Paracelsus

c. 1493 – 24 September 1541

Paracelsus (c. 1493-1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and natural philosopher of the German Renaissance. He rejected the medical orthodoxy of Galen and Avicenna, pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, and is regarded as a founder of toxicology.

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Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Paracelsus.

Life events

Born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland
c. 1493

Theophrastus von Hohenheim was born in Einsiedeln in the Old Swiss Confederacy, the son of a physician, around late 1493 or 1494.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Moved with his father to Villach, Carinthia
c. 1502

After his mother's death, Paracelsus moved with his father to Villach in Austria, where his father worked as a physician and taught chemistry.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Studied medicine and reportedly received a doctorate from the University of Ferrara
c. 1516

Paracelsus studied at several universities and claimed to have earned his medical doctorate at Ferrara in Italy around 1515-1516.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Traveled widely through Europe as an itinerant physician and army surgeon
c. 1517 – c. 1524

Paracelsus wandered across Europe and beyond, serving as a military surgeon and gathering medical knowledge from folk practitioners, miners, and alchemists.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed town physician and lecturer in medicine at Basel
1527

Paracelsus became municipal physician of Basel with the right to lecture at the university, where he taught in German rather than Latin and publicly burned the standard medical texts of Avicenna.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Fled Basel after conflicts with authorities and physicians
February 1528

After a legal dispute and mounting hostility from the medical establishment, Paracelsus left Basel in haste and resumed his wandering life.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Wrote Opus Paramirum, setting out his chemical philosophy of medicine
c. 1531

Paracelsus composed the Opus Paramirum, articulating his doctrine of the three principles of salt, sulphur, and mercury as the basis of disease and cure.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published Die grosse Wundarznei, his major work on surgery
1536

The Great Surgery Book was one of the few works Paracelsus published in his lifetime and restored his fame as a medical author.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Salzburg, Austria
24 September 1541

Paracelsus died at the White Horse Inn in Salzburg at about the age of 47; the cause of his death remains uncertain.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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