CONFESIONES DE LA MARIPOSA NEGRA

Alongside the speculative tendencies of the Paracelsists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is a more pragmatic feature, in which the positive or even polemical aspects emerge more clearly. There are evident attempts at a synthesis, though it does not seem possible to assign

the individual representatives clearly to particular positions in each instance. Numerous

sixteenth-century authors were already making efforts to arrive at a theoretical balance between the Galenists and the Paracelsists, for example, Daniel Sennert ( 1572-1637) in his work De chymicorum cum Aristotelicis et Galenicis consensu et dissensu (On agreements and

disagreements of chemists with Aristotelians and Galenians); this was done above all by Johann Baptist van Helmont ( 1577-1644), deliberately taking forward the thought of Paracelsus. Certainly there are still clear echoes of Hohenheim's basic concepts and alms in van Helmont's vitalistic pathology, and he also makes use of Paracelsian medical material in his prescriptions. Nevertheless, here we are already in a transitional period between the chemiatric trend and that iatrochemical trend which was very soon represented in exemplary form by Franz de la Boë, called Sylvius ( 1644-1672). Here at a very early stage -with the application of chemical-physical methods to biology and pathology -- there developed a humoral pathology on a fermentative basis. But on all sides Paracelsus served as key witness, though hardly with Justification, for this "new chemistry," which developed a "chemical philosophy" from simple "alchemy." 19

As early as the seventeenth century the Arab physician Ibn Sallum could write a medical book, Gāyat al-itqān, in which he evaluated the "new chemistry" of Paracelsus. In it, after a general explanation of alchemy, we read: "But then came the German Paracelsus; he gave the art of chemistry a new aim and made it part of the art of medicine and in Latin called it Spagyria. That means 'collection and distribution of the differences.' This expression specifically applies to the art of chemical medicine." 20 _{"Barakalsus" is here already praised as "the supreme master of the}

new chemical medicine."

The purpose of the universal medicine that is of interest to us here is -172-

described by Johann Friedrich Helvetius, an alchemist of the seventeenth century, in an artistic dialogue between an Elias Artista and the Medicus. The question is why most people must prematurely "go from the most sweet light of this realm into the dark earth of the dying," and whether there is no means of "restoring health to the mortal body of man" and thus preserving life "to the fatal terminus," that is, death.

Here the alchemist praises the physician for that "medicinal nectar" which no "Galenic cure" and no "Paracelsian tincture" is in a position to provide. However, the medicus cannot believe in such a universal medicine because he is too well aware of the elementary structure of the organism and the four temperaments which derive from it, which determine all disease and therefore change every cure. Moreover, in any medical intervention one has to take account of a person's age, sex, particular constitution and disposition, "and many other circumstances," which all in turn must surpass the "effect of the universal medicine, however miraculous."

Over against this popular view of the physicians, the alchemist Elias can refer to the distinctive modus operandi of this universal medicine and the great difference between it and "particular medicament," which merely affects elements and temperaments. By contrast the "universal medicine" renews the nobler spiritus vitales, not the banal composition of juices; it is therefore in a special harmony and sympathy with the totality of the body, that integritas which in turn is none other than a picture of health. Now with the refreshing of the spirits of life the health which has been suppressed is again revived: therefore universal medicine is "the most splendid

In 1582 a tractate Pandora appeared from Samuel Apiario in Basel with this subtitle:

That is the noblest gift of God, or the precious and wholesome philosophers' stone with which the philosophers of old including Theophrastus Paracelsus improved the base metals through the power of fire; and drove out all kind of damaging and unwholesome diseases, internal and external. A golden treasure, which has been saved from destruction, and is of use to all men, primarily the lovers of Paracelsian physic. 21

Similarly, the Arcana Paracelsi are described in the Rosarium novum olympicum et benedictum of Benedictus Figulus ( Basel, 1608) under the title De lapide philosophorum ( On the

Philosophers' Stone) (p. 23).

The pragmatic way in which the alchemical procedures of the Paracelsists are dealt with here can be demonstrated pragmatically by means of a further basic concept, the use of magiaand magica. To the question What is magic? the following succinct answer is given: "It is that which can bring

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heavenly power into the medium and perform its operation in the same. The medium is the center, the center is man" ( XII, 122). In this way, for example, it becomes possible to "introduce the vires of the firmament into man!"

Only "magic" teaches us that God does not want anything to remain hidden or secret. Rather, all things in nature are to become manifest and capable of being experienced ( XII, 123). "Therefore so must magic be because of revelation." It alone reveals nature. "Many people judge the magic art and speak of it as a drunken and full dream, that is, they recognize its own deception and error. Who will follow them? Magic is a splendid thing and great in its works" ( XII, 131). So anyone who wants to be "a medicus and an Apollo" cannot be taught by men ( XII, 191). "For magic is only to be understood as a supreme physic, which acts only from the firmament and in the firmament, whether naturally or supernaturally" ( XII, 135).

There seems to me to be a clear reference here to the Paracelsism that diverges from Paracelsus in the mention of the natural and supernatural firmament, of a tellurian and a celestial body, of the two lights of nature, and of an opus magnum, which ultimately seeks to fight for the

liberation of the soul from its body. This picture certainly preserves the basic cosmological idea, but the theories of sympathy and antipathy in the universe are already being interpreted in the most varied ways. The criticism of Galen's humoral pathology is developed further; here on the one hand there are closer approximations to localized concepts, prompted by the theory of the three principles, and on the other hand far-reaching functionalistic dynamic consequences, floated by the Archaeus principle. It may be significant that a trend toward the pragmatic use of medical knowledge was connected with this. This is suggested not only by improvements in technological procedures and thus the effective exploitation of the materia medica, but also by application in individual therapeutic spheres, for example, in venereal diseases. This can clearly be seen in Joseph Duchesne (Quercetanus) De Signaturis Rerum ( 1613).

Marsilio Ficino is also in line with this iatromagical concept; he interprets magia naturalis as the art of knowing the properties of natural things and making use of them in medicine or manticism. For Agrippa of Nettesheim in this sense magicians become naturae accuratissime exploratores: magic is a partial sphere of philosophia naturalis. 22

Finally, with Oswald Croll Basilica chymica ( 1609) we have an early standard work of chemiatry that was constantly supplemented and deepened. With reference to Paracelsus it stresses that all prescriptions must be tested "through fire," that is, experimentally. Oswald Croll (ca. 1560-ca.

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1609) finally worked at the court of the emperor Rudolf 11 in Prague, where he wrote his Basilica chymica, a comprehensive textbook and handbook. The first part acknowledges the principles of Paracelsian medicine; the second part gives prescriptions; and the third part is a developed theory of signatures based on Hohenheim.

The new direction is clearer in Johannes Hartmann ( 1568-1631), professor of rhetoric and mathematics in Marburg, where in 1611 he was given the first chair of "chymiatry" and created a practical laboratory for the young doctors. His Praxis chymiatrica appeared in 1633, and in 1634 he wrote a commentary on Croll's Basilica chymica, thus making it for the first time a standard work of chemical prescriptions.

Then with the seventeenth century there began a deep conceptual distinction between the "cosmos" as the vision of an ordered totality and the "world" (mundus) as a universe to be experienced. Finally, in Francis BaconNovum organum the experiment, as a "deliberate experience," is clearly distinguished from any chance empirical observations; however, the guideline in the construction of the new experiential knowledge still remains nature with its purposeful action. Even in Vico the greater effectiveness of human nature is seen in this magia naturalis, a many-layered matrix of human designs, and thus the central focus of human formation, the field of all culture.