Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.
He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of toxicology". 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.
Biography
Paracelsus was born in Egg an der Sihl, a village close to the Etzel Pass in Einsiedeln, 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 Swabian noble Georg Bombast von Hohenheim (1453–1499), commander of the Order of Saint John in Rohrdorf.
Paracelsus' mother was probably a native of the Einsiedeln region and a bondswoman of Einsiedeln Abbey, who before her marriage worked as superintendent in the abbey's hospital. 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.
Paracelsus' mother probably died in 1502, after which Paracelsus's father moved to Villach, Carinthia, where he worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister. Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining, and natural philosophy. He received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal. It is likely that Paracelsus received his early education mainly from his father. Some biographers have claimed that he received tutoring from four bishops and Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim. 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. All things considered, Paracelsus almost certainly received instructions from their writings, and not from direct teaching in person. 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.
Early career
"Paracelsus sought a universal knowledge" 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, France, to Spain, Portugal, to England, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Croatia, to Rhodes, Constantinople, and possibly even Egypt. During this period of travel, Paracelsus enlisted as an army surgeon and was involved in the wars waged by Venice, Holland, Denmark, and the Tartars. Then Paracelsus returned home from his travels in 1524.
In 1524, "[a]fter visiting his father at Villach and finding no local opportunity to practice, he settled in Salzburg" as a physician, and remained there until 1527. "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." 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."
Basel (1526–1528)
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. During that time, the Dutch Renaissance 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.