Paracelsus: Selected Writings

By Paracelsus, Jolande Jacobi and Norbert Guterman

The enigmatic sixteenth-century Swiss physician and natural philosopher Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, is known for the almost superhuman energy with which he produced his innumerable writings, for his remarkable achievements in the development of science, and for his reputation as a visionary (not to mention sorcerer) and alchemist. Little is known of his biography beyond his legendary achievements, and the details of his life have been filled in over the centuries by his admirers. This richly illustrated anthology presents in modernized language a selection of the moral thought of a man who was not only a self-willed genius charged with the dynamism of an impetuous and turbulent age but also in many ways a humble seeker after truth, who deeply influenced C. G. Jung and his followers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9780691238227

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BOLLINGEN SERIES XXVIII

PARACELSUS

SELECTED WRITINGS

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOLANDE JACOBI

TRANSLATED BY NORBERT QUTERMAN

BOLLINGEN SERIES XXVIII

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by Princeton University Press,

41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,

Chichester, West Sussex

Copyright © 1951 by Bollingen Foundation Inc., New York, N.Y.

Copyright © renewed by Princeton University Press, 1979

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 0-691-09810-7 (cloth)

ISBN 0-691-01876-6 (pbk.)

ISBN-13: 978-0-691-01876-8 (pbk.)

eISBN: 978-0-691-23822-7

R0

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations  ix

Foreword to the English Edition, by C. G. Jung  xxi

Preface  xxv

Note on the Section Ornaments  xxxv

Paracelsus: His Life and His Work  xxxvii

PARACELSUS: SELECTED WRITINGS

CREDO  3

I. MAN AND THE CREATED WORLD  11

Creation of the World  15

Creation of Man  17

Man and His Body  19

Creation of Woman  23

Woman: Tree of Life  27

Seed and Fruit  33

Man and Woman  35

Man in the Cosmos  39

Dignity of Man  45

II. MAN AND HIS BODY  47

Art of Medicine  51

Mission of Medicine  57

Sickness and Health  63

The Merciful Physician  67

Nature of Disease  75

The Physician’s Remedies  83

Rules for the Healthy  87

Diet and Dosage  89

Preparation of Remedies  93

Eternal Medicine  97

III. MAN AND WORKS  99

Toil, a Divine Commandment  103

School of Nature  109

Inner and Outer Worlds  121

Arts, a Gift of God  127

Interpretation of Dreams  135

Saints and Magicians  137

Alchemy, Art of Transformation  141

Wisdom and the Stars  151

IV. MAN AND ETHICS  157

Knowledge and Faith  161

Truth and Falsehood  167

Love, the Supreme Good  171

Humility and Repentance  173

On Our Sins  175

Wealth and Poverty  177

V. MAN AND SPIRIT  179

Two Lights of Man  183

On True Government  187

Man and Devil  189

Power of Faith  193

VI. MAN AND FATE  201

Good and Bad Fortune  205

Man and Death  211

Last Judgment  217

VII. GOD, THE ETERNAL LIGHT 227

Key to Sources  235

Glossary  245

Bibliography  267

Indexes  281

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Paracelsus (aet. 45). Engraving by Augustin Hirschvogel, 1538. (Graphic Collection, Central Library, Zurich.)

— Frontispiece

1. A Tribute to Paracelsus—Apparently a Kind of Broadside. German woodcut on a single page, by an unknown artist, sixteenth century. The likeness is from an engraving by Augustin Hirschvogel. (Graphic Collection, Central Library, Zurich.)

2. Paracelsus. Detail from title-page of Crollius, Basilica chy-mica (op. cit. for fig. 6).

3. Einsiedeln in 1577. Contemporary woodcut, anonymous. The house with the weathervane on the roof, to the right of Devil’s Bridge, is supposedly the birthplace of Paracelsus. (Graphic Collection, Central Library, Zurich.)

4. First page of Der grossen Wundartzney . . . , Augsburg: Heynrich Steyner, 1536. This volume is an earlier edition of Steyner’s 1537 volume listed in the bibliography. The 1536 volume is in the New York Academy of Medicine Library. According to a bibliographical notation pasted in the volume, it is a second edition, with author’s corrections, the first having been printed by Varnier at Ulm in the same year.

5. Signature and impression of the signet ring of Paracelsus. Facsimile of the original in a letter to Amerbach in Basel. (From Archbishop Raimund Netzhammer, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Einsiedeln, 1901.)

6. A Group of Great Alchemists and Physicians: (reading down, left) Hermes Trismegistus, Morienus Romanus, and Raimundus Lullus; (right) Geber (J&bir), Roger Bacon, and Paracelsus. Title-page of Basilica chymica, by Oswald Crollius (d. 1609), physician and alchemist. Frankfurt, 1629. (Graphic Collection, Central Library, Zurich.)

7. Creation. Engraving from Biblia picturis illustrate, Paris, 1540. -

8. The Creation of Adam. Woodcut by Michel Wolgemut, from Hartmann Schedel, Weltchronik, Nuremberg, 1493. —

9. The Stages of Nature, Woodcut from Carolus Bovillus, Liber de intellectu, Paris, 1510.

10. The Hermaphrodite. Woodcut by an unknown master, from Leonhard Thumeysser, Ritter zum Thum, Quinta essentia, Leipzig, 1574. Thumeysser (b. 1531, in Basel; d. 1596), a physician and alchemist, was a follower of Paracelsus.

11. The Man of the Zodiac. Woodcut from Eine newe Badenfart, Strassburg, 1530.

12. Creator and Creation. Woodcut from Carolus Bovillus, Phy-sicorum elementorum libri decern, Paris, 1512.

13. Adam and Eve (Coniunctio). Woodcut from the Rosarium philosophorum. Secunda pars alchimiae de lapide philoso-phico vero modo praeparando, Frankfurt, 1550.

14. The Creation of Eve. Woodcut from Schedel (op. cit. for fig. 8).

15. Venus. Woodcut from Practica Teutsch aufs 1537. Jahr durch den hochgelerten Doctorem Paracelsum beschriben und gemacht. Reproduced from Sudhoff-Matthiessen, Vol. 11 (see bibliography).

16. The Seed. Woodcut from Pandora, i.e., the noblest gift of God, or the precious and salutary philosophers* stone, with which the ancient philosophers as well as Theophrastus Paracelsus improved the imperfect metals by the power of fire, and drove out all kinds of harmful and unsalutary diseases, internal and external. A golden treasury . . . particularly for the lovers of Paracelsian medicine . . . printed by Hieronymous Reusner, Basel, Henricpetri, 1588.

17. The Caesarean Section. Woodcut from Suetonius, De vita duodecim Caesarum, Venice, 1506. Probably one of the earliest illustrations of this type of surgical intervention.

18. The Holy Virgin with the Child, as Patron Saint of Sailors.Title-page woodcut from Aristotle, Problemata, Paris, 1514.

19. The Ten Commandments: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery. From Seelentrost-Büchlein, Augsburg, 1478.

20. The Ten Commandments: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbours Wife. Woodcut by Hans Baldung Grien, Strassburg, 1516.

21. Heaven and Earth. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis [i.e., Horapollo Niliacus] selecta hieroglyphica, Rome, 1597.

22. Man and Heaven. Pen drawing from a fifteenth-century astrological treatise. ( National Library, Vienna.)

23. Man and Zodiac. Woodcut from Henricus Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheym, De occulta philosophia libri très, Cologne, 1533.

24. Man and Zodiac. Woodcut from ibid.

25. Man in Equilibrium. Pen drawing, study in proportions, by Leonardo da Vinci, 1510. (Venice, Academy of Fine Arts. From A. E. Popham, Les Dessins de Léonard de Vinci, Brussels, 1947.)

26. Astrolabe. Woodcut from Regiomontanus, calendar book, Frankfurt, 1531.

27. Barber Shop: (left) a blood-letting; (right) the assistant dispenses a remedy against a skin disease and explains how to apply it. Woodcut, early sixteenth century.

28. Autopsy. Woodcut from Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Le Propriétaire des choses, Paris, 1518.

29. Medical Implements. Woodcut from Hieronymus Brun-schwig, Chirurgia, Strassburg, 1497.

30. Barber-Surgeon at Work. Woodcut, sixteenth century.

31. The Forerunner of the Dentist: he extracted teeth with his fingers. Woodcut, sixteenth century.

32. The Doctor: uroscopy. Woodcut by Jost Amman, from Hans Sachs, Beschreybung aller Stände, Frankfurt, 1568.

33. Winds and Seasons. Woodcut border by Hans Weiditz, fromthe Tacuinus sanitatis (schachtafelen der Gesuntheyt), published under the fictitious name Elluchasem Elimithar [i.e., Ibn Butlan, eleventh century], Strassburg, 1531.

34. An Itinerant Quack. Woodcut, early sixteenth century. (From Theodor Hampe, Die fahrenden Leute in der deutschen Vergangenheit, Jena, 1902.)

35. Sickness and Celestial Constellation. Woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger, from Sebastian Münster, Kalendertafel, c. 1534.

36. Blood-Letting Chart. With manikin (melothesia), zodiac signs, and treatments. From a wall calendar, Johann Won-ecker, physician in Basel, 1499.

37. Cosmas and Damian, Patron Saints of Medicine. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Hans von Gersdorff, Feldtbuch der Wundtarzney, Strassburg, 1530.

38. Cranial Operation. Woodcut from an Artzneybuch, 1546.

39. The Physician. Woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger, from the Dance of Death series, 1538.

40. Operating on a Cataract. Woodcut from Georg Bartisch, Ophthalmoduleia, Dresden, 1583.

41. The Physician at the Sick-Bed. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Brunschwig (op. cit. for fig. 29).

42. Blood-Letting. Woodcut vignette from Walther Hermann Ryff, Spiegel und Regiment der Gesundheyt, Frankfurt, 1545.

43. Hospital. Woodcut, anonymous, from the head of a letter of indulgence, France, sixteenth century. (From Paul Richer, L’Art et la medicine, Paris, [1902].)

44. Organs and Parts of the Body. Woodcut border by Hans Weiditz, the Tacuinus (op. cit. for fig. 33).

45. Blood-Letting Chart. Woodcut from Galen, De curandi ra-tione, Venice, c. 1515. The signs of the zodiac show the regions that should be chosen for blood-letting in the various parts of the body.

46. Disease (Syphilis?) as a Scourge of God. Woodcut from Gersdorff (op. cit. for fig. 37).

47. Lungs, Heart, and Diaphragm. Woodcut vignette from Hans Guldenmundt, Auslegung und Beschreybung der Anatomi, Nuremberg, 1556. -

48. The Apothecary. Woodcut by Jost Amman, from Sachs (op. cit. for fig. 32).

49. Male Herb and Female Herb. Woodcut from Hortus sani-tatis, Mainz, 1491.

50. Winter Medicine. Woodcut border by Hans Weiditz, from the Tacuinus (op. cit. for fig. 33).

51. Human Circumstances. Ibid.

52. Bathers. Ibid.

53. Prescriptions for Bathing. Ibid.

54. Various Grains. Ibid.

55. Physician and Apothecary. Woodcut from Brunschwig (op. cit. for fig. 29).

56. Physician with Urine Flask. Woodcut from Bartholomaeus Anglicus (op. cit. for fig. 28).

57. Broadside on Syphilis. Drawing by Albrecht Diirer, incunabulum, Nuremberg, 1496.

58. Woodcut from Thomas Ochsenbrunner, Priscorum heroum stemmata, Rome, 1494.

59. Alchemistic Oven. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Geber, De alchemia, Strassburg, 1529.

60. Adam and Eve Driven from Paradise. Woodcut from Schedel (op. cit. for fig. 8).

61. Lecture. Woodcut from a German translation of the works of Terence, Deventer, 1489.

62. The Astrologer. Woodcut from Joannes de Sacrobosco, Sphera volgare, Venice, 1537.

63. Scholars. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis . . . (op. cit. for fig. 21).

64. The Physician in His Study: portrait of the Spanish physician Luis Lobera de Avila. Woodcut by Hans Burgkmair, from Ein nützlich Regiment der Gesundheyt, Augsburg, 1531.

65. The Garden of Health. Woodcut from Hortus sanitatis. Antwerp, 1533.

66. Alchemistic Oven. Woodcut from Geber (op. cit. for fig. 59).

67. Astronomers and Celestial Globe. Woodcut from Georg von Peuerbach, Tabulae eclypsium, Vienna, 1514.

68. Preparation of the Elixir of Life (forma furni ad distillan-dum aquam vitae). Woodcut from Philippus Ulstadius, Coelum philosophorum, Strassburg, 1528.

69. Books. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis ... (op. cit. for fig. 21).

70. Vintage. From Petrus de Crescentiis, Opus ruralium commo-dorum, Strassburg, 1512.

71. Chemical Dissolution of Bodies. Woodcut from Pandora (op. cit. for fig. 16).

72. Illuminatio: alchemistic-symbolic illustration of the psychic rebirth. Woodcut from Rosarium philosophorum (op. cit. for fig. 13).

73. Cosmic Harmony. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, from Prog-nosticationen des Stabius, Nuremberg, 1503.

74. Man and the Annual Cycle. Woodcut from Giovanagostin Pantheo, Lunario perpetuo, Venice, 1535.

75. Herbs. Woodcut border by Hans Weiditz, from the Tacuinus (op. cit. for fig. 33).

76. Physiognomies. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, from Ludo-vicus Pruthenus, Trilogium animae, Nuremberg, 1498.

77. Chiromancy. Woodcut from Agrippa ab Nettesheym (op. cit. for fig. 23).

78. Man and Planet. Woodcut from ibid.

79. The Rose. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Symphorien Champier, Rosa gallica (omnibus sanitatem affectantibus utilis et necessaria), Paris, 1514.

80. Mars and Venus. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Practica Teutsch auff das MDXXXV. Jahr durch den hochgelehrten Theophrastum Paracelsum, Augsburg, H. Steyner, 1534.

81. The Seven Liberal Arts. Anonymous woodcut, broadside, Nuremberg, c. 1494.

82. The Dancers. Woodcut border from Caelius Apitius, De re culinaria, Basel, 1541.

83. The Harpist and the Nine Muses. Woodcut by Wolf Traut, from Jacob Locher, Carmina varia, Nuremberg, 1506.

84. Magic Sigils. Woodcut border from Albertus Magnus, Liber mineralium, Oppenheim, 1518.

85. The Poet and the Thinker. Woodcut border by Wolf Traut, from Ulrich Pinder, Speculum intellectuale felicitatis hu-manae, Nuremberg, 1510.

86. Mary with the Child and the Three Kings. Woodcut, Cologne, 1498. -

87. The Dreamer. Woodcut from Prognostication auf 24 Jahr zukünftig durch den hochgelehrten doctorem Paracelsum, geschrieben zu dem grossmächtigsten, durchleuchtigsten fürsten und hern, hern Ferdinanden, römischen künig, erz-herzog zu Oesterreich etc. ...» getruckt zu Augspurg durch Heynrich Steyner 1536. According to Sudhoff, the woodcuts for this work were drawn and carved under the direction of Paracelsus.

88. The Great Sage: portrait of Hermes Trismegistus. Woodcut, verso of the title-page of Zadith Ben Hamuel (Zadith Senior), De chemia Senioris antiquissimi philosophi, libellus . . . , Strassburg, 1566.

89. The Magus. Woodcut by Hans Weiditz, from Francesco Petrarch, Trostspiegel, Augsburg, 1532.

90. Magic Sigils Effective against Gout. From Theophrastus Paracelsus, Archidoxis magica, Basel, 1570.

91. Turba Philosophorum (Disputing Alchemists). Pen drawing, sixteenth century, from the manuscript Rosengarten der Philosophen, by Arnaldus de Villanova, Vadiana Library, St. Gallen.

92. Alchimia. Woodcut from Thurneysser (op. cit. for fig. 10).

93. Lion Swallowing the Sun: the true green and golden lion, symbolic picture of the transmutation of the prima materia. Woodcut from Rosarium philosophorum (op. cit. for fig. 13).

94. Mercurius Noster: alchemistic-symbolic representation of quicksilver, or mercury, as one of the planets which is the source and cause of all transmutation. Woodcut from Pandora (op. cit. for fig. 16).

95. The Stages of Alchemical Operations. Woodcut from Thurneysser (op. cit. for fig. 10).

96. The Philosophers’ Stone: alchemistic-symbolic representation. From Rosarium philosophorum (op. cit. for fig. 13).

97. Uroboros, Serpent That Eats His Own Tail: representation of the hermetic alchemistic transmutation process and symbol of eternity, time, etc. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apol~ Unis ... (op. cit. for fig. 21).

98. The Astronomer. Woodcut from Thurneysser (op. cit. for fig. 10).

99. Astronomy Lesson. Woodcut from Bernardo de Granollachs, Lunarium, [Rome, 1506].

100. Jupiter. Woodcut from Practica Teutsch ... (op. cit. for fig. 15).

101. Blood-Letting Chart. Woodcut from Bartholomaeus Angli-cus, Libro de proprietatibus rerum. . . . Hystoria natural . . . , Toledo, 1529.

102. The Prophet. Pen drawing by Albrecht Dürer, 1517. ( Vienna, Albertina Coll. )

103. The Stages of Reality. Woodcut from Bovillus (op. cit. for fig. 12).

104. True and False Wisdom: The fool says, Thee, O fortune, we make into a goddess, we exalt thee to heaven. The sage says, Trust in virtue, fortune is more transitory than the waves. Woodcut from Bovillus (op. cit. for fig. 9).

105. The Angel. Woodcut from Büchlein wider das Zutrinken, Augsburg, 1534.

106. The Heart. Woodcut vignette from a Spanish edition of Aristotle (?), Liber de secretis secretorum sive de regimine principum vel dominorum, Burgos, 1505.

107. The Scholar. Woodcut from Augustinus Niphus, De falsa diluvii prognosticatione, Bologna, 1520.

108. Parental Love. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis . , . (op. cit. for fig. 21).

109. The Planet Saturn as Ruler of the Year Brings Ruin and Disease. Anonymous woodcut, 1492.

110. The Penitent. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, 1510.

111. Banquet with Music. Woodcut from Ryff (op. cit. for fig. 42).

112. The Suppliants. Woodcut from Pretiosa Margarita novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide, edited by Janus Lacinius, Venice, 1546.

113. The Jeweller. Woodcut from Albertus Magnus, Liber min-eralium, 1518, and title-page illustration from Rechter Gebrauch der Alchimei, Frankfurt [?], 1531.

114. The Beggar. From a series of ten pen drawings by Niclas Manuel Deutsch, 1520. (Public Art Collection, Basel.)

115. The Light of the Heart. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis . . . (op. cit. for fig. 21).

116. The Creator Blesses the Globe. Woodcut, title-page illustration from Augustinus Datus, Elegantiolae, Augsburg, c. 1496.

117. God the Father and the Pilgrim. Woodcut by Hans Burgk-mair the Elder, from the Taschenbüchlein aus dem Riess, 1510. (National Library, Vienna.)

118. King and Knight. Woodcut by Michel Wolgemut, from Christophorus Glotz, Prognosticon für das Jahr 1491, Nuremberg, c. 1490.

119. Hermit Pursued by the Devil. Pen drawing by Urs Graf, 1512. (Public Art Collection, Basel.)

120. Angel Captured by Devil. Woodcut from Büchlein wider das Zutrinken (op. cit. for fig. 105).

121. The Spirit. Woodcut from Thumeysser (op. cit. for fig. 10).

122. Head of Christ. Woodcut by Urs Graf, from the book Liden Jesu Christi mit andechtiger klag . . . , Basel, Henricpetri, 1516.

123. Baptism. Woodcut from Boccaccio, Il filocolo, Naples, 1478.

124. The Soul: Anima. Woodcut from Thumeysser (op. cit. for fig. 10).

125. The Lamp of Eternal Light. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis ... (op. cit. for fig. 21).

126. Souls Weighed in the Balance. Woodcut from Ars moriendi, Leipzig, 1493.

127. Wheel of Fortune: an angel turning the sphere of heaven. Woodcut, Leipzig, 1490.

128. The Course of the World. Woodcut, Paris, 1493, reproduced from Stephen Steinlein, Astrologie und Aberglaube, Munich, 1915.

129. Wheel of Fortune. Woodcut, sixteenth century, from ibid.

130. Hourglass: with skull as symbol of death. Woodcut from Johann Dryander, Anatomia, Marburg, 1537.

131. Death the Reaper. Title-page illustration from Hans Sachs, Ein Kampfgespräch zwischen dem Tod und dem natürlichen Leben, 1538.

132. Danse macabre. Woodcut from Schedel (op. cit. for fig. 8).

133. Sundial. Woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger, from His-toriam ceteris testamenti . . . , Louvain, 1539. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).

134. The Hand of Fate. Woodcut from Prognostication .. . (op. cit. for fig. 87).

135. Entombment. Woodcut from Euricius Cordus, Für die ne we, hievor unerhörte und erschröcklich tödtliche kranck-heyt und schnellen todt, die Englisch schweyssucht genannt, Strassburg, 1529.

136. The Journey Through Death: symbolic representation of a phase of the process of transmutation. Woodcut from Pretiosa Margarita ... (op. cit. for fig. 112).

137. Resurrection from Death. (The caption reads: After my many and several sufferings and great martyrdom—I am resurrected—clarified—and free of all flaw.) An alchemistic-symbolic representation of purified gold, the endstage of the process of transmutation. Woodcut from Rosarium philosophorum (op. cit. for fig. 13).

138. Toward the Celestial Spheres: Beatrice leads Dante through the sphere of the moon to the firmament of fixed stars, which is surrounded by the eighth and last celestial sphere, the Empyrean, or Heaven of Pure Light. In the centre of the circles is the earth with the planets revolving around it. Pen drawing by Sandro Botticelli ( 1444P-1510), from Dante, The Divine Comedy,

139. Dying Man. Woodcut by Hans Burgkmair the Elder (op. cit. for fig. 117).

140. The Soul Goes to Heaven; the seven angels with the six keys, standing for the six works of charity, with which they open heaven and receive the soul into heaven. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, from the illustrations to Niclas von der Flue, Nuremberg, 1488.

141. Poverty, Disease, Lust, Death. Woodcut from Brunschwig (op. cit. for fig. 29).

142. Resurrection: The Rule of Christ. Anonymous woodcut (broadside), early sixteenth century.

143. St. John with the Seven-Headed Dragon on Patmos. Woodcut from Floury, Compendiosa et maxime conducibilis ad perfectam cognitionem methodus, Paris, c, 1510.

144. Ascension of Christ. Woodcut by Hans Wechtlin, from Das Leben Jesu Christi, Strassburg, 1508.

145. The Eye of Consciousness. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis ... (op. cit. for fig. 21).

146. God the Father Blesses the Globe. Woodcut by Hans Burgk-mair the Elder (op. cit. for fig. 117).

147. The Eye of God. Woodcut vignette from Hori Apollinis ... (op. cit. for fig. 21 ).

148. Apocalypse: John the Evangelist and the Seven Candlesticks before the Throne of God. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg, 1498.

FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

THE AUTHOR has asked me for some introductory words to the English edition of her book on Paracelsus. I am more than willing to comply with this request, for Paracelsus, an almost legendary figure in our time, was a preoccupation of mine when I was trying to understand alchemy, especially its connection with natural philosophy. In the sixteenth century, alchemical speculation received a strong impetus from this master, notably from his singular doctrine of long life—a theme ever dear to the alchemist’s heart.

In her book, Dr. Jacobi emphasizes the moral aspect of Paracelsus. She wisely lets the master speak for himself on crucial points, so that the reader can gain first-hand information about this strange Renaissance personality, so amply endowed with genius. The generous use of original texts, with their vivid, imaginative language, helps to develop a striking picture of the man who exerted a powerful influence not only on his own time but also on succeeding centuries. A contradictory and controversial figure, Paracelsus cannot be brought into line with any stereotype—as Sudhoff, for instance, sought to do when, arbitrarily and without a shadow of evidence, he declared that certain aberrant texts were spurious. Paracelsus remains a paradox, like his contemporary, Agrippa von Nettesheim. He is a true mirror of his century, which even at this late date presents many unsolved mysteries.

An excellent feature of Dr. Jacobi’s book is her glossary of Paracelsus’ concepts, each furnished with a succinct definition. To follow the language of this physician, this naturalphilosopher and mystic—a language freighted with technical terms and neologisms—is not easy for readers unfamiliar with alchemical writings.

The book abounds in pictorial material which, coming for the most part from Paracelsus’ time and from the places where he lived, rounds out and sharpens the presentation.

C. G. Jung

Fig. 1. A Tribute to Paracelsus—Apparently a Kind of Broadside

PREFACE

AN anthology is always a hazardous enterprise—not only because the compiler, however much he may aim at objectivity, is always influenced by the tastes of his time and his own intellectual leanings, but above all because he undertakes to convey the idea of an integrated whole through an arrangement of its separate parts. But just as the cosmos dissolves into a thousand contradictions when we focus our attention on its individual manifestations, so a great personality will break down into seemingly irreconcilable and irreducible contradictions as soon as one attempts to define it by successively describing its different facets. And the greater the man’s scope, the more complex and dramatic his career, the truer this becomes.

Paracelsus, who lived at a time of revolutionary changes, is one of the most enigmatic figures in history. This self-willed genius was charged with all the dynamism of an impetuous and turbulent age. Thus any attempt to encompass him in his totality and uniqueness by a selection from his work seems to offer little prospect of success. For this reason, we have deliberately refrained from seeking special texts with which to document each of the widely ramified domains of Paracelsus’ thought and activity. We have instead concentrated on the essential and permanently relevant features of this solitary genius. If we discard those elements of his work which have only a secondary or historical significance, we begin to discern that luminous inner unity, in whose revealing light his illogical method of exposition, his lack of conceptual clarity, all the seeming incongruities of his psychology and thought, appear as tributaries to a broad, powerful stream.

If we follow this method, we obtain a certain number of texts in which the Paracelsian conception of the world is summed up. This conception is centred around his basic concern with man’s relation to God, which permeates and illumines every sphere of his thought. Paracelsus’ entire contribution can be described as a development of this single theme in ever new variations, reminding one sometimes of the mysteriously interlaced and often surcharged late-Gothic ornaments, and sometimes of the clear, noble lines of a Bach fugue. His basic motif is man as the beginning and the centre of all creation. In man all life culminates. He is the centre of the world; everything is seen in terms of man. In him God and nature meet (Sartorius von Waltershausen). As image of God, he holds the highest rank in the cosmos. Through the principle of a hierarchical order of creation, ascending from matter to God, Paracelsus unites all the antinomies of a paganizing mysticism of nature and a pious Christian faith. How asceticism and enjoyment of the world, Christian love and sober experimental knowledge, the spirit of scientific observation and the hope for redemption, keen observation and emotional exuberance, critical reason and volcanic temperament, could be fused in the unity of his personality remains today, to us who are torn asunder, both a mystery and an objectof nostalgia. In whatever form he sought apt expression for his great insights into man, God, and the world—whether in the media of medicine, magic, alchemy, astronomy or in the other aspects of the life and thought of his time—his real striving was always to speak of man, his relations to the Creator and creation, his dignity and his way, his duties and his tasks.

Only a few men before him and hardly any after him have conceived an anthropocentric system so lofty and at the same time so rational. In it everything follows logically from one source; it is a system that elevates profession to vocation, trade to art, and science to wisdom. As against this great line, everything else about Paracelsus strikes one as a mass of rank vegetation, withered or in bloom, but never genuinely relevant to the understanding of his work. Adhering faithfully to our main line, we have avoided specifically medical material, whether of a diagnostic or of a therapeutic nature. We have kept the texts free from the paraphernalia of superstition, which for so long obscured the true image of Paracelsus. Accordingly, we have omitted the aspects, too often emphasized, of astrologer, soothsayer, sorcerer, visionary, alchemist, and maker of amulets and magic seals. Since modem thought has lost touch with the profound truth of which these activities were the vehicle, we are in no position to do them full justice; today we must inevitably misunderstand them. We have become too far removed from those great relationships, which were still very much alive for Paracelsus. But since all the elements of Paracelsus’ work are organically interlinked, the main features of the fields we have neglected will be apparent from the material presented here to the more penetrating reader.

For the same reasons we have also omitted all polemical texts, all eccentric and overly subjective passages in the works. Whether these peculiarities can be psychologically interpreted as manifestations of resentment, of overcompensation, or of a volcanic psyche in which the seething contradictions of the age were concentrated, or whether they are characteristic of the coarse language of that time, they have little bearing on the essence of Paracelsus’ personality and will. Behind them and untouched by them, there rises the authentic Paracelsus, the dauntless, never-weary seeker of God, the humble mortal. This aspect of Paracelsus reflects those values which are and will always be indispensable to our Christian civilization. They constitute the living heritage, which has at times been ignored, but which today, with the emergence of new intellectual currents, moves into ever brighter light and exerts ever stronger influence. We shall, however, be able to recapture its profound ultimate meaning only when this world, which has so many times been despoiled of its gods, once again rediscovers the path to its true God and His complex cosmic order.

As late as 1921, Hans Kayser, in the preface to his Paracelsus anthology (quite an excellent work of its kind), stated that the world of Paracelsus is quite alien to our time, and only rarely comes into contact with it. But today, Paracelsus has a greater message for us than he had for our fathers. This does not seem to be accidental; and if there is today increasing understanding of him, there are more cogent reasons for this than the four-hundredth anniversary of his death, in 1941. Like him, we are living in