IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB087706807

The Homunculus and the Paracelsian Liber de imaginibus (2020)

Murase, Amadeo (Author)

Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Volume: 67
Issue: 1
Pages: 47-61

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2020.1720359

DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2020.1720359

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

As William R. Newman has already shown, the alchemical homunculus described in the pseudo-Paracelsian writing De natura rerum was not the only kind of “homunculus” present in the works of (or attributed to) Paracelsus. Two other important kinds of “homunculi” indeed appeared in other treatises: one in De homunculis et monstris and the other in both Vom langen Leben and the Liber de imaginibus. This article focuses on the latter tract and its relationships with De natura rerum. After discussing the authenticity of the Liber de imaginibus, I will provide a brief analysis of its content and discuss the major topics common to the two treatises: the “signatures of things” and the homunculus. By studying the reception of the latter, I will show how the alchemical conception of the homunculus, as explained in De natura rerum, quickly established itself as the most prominent notion despite the fact that the golem-like version of Vom langen Leben and De imaginibus had nearly as much success at first among Paracelsians.

...More

Included in

Article Didier Kahn; Hiro Hirai (2020) Paracelsus, Forgeries and Transmutation: Introduction. Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 1-3). unapi

Citation URI

http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB087706807/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Chapter Gijsen, Annelies van; (2010)
Isaac Hollandus Revisited (/isis/citation/CBB001023517/)

Book Webster, Charles; (2008)
Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time (/isis/citation/CBB001035884/)

Chapter Newman, William R.; (2007)
The Homunculus and the Mandrake: Art Aiding Nature versus Art Faking Nature (/isis/citation/CBB000774727/)

Article Gilly, Carlos; (2013)
Il Dibattito Intorno a Paracelso in Basilea (/isis/citation/CBB001450765/)

Article Andrew Sparling; (2020)
Paracelsus, a Transmutational Alchemist (/isis/citation/CBB222576444/)

Article Penman, Leigh T. I.; (2010)
“Ein Liebhaber des Mysterii, und ein großer Verwandter desselben.” Toward the Life of Balthasar Walther: Kabbalist, Alchemist and Wandering Paracelsian Physician (/isis/citation/CBB001021509/)

Article Paulina Oszajca; (2019)
La virtù emetica dell'antimonio: "calices vomitorii" e "pillulae perpetuae" (/isis/citation/CBB894668613/)

Article William R. Newman; (2020)
Bad Chemistry: Basilisks and Women in Paracelsus and pseudo-Paracelsus (/isis/citation/CBB593660659/)

Article Giordano, Michael J.; (2003)
Reverse Transmutations: Béroalde de Verville's Parody of Paracelsus in Le Moyen de parvenir: An Alchemical Language of Skepticism in the French Baroque (/isis/citation/CBB000660488/)

Article Telle, Joachim; (2004)
Paracelsus in pseudoparacelsischen Briefen (/isis/citation/CBB000740393/)

Article Gantenbein, Leo; (2000)
Die Beziehungen zwischen Alchemie und Hüttenwesen im frühen 16. Jahrhundert, insbesondere bei Paracelsus und Georgius Agricola (/isis/citation/CBB000203163/)

Book Kahn, Didier; (2007)
Alchimie et Paracelsisme en France à la fin de la Renaissance (1567--1625) (/isis/citation/CBB000774191/)

Chapter Hirai, Hiro; (2010)
The World-Spirit and Quintessence in the Chymical Philosophy of Joseph du Chesne (/isis/citation/CBB001023513/)

Book López Pérez, Miguel; Kahn, Didier; Rey Bueno, Mar; (2010)
Chymia: Science and Nature in Early Modern Europe (1450--1750) (/isis/citation/CBB001023359/)

Book Didier Kahn; (2016)
Le fixe et le volatil: chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier (/isis/citation/CBB308791400/)

Article Didier Kahn; (2018)
Quintessence and the Prolongation of Life in the Works of Paracelsus (/isis/citation/CBB983986033/)

Article Martin Žemla; (2020)
The Astronomia Olympi novi and the Theologia Cabalistica: Two Pseudo-Paracelsian Works of the Philosophia Mystica (1618) (/isis/citation/CBB731296739/)

Article Banchetti-Robino, Marina Paola; (2011)
Ontological Tensions in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Chemistry: Between Mechanism and Vitalism (/isis/citation/CBB001024702/)

Book Linden, Stanton J.; (2007)
Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture (/isis/citation/CBB000830514/)

Article Gilly, Carlos; (2013)
Il Paracelsismo e il programma editoriale di Pietro Perna (/isis/citation/CBB001450767/)