Product Description

Philip Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim - known to later ages as Paracelsus - stands on the borderline between medieval and modern; a name that is familiar but a man who has been hard to perceive or understand. Contemporary of Luther, enemy of established medicine, scourge of the universities ('at all the German schools you cannot learn as much as at the Frankfurt Fair'), army surgeon and alchemist, myths about him - from his treating diseases from beyond the grave in mid-nineteenth century Salzburg to his Faustian bargain with the devil to regain his youth - have been far more lasting than his actual story. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to travel with a magical white horse and to store the elixir of life in the pommel of his sword. But who was Paracelsus and what did he really believe and practice? Although Paracelsus has been seen as both a charlatan and as a founder of modern science, Philip Ball's book reveals a more richly complex man - who used his eyes and ears to learn from nature how to heal, and who wrote influential books on medicine, surgery, alchemy and theology while living a drunken, combative, vagabond life. Above all, Ball reveals a man who was a product of his time - an age of great change in which the church was divided and the classics were rediscovered - and whose bringing together of the seemingly diverse disciplines of alchemy and biology signalled the beginning of the age of rationalism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172989 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From the Publisher
The first 'life and times' in over forty years of one of the most fascinating figures of scientific history, by the winner of the 2005 Aventis Science Book Prize.

Brings to life the ferment of post-Reformation Europe, in the spirit of Frances Stonor Saunders' Hawkwood.

From the Inside Flap
Philip Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim – known to later ages as Paracelsus – stands on the borderline between medieval and modern; a name that is familiar but a man who has been hard to perceive or understand. Contemporary of Luther, enemy of established medicine, scourge of the universities (‘at all the German schools you cannot learn as much as at the Frankfurt Fair’), army surgeon and alchemist, myths about him – from his treating the plague from beyond the grave in mid-nineteenth century Salzburg to his Faustian bargain with the devil to regain his youth – have been far more lasting than his actual story. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to travel with a magical white horse and to store the elixir of life in the pommel of his sword.

But who was Paracelsus and what did he really believe and practice? Although Paracelsus has been seen as both a charlatan and as a founder of modern science, Philip Ball’s book reveals a more richly complex man – who used his eyes and ears to learn from nature how to heal, and who wrote influential books on medicine, surgery, alchemy and theology while living a drunken, combative, vagabond life. Above all, Ball reveals a man who was a product of his time – an age of great change in which the church was divided and the classics were rediscovered – and whose bringing together of the seemingly diverse disciplines of alchemy and biology signalled the beginning of the age of rationalism.

Philip Ball’s life of Paracelsus fascinatingly reveals the richness, complexity and chaos of sixteenth century Europe, in a stunning piece of historical and biographical writing.

From the Back Cover
‘This biography is a study of a culture as well as of a man, and in analysing the life and thought of Paracelsus, Ball brings to light a largely forgotten phase of human understanding. It is a considerable achievement.’ Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'Ball’s book charts the social and cultural ferment in which [Paracelsus] lived, supplying brief histories of astrology, merchant banking, humanism, the Protestant reformation, syphilis, and a dozen other topics, and introducing an enormous cast of savants, quacks, sorcerers, prophets and illuminati… Brilliant… This prodigiously learned volume can only reinforce Ball’s reputation as one of our most versatile and gripping science writers.’ John Carey, Sunday Times

'Stirring and fascinating reading... Compelling and intriguing stuff... This is a remarkable piece of work, entertaining and edifying in a way in which so few biographies are.' Niall Griffiths, Daily Telegraph

‘Ball tells his story with both a wonderful affection for his protagonist and a dry wit about him… Admirable’ Sam Leith, Spectator

'[A] wonderfully rich biography... Ball does an excellent job of...recreating this strange and wonderful age.' Guardian

‘Excellent... Ball’s account of this semi-mythical and little-known figure is a pleasure to read, combining a page-turning narrative with brief histories of Renaissance magic, medicine and religious upheaval… Fascinating.’ Independent on Sunday

Customer Reviews

Pirouetting physician
If any age in human history can be called "pivotal" it must be the 16th Century C.E. Nearly every major social norm, from national law through religion endured significant upheavals. It was the time of Martin Luther, Erasmus, Copernicus, Thomas More, Calvin and a host of others. A nearly forgotten element was that of medicine. For centuries, the hold of Galen, through the Church, had dominated medical thought and procedures. Not until this pivotal time did a figure emerge that seriously challenged this monopoly. Philip Ball has produced a lively and informative biography of Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim - the man we know as "Paracelsus".

We don't call doctors unless we're ill or need a golfing partner. In the Renaissance, it was a risky venture to place yourself in a medic's hands. Doctors worked from scholastic dogmas, rarely investigating symptoms except to fit them to rules laid down centuries before. Many diagnoses were done through the visual inspection of a urine sample. A "prescription" was then derived from what Galen or other Roman Empire "authorities" recommended. Paracelsus castigated this "hands-off" approach to medicine. In fact, he did so with such vehemence that the term "bombastic" is said to derive from his name. For him, the body was the best healer. Conditions should be established that would allow Nature to work its own cures. "Establishment" doctors rejected this approach almost universally, causing Paracelsus to lead a peripatetic life. Moving from town to town, he would lecture against normal medical practice, even while performing cures of his own. This wasn't "faith healing:" since Paracelsus was a keen student of herbs and natural medicines.

This all sounds revolutionary and far-sighted even for Renaissance Europe. Ball shows that simple assessments of Paracelsus, or even changing medical outlooks, have no place in dealing with this radical healer. Although he rejected long-held dogmas, Paracelsus also held fast to even less credible ideas. He was a dabbler in magic and a leading student of alchemy. Alchemy had many aspects, and some modern scholars credit it with laying the groundwork for modern chemistry. Ball doesn't go quite that far, noting that the quest for gold from other metals dominated the alchemist's programme. Theophrastus spelled out many of his ideas in a series of works, nearly all of which were published after his death. Ball confronted an immense task in dealing with the works of this complex figure. He handles it well, and is fully conscious of his subject's shortcomings. Some of the writings are self-contradictory, while others spend more ink on castigating his enemies, that Paracelsus left many readers scratching their heads to make sense of it. In dealing with alchemy, for example, the "militant medic" launched into the realm of cosmology, trying to tie together mundane aspects of doctoring with astrological themes. It's a bad fit in any circumstance, but it shows clearly why Paracelsus is an important transition figure.

The many and varied elements of Paracelsus' life and work make it difficult, if not impossible to assess him. Certainly, as Ball demonstrates, he had both enemies and supporters enough in his own time and later. Where some praise him as the liberator of medicine from the thrall of "classical" dogmas, others dismiss him as misguided or a charlatan. Yet, as Ball makes clear, this radical reforming did provide a foundation for modern medicine. Although hardly gifted with foresight, Theophrastus von Hohenheim disrupted the locked view of doctoring that would ultimately overturn fixed thinking. Nature, in whatever way proved best, was now consulted to aid doctors in treating the sick. That legacy alone should grant him respectful immortality. Ball has given us a work ably explaining what science and scientists have endured to advance our thinking beyond simple formulas. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Wide ranging history of the birth of medicine
This books fleshes out the limited knowledge of its subject with a delightfully broad exploration of Paracelsus' life and times. This is the era when astrology was becoming astronomy, and alchemy becoming chemistry - and the books of the ancients were no longer treated as unassailable truths. Paracelsus may not have been a "proper" doctor in the modern sense, but his ideas and writings heralded the modern world. Philip Ball's book is written with a light touch but paints a detailed picture of a world struggling out of the Dark Ages and into the light of the Renaissance.

As much a survey of the period as a biography.
The history of scientific thought has always been a subject which has enamoured me. The story of how mankind, the most psychologically sophisticated organism to have multiplied under the Sun, reared himself from dark millennia of ignorance, to fashion, in the last two centuries or so, a scientific theory which can explain some of the most eminently complex natural phenomena which encompass him and reside within him, is a fascinating one. And the age which just preludes his expanding comprehension of the universe, the Renaissance, is arguably the most fascinating epoch of this long quest for knowledge; it is a period of transition, when people, like the subject of this biography, began to shun the dogma of long-dead Greek philosophers, and placed increasing value on the methods of empiricism, which, of course, anticipated modern, experimental scientific technique. However, despite this emerging progressiveness, philosophic and scholastic conservatism stubbornly resisted a revision of its outdated teachings. The physician Paracelsus, an opponent to this academic adulation of Galen, Hippocrates and other classical thinkers was a major force of this revolution, and is the subject of Philip Ball's great little biography.

Although seen by many as a reformer, it is important that we do not over-emphasise Paracelsus's achievements, although there were some notable ones. 15th and 16th century Europe was still a heavily superstitious place, where alchemy was a credible pursuit, where magic, demons and witches were still discussed with the utmost seriousness and candour by respected academics. And all these falsehoods coloured almost every facet of Paracelsus's writings and philosophy, from his chemistry (or alchemy), biology, astronomy/astrology, medicine and theology. This is not to say that he was small-minded or foolish, he was simply a product of his time; the reason his name has fallen out of favour, so to speak, is that his contribution to modern science is, in reality, negligible, aside the likes of Copernicus, Vesalius, who really did shape modern theory.

So why study him? Firstly, he was a central figure in that period of science's history, and that he did challenge scholastic orthodoxy, and proposed reforms to medicine, much of which's spirit survives now, even if his own theories were really as erroneous as those he fought. Secondly, he is an immensely interesting character; bombastic, uncouth, arrogant, proud, but also committed, and propelled by a genuine desire to do good; and Ball's biography does a fantastic job of presenting a fair picture of, I suspect, a seriously misunderstood man.

Ball's lucid, penetrating and richly illustrated study is a pleasure to read; although to regard it as a strict biographical study would be misleading. It is the narrative of Paracelsus's life which binds the book in place, but it is as much a study of the Renaissance itself, with lengthy asides on various topics including Luther and the Protestant movement, medicine and disease, humanism, alchemy and many other digressions. These never become tiresome; indeed, they form a pivotal portion of the book, and all are relevant to the case of Paracelsus. There was hardly a dry moment; the abundant quotations which Ball extracts from Paracelsus's explosive tracts act as a fine illustration of Paracelsus's thought and Ball's analysis of these were informed and insightful. A balanced picture of the mystic is offered; Paracelsus, throughout history and up to today has had many antagonists and supporters, and Ball finds a comfortable position between the two camps, he both sympathises and criticises Paracelsus; loathed by the medical orthodoxy of the time, he was forced to travel around Europe after being banished from various towns, although Ball recognises that, to a large extent, this exile was due in large part to his inflammatory attitude and often immense arrogance; Ball's impartiallity is refreshing and strengthens the credibility of the book. The prospect of this book being bettered seems entirely remote; Ball's execution of this study is impressive indeed.

To anybody interested in this time of mysticism and magic, when demonology and astrology was as respectable a study as chemistry, medicine and astronomy; where eccentrics and wizards toured this tumultuous continent with tales of fantasy and folklore; or even a look at medical, chemical and theological history, look no further than this wonderful and entertaining little book.