Article ID: CBB000850534

“Paradoxes, Absurdities, and Madness”: Conflict over Alchemy, Magic and Medicine in the Works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath (2008)

unapi

Forshaw, Peter J. (Author)


Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Volume: 13
Pages: 53--81


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of special issue “Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, Alchemy and Magic (Part III)”
Language: English

Both Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath graduated from Basel Medical Academy in 1588, though the theses they defended reveal antithetical approaches to medicine, despite their shared interests in iatrochemistry and transmutational alchemy. Libavius argued in favour of Galenic allopathy while Khunrath promoted the contrasting homeopathic approach of Paracelsus and the utility of the occult doctrine of Signatures for medical purposes. This article considers these differences in the two graduates' theses, both as intimations of their subsequent divergent notions of the boundaries of alchemy and its relations with medicine and magic, and also as evidence of the surprisingly unstable academic status of Paracelsian philosophy in Basel, its main publishing centre, at the end of the sixteenth century.

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Article Kusukawa, Sachiko (2008) Introductory Note. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period. unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000850534/

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Authors & Contributors
Moran, Bruce T.
Žemla, Martin
Tomischko, Wolfgang
Andrea Agosta
Webster, Charles
van Heertum, Cis
Concepts
Alchemy
Magic
Medicine
Iatrophysical school
Biographies
Occult sciences
Time Periods
16th century
17th century
Renaissance
Early modern
15th century
18th century
Places
Spain
Prague (Czechia)
Hungary
Germany
Europe
Great Britain
Institutions
Habsburg, House of
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