The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science

by Philip Ball

Book Overview

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, who called himself Paracelsus, stands at the cusp of medieval and modern times. A contemporary of Luther, an enemy of the medical establishment, a scourge of the universities, an alchemist, an army surgeon, and a radical theologian, he attracted myths even before he died. His fantastic journeys across Europe and beyond were said to be made on a magical white horse, and he was rumored to carry...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374229791
• ISBN13: 9780374229795
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Shifting Cultural Plates

The Devil's Doctor is a remarkably well written biography of Paracelsus as well as social history of his life time, that period in European History when the Scholastic mindset of the Medieval was being challenged by the coming Enlightenment. Ball, who writes with great clarity and skillful organization shows Paracelsus as a unique individual in the middle of this social revolution, not seeing the whole picture, but living on both sides of the split. An alchemist who grew up in a mining region of Switzerland where the manipulation of metals was prevelant he received a scolastic education in medicine. He left early because he realized that the medicine of the Greeks no longer served. He sought out the best teachers and herbalists to educate himself and was recognized as one of the best doctors of his time. He grew up in the Roman church, but thought, wrote, and preached independently his own brand of spirituality barely escaping condemnation for heresy. I had read bits and pieces about Paracelsus over the years, but gathered almost nothing about the man. By putting Paracelsus in his time and many places (the man traveled a get deal for the times), Ball has made him real and his significance to European, and so world, history understandable. I can't say I disliked anything about this book. Except, maybe, the fact that Paracelsus was associated with so many interesting characters who deserved books of their own, which I'll probably never find. I highly recommend this book to those interested in this period of history even if they scoff at alchemy. If they scoff, Ball will give them a better understanding of its significance to the period.

Fascinating portrait of Paracelsus but with avoidable errors

I read the *The Devil's Doctor* in conjunction with *Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age: The Occult Tradition and Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare* by John S. Mebane. I read them to learn what magic meant to people in the sixteenth century - so that I could better appreciate Shakespeare's play, *The Tempest*. In the *The Devil's Doctor*, Philip Ball gives a fascinating portrait of a man who believed in both science and magic. In fact, in his medical practice he did not distinguish the two. Paracelsus used both in his attempts to cure diseases and to gain mastery over the external world - which, of course, includes other human beings. While I cannot judge the accuracy of Dr. Ball's historical and biographical claims about Paracelsus, his misunderstanding of fairly basic Christian teachings surprised me. Here are three examples: 1) Ball states that it was not "his (Paracelsus') intention to say anything that ran contrary to the established position of the church - he was indeed intent on defending the divinity of the mother of Christ, against suggestions that she was mortal." Hello. The Catholic Church does not and did not teach the "divinity" of Mary. Nor does the Church teach that she was not mortal. (The doctrine of the Assumption does not mean she was immortal like a goddess.) 2) In describing how people at that time viewed the spirit world, Ball asserts: "Christian dogma insisted that supernatural beings were universally evil." It did? What about St. Michael and the other angels, not to mention the Communion of Saints? 3) Regarding demonic influences, Ball states: "Paracelsus briefly mentions the *Obsessi*, who are obsessed (possessed) by the devil." Paracelsus, like any sixteenth century Christian, would have known that obsession and possession refer to two very different conditions. I don't want to make a big deal out of these errors, as if there was something unique about Philip Ball. When reporters, university professors and others write about the Catholic Church, their IQ seems to drop 20 or 30 points. It's hard to know exactly why since today we have this great thing called the Internet. A simple Google search would have enabled Dr. Ball to avoid the above errors.

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 sho

A fine recommendation for students of Medieval studies and early medical history alike

Paracelsus as a 16th century figure famous as a doctor of alchemy medicine, who gained a reputation in his times as both miracle worker and a fake. THE DEVIL'S DOCTOR: PARACELSUS AND THE WORLD OF RENAISSANCE MAGIC AND SCIENCE draws together all known about Paracelsus to provide an in-depth and detailed biography of not only his theories and importance, but the controversies surrounding his life and the Medieval world in general. A fine recommendation for students of Medieval studies and early medical history alike. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

A Thinker at the Start of Science

Philip Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim came from the time of Erasmus, Luther, and Copernicus, and was in his way as influential as those giants, but he is hardly remembered now. Even by the name Paracelsus, which he took following the fashion of the humanists of his day to Latinize their names, he is unknown to most, though he makes personal appearances in the writings of Browning, Borges, Jung, and even A. J. Rowling, and his personal characteristics have been encompassed in the characters of Faust and Prospero. He wrote many books, almost none of which appeared during his lifetime, full of weird attempts to connect everything in the universe with everything else. He understood that matter was permeated by spirit, and that there were influences on both by astral bodies. His writings of occult science and theology are full of secret signs and symbols and neologisms that have defied any subsequent explanation. You don't have to try to get through his books; Philip Ball has done so, and seems to have absorbed every other aspect of medieval and Renaissance thought, to produce _The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science_ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A big, generous, and detailed look at this alchemist's life and times, and importantly his way of thinking, Ball's book is continually surprising about the man, the reactions to him, and his influence. One of Paracelsus's biggest achievements is that he did renounce the reliance on Aristotle and Galen; he insisted on finding out for himself what was true and not being bound by the prior abstract arguments of what had to be true. He was thus skeptical of the main currents of thought in cosmology and medicine, and in favor of learning from experience. Without a systematic methodology, however, he assimilated magical and alchemical thought in his own idiosyncratic way, taking what he fancied and fitting it in to his grand scheme. Even Ball admits that Paracelsus made no major discovery that is still part of science. So what is the fascination (and to be sure, the subject of this fine biography comes across as a fascinating man)? It turns out that he had some good ideas and useful practical applications. He emphasized the power of natural remedies, rather than the moribund concepts of balancing humors that were the standards of his age. Much of his success as a doctor was due to his advocacy of minimal treatment, rather than the phlebotomy, cautery, or amputations by which other doctors could turn even minor ailments into mortal injuries. He evaluated the sicknesses of miners and wrote the first manual of occupational health. At risk to himself, he investigated the plague. He believed that chemical processes, not demons, were responsible for madnesses of different kinds. When other medics considered the illnesses of women beneath their attention, he wrote specifically about them. At a time when it was unusual for anyone to venture more than a few miles