Selected writings

366 Pages·1951·109.76 MB·English

by  Paracelsus

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PARACELSUS
SELECTED WRITINGS
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOLANDE JACOBI
TRANSLATED BY NORBERT GUTERMAN
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.)
First PrincetoniBollingen Paperback printing, 1988
This volume is the twenty-eighth in a series of books
sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation
Originally published in German as
Theophrastus ParaceJsus: Lebendiges Erbe,
by Rascher Verlag. Zurich, 1942.
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet
the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee
on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton Academic Press
Fourth paperback printing, and first printing in the Mythos series, 1995
798
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations Ix
Foreword to the English Edition, by C. G. Jung xxi
Preface uv
Note on the Section Ornaments xxxv
Paracelsus: His Life and His Work xxxvii
PARACELSUS: SELECTED WRITINGS
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 2S
Woman: Tree of Life 27
Seed and Fruit SS
Man and Woman S5
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
v
CONTENTS
The Merciful Physician ffT
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 WORD 99
Toil, a Divine Commandment 100
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 ETmCS 157
Knowledge and Faith 161
Truth and Falsehood 1ffT
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
vi
CONTENTS
VII. GoD, THE ETERNAL LICHT
Key to Sources 235
Glossary 245
Bibliography 267
lndeus 281
vii

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, six
teenth century. The likeness is from an engraving by Au
gustin Hirschvogel. (Graphic Collection, Central Library,
Zurich. ) - xxiii
2. Paracelsus. Detail from title-page of Crollius, Basilica chy-
mica (op. cit. for fig. 6). - xxxvii
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.) - xli
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. - xlix
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.) - 9
6. A Group of Great Alchemists and Physicians: (reading
down, left) Hermes Trismegistus, Morienus Romanus, and
Raimundus Lullus; (right) Geber OAbir), Roger Bacon,
and Paracelsus. Title-page of Basilica chymica, by Oswald
Crollius (d. 1609), physician and alchemist. Frankfurt, 1629.
(Graphic Collection, Central Library, Zurich.) -10
ix