de:8080/FAM?PPN=492088861 Digital library, University of Braunschweig]
* [http://www.paracelsus.uzh.ch/ Zürich Paracelsus Project]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140110203211/http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/bibliography/p.html Dana F. Sutton, ''An Analytic Bibliography of Online Neo-Latin Texts'', Philological Museum, University of Birmingham]—A collection of "digital photographic reproductions", or online editions of the [[Neo-Latin]] works of the Renaissance.
* [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=autoren_werke&ab=Paracelsus&l=de Works by Paracelsus] ([[Bayerische Staatsbibliothek]])
* [http://www.cppdigitallibrary.org/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=48&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=contains&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Paracelsus%2C+1493-1541.+Prognosticatio+eximii+doctoris+Theophrasti+Paracelsi Images from ''Prognosticatio eximii doctoris Theophrasti Paracelsi'']—From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library
* [http://www.revistaazogue.com/biblio.htm#N_3_ ''Azogue'']: A section of the e-journal ''Azogue'' with original reproductions of paracelsian texts.
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0028/html/ms_239_006.html MS 239/6 ''De tartaro et eius origine in corpore humano''] at OPenn

'''Other'''
* [https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/ Theatrum Paracelsicum]
* [http://www.paracelsus.uzh.ch/ The Zurich Paracelsus Project]
* [http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/paracels.html Biographical notes from The Galileo Project]
* [http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/paracelsus.html Paracelsus (from the Mystica)]
* [http://www.alchemylab.com/paracelsus.htm Paracelsus (from Alchemy Lab)]
* [http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/paracelsus-on-interpretation-of-dreams.html Paracelsus on the interpretation of dreams]
* {{Librivox author |id=11509}}

{{Alchemy|state=expanded}}
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