Introduction Pseudo-Paracelsus: Forgery and Early Modern Alchemy, Medicine and Natural Philosophy

What is it about?

The Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493/94–1541) is best known for his criticism of traditional university learning and for his reform of natural philosophy and medicine. The production of forgeries under his name was an integral part of the diffusion of the Paracelsian movement in early modern Europe. Many of those forgeries were widely read and highly influential, not only in medicine and “chymistry” (alchemy/chemistry) but also in cosmology, anthropology and theology. Especially since the 1570s, texts endowed with a strong flavor of alchemy and occult philosophy appeared in the international book market. Very few readers of the time could distinguish between the genuine and the inauthentic works of Paracelsus amid the flood of publications. This mixture of real and fake contributed much to the emergence of his legendary image as the patron of alchemy and occult philosophy.

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