The Swiss Renaissance physician and natural philosopher Theophrastus von Hohenheim (aka Paracelsus) has been praised as a ‘father’ of modern toxicology by some, and derided as a self-evident pseudoscientist and charlatan by others. Aspects of his supposed and actual ideas have been claimed by humanistic proponents of holistic medicine as well as by Nazism, and appropriations of Paracelsus continue to be put to work in the service of competing ends.
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Is it possible to faithfully distil the gist of Paracelsus’s wide-ranging ideas and complex personality on a mere 216 pages, and in a book written for a broad audience? If it is not, Professor Bruce Moran – a leading historian of alchemy and chemistry, and the current editor of Ambix journal – comes remarkably close to achieving the inconceivable with his new book, which was published by Reaktion Books in late 2019.
Marked by an admirable even-handedness and genuine human curiosity, Moran carefully places back the life and ideas of Paracelsus into the context of Renaissance culture and natural philosophy. Moran’s prose is both accessible and engaging, and he does a wonderful job taking his readers back to a time that was very different from ours – a world that was saturated with wonder and magic, and a deep faith in the interconnectedness of mind and matter.
By effectively acting as a travel guide to these foreign lands of the past, Moran shows that the virtues of good history are those which are perhaps most desperately needed today: A courage to cultivate our willingness to step back from the vantage point of our own conditionings and presuppositions, and make an effort to put ourselves into the shoes of those whose ideas we might not immediately “get”.
Current supporters of Forbidden Histories on Patreon automatically enter a draw for a copy of the book. If you’d like to support FH and wish to be entered into the prize draw for a copy of Prof. Moran’s excellent Paracelsus, simply make a pledge on Patreon by Sunday, 9 May 2020 (12am GMT).
Throughout his controversial life the alchemist, physician and social radical known as Paracelsus combined traditions that were magical and empirical, scholarly and folk, learned and artisanal. He endorsed both Catholic and Reformation beliefs, but believed devoutly in a female deity. He travelled constantly, learning and teaching a new form of medicine based on the experience of miners, bathers, alchemists, midwives, barber-surgeons and executioners. He argued for changes in the way the body was understood, how disease was defined and how treatments were created, but he was also moved by mystical speculations, an alchemical view of nature and an intriguing concept of creation.
Bruce T. Moran tells the story of how alchemy refashioned medical practice, and brings to light the ideas, workings and major texts of an important Renaissance figure, showing how his tenacity and endurance changed the medical world for the better, and brought new perspectives to the study of nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction:
Bones
1. Medicine Lost in a Labyrinth and the Defence of Defiant Healing
2. Seeing through the Body: Nature, Disease and What the True Physician Must
Know
3. The Alchemy of Things in the Making: Medicines as Poisons and Poisons as
Medicines
4. Pursuing the Arts Where God Has Placed Them: On the Road for the Sake of
Learning
5. ‘I Am Ashamed of Medicine’: Love, Labour and the Spirit of Christ in the
Transformation of the Secular World
6. Invisible Beings and Invisible Diseases: Magic and Insanity in an Age of
Faith
7. Inventing Paracelsus: The Use and Abuse of a Renaissance Life
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
I notice an old issue I have had with the sales side of H.O.S is often the sales pitch has a distinctly opposite effect, you immediately want to put the book down like a scalded cat, more so with the science does history and its ‘ripping yarn adventure style.’
Just burned through my book buying budget. I want to read this book. Pitch perfect from start to finish!