Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim
The outstanding European (Swiss-born) physician who lived at the junction of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, an era of dissipating darkness that prefigured the Renaissance that followed, was the man known by the pseudonym Paracelsus. His real name was Philip Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim. He became famous for his revolutionary views on medicine, rejecting blind adherence to the authorities of antiquity. For this he was excommunicated from teaching and declared a fraud by his Nuremberg colleagues in the medical profession. In response to this accusation, Paracelsus offered to entrust him with the treatment of three patients who were deemed hopeless. In the city archive of Nuremberg there are documents certifying that he cured these three patients who were considered incurable, and in a fairly short time and for free – and restored his reputation. Paracelsus died suddenly and early, at the age of 48, and there is reason to believe that his death was not natural, but the result of an attack paid for by one of his jealous colleagues. During his short but very fruitful life Paracelsus managed to make a serious contribution to the development of medicine as a science, gave an understanding of man as a holistic organism, a microcosm in macrocosm, breathed new life into pharmacology.
