“Paradoxes, Absurdities, and Madness”: Conflict over Alchemy, Magic and Medicine in the Works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath (2008)
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
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.
...MoreArticle Kusukawa, Sachiko (2008) Introductory Note. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period.
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