The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science - Softcover

Ball, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099457873 ISBN 13: 9780099457879

Publisher: Arrow, 2007

Synopsis

Philip Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim - known to later ages as Paracelsus - stands on the borderline between medieval and modern; a name that is familiar but a man who has been hard to perceive or understand. Contemporary of Luther, enemy of established medicine, scourge of the universities ('at all the German schools you cannot learn as much as at the Frankfurt Fair'), army surgeon and alchemist, myths about him - from his treating diseases from beyond the grave in mid-nineteenth century Salzburg to his Faustian bargain with the devil to regain his youth - have been far more lasting than his actual story. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to travel with a magical white horse and to store the elixir of life in the pommel of his sword.

But who was Paracelsus and what did he really believe and practice? Although Paracelsus has been seen as both a charlatan and as a founder of modern science, Philip Ball's book reveals a more richly complex man - who used his eyes and ears to learn from nature how to heal, and who wrote influential books on medicine, surgery, alchemy and theology while living a drunken, combative, vagabond life. Above all, Ball reveals a man who was a product of his time - an age of great change in which the church was divided and the classics were rediscovered - and whose bringing together of the seemingly diverse disciplines of alchemy and biology signalled the beginning of the age of rationalism.

About this title

About the Author

Philip Ball writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and worked for many years as an editor for physical sciences at Nature. His books cover a wide range of scientific and cultural phenomena, and include Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another (winner of the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books), The Music Instinct, Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything, Serving The Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Science Under Hitler and Invisible: The History of the Unseen from Plato to Particle Physics.

From the Back Cover

This biography is a study of a culture as well as of a man, and in analysing the life and thought of Paracelsus, Ball brings to light a largely forgotten phase of human understanding. It is a considerable achievement. Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'Ball s book charts the social and cultural ferment in which [Paracelsus] lived, supplying brief histories of astrology, merchant banking, humanism, the Protestant reformation, syphilis, and a dozen other topics, and introducing an enormous cast of savants, quacks, sorcerers, prophets and illuminati Brilliant This prodigiously learned volume can only reinforce Ball s reputation as one of our most versatile and gripping science writers. John Carey, Sunday Times

'Stirring and fascinating reading... Compelling and intriguing stuff... This is a remarkable piece of work, entertaining and edifying in a way in which so few biographies are.' Niall Griffiths, Daily Telegraph

Ball tells his story with both a wonderful affection for his protagonist and a dry wit about him Admirable Sam Leith, Spectator

'[A] wonderfully rich biography... Ball does an excellent job of...recreating this strange and wonderful age.' Guardian

Excellent... Ball s account of this semi-mythical and little-known figure is a pleasure to read, combining a page-turning narrative with brief histories of Renaissance magic, medicine and religious upheaval Fascinating. Independent on Sunday

Edition details

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099457873
• ISBN 13: 9780099457879
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448