HOME
*





Nicolas Guibert
Nicolas Guibert (c. 1547 – c. 1620) was a Franco-German physician and alchemist who later became a fierce critic of alchemy, opposing ideas on transmutation in his major work ''Alchymia ratione et experientia ita demum viriliter impugnata'' (1603) which prompted a debate. He has been called the "Copernicus of chemistry". Guibert was born in St. Nicolas-de-Port, Lorraine, in a Catholic family. He studied medicine at Perugia and travelled around Europe working briefly at various times in the service of Francesco de’ Medici, Cardinal Granvelle, and Giambattista della Porta. He then practiced medicine at Casteldurante and became a chief physician from 1578 in a papal state. He became alchemist to Otto Truchsess in Augsburg the next year. He however began to find problems in alchemy and motivated by Thomas Erastus, he published ''Alchymia ratione et experientia ita demum viriliter impugnata et expugnata'' in 1603. He began the book with the note that alchemy was neither art nor s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chrysopoeia
In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia (from Greek , ', "gold-making") refers to the artificial production of gold, most commonly by the alleged transmutation of base metals such as lead. A related term is argyropoeia (, ', "silver-making"), referring to the artificial production of silver, often by transmuting copper. Although alchemists pursued many different goals, the making of gold and silver remained one of the defining ambitions of alchemy throughout its history, from Zosimus of Panopolis (c. 300) to Robert Boyle (1627–1691). The word was used in the title of a brief alchemical work, the ''Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra'' attributed to Cleopatra the Alchemist, which was probably written in the first centuries of the Christian era, but which is first found on a single leaf in a tenth-to-eleventh century manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, MS Marciana gr. Z. 299. The document features an ouroboros containing the words "the all is one" (, '), a concept that is related to He ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism. In the early modern era, he was regarded as a wizard and particularly famed for the story of his mechanical or necromantic brazen head. He is sometimes credited (mainly since the 19th century) as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method, along with his teacher Robert Grosseteste. Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle. Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle. His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of a universal grammar, and 21st-century re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Natural Philosophers
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient world (at least since Aristotle) until the 19th century, ''natural philosophy'' was the common term for the study of physics (nature), a broad term that included botany, zoology, anthropology, and chemistry as well as what we now call physics. It was in the 19th century that the concept of science received its modern shape, with different subjects within science emerging, such as astronomy, biology, and physics. Institutions and communities devoted to science were founded. Isaac Newton's book ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'' (1687) (English: ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'') reflects the use of the term ''natural philosophy'' in the 17th century. Even in the 19th century, the work that helped define much of mo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alchemists
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.Principe, Lawrence M. The secrets of alchemy'. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 9–14. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical ''magnum opus'' ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of these ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Andreas Libavius
Andreas Libavius or Andrew Libavius was born in Halle, Germany c. 1550 and died in July 1616. Libavius was a renaissance man who spent time as a professor at the University of Jena teaching history and poetry. After which he became a physician at the Gymnasium in Rothenburg and later founded the Gymnasium at Coburg. Libavius was most known for practicing alchemy and writing a book called ''Alchemia'', one of the first chemistry textbooks ever written. Life Libavius was born in Halle, Germany, as Andreas Libau, the son of Johann Libau. His father, only a linen worker, could not give Libavius an education because in this time period only the wealthy were able to get a higher education. Showing great intelligence as a child Livavius overcame his personal status and attended the University of Whittenburg at the age of eighteen in 1578. In 1579 he entered the University of Jena where he studied philosophy, history and medicine. In 1581 he obtained the academic degree of ''magister ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Paracelsus
Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. He was a pioneer in several aspects of the " medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of toxicology". Paracelsus also had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by Rosicrucians in the 1600s. Paracelsianism is the early modern medical movement inspired by the study of his works. Biography Paracelsus was born in Egg an der Sihl, a village close to the Etzel Pass in Einsiedeln, Schwyz. He was born in a house right next to a bridge across the Sihl river (known as ''Teufelsbrücke''). The historical house, dated to the 14th century, was destroyed in 1814. The ''Restaurant Krone'' now stands in its pl ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (; ; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer. Agrippa's ''Three Books of Occult Philosophy'' published in 1533 drew heavily upon Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and neo-Platonism. His book was widely influential among occultists of the early modern period, and was condemned as heretical by the inquisitor of Cologne. Life Agrippa was born in Nettersheim, near Cologne on 14 September 1486 to a family of middle nobility.Valente, Michaela "Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius". In: ''Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism'' (Wouter J. Hanegraaff, ed.), pp. 4–8. Brill, 2006. . Many members of his family had been in the service of the House of Habsburg. Agrippa studied at the University of Cologne from 1499 to 1502, (age 13–16) when he received the degree of ''magister artium''. The University of Cologne was one of the centers of Thomism, and the faculty of art ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Arnaldus De Villa Nova
Arnaldus de Villa Nova (also called Arnau de Vilanova in Catalan, his language, Arnaldus Villanovanus, Arnaud de Ville-Neuve or Arnaldo de Villanueva, c. 1240–1311) was a physician and a religious reformer. He was also thought to be an alchemist (his house in Montpellier, France, had a carved door showing a roaring lion and dragon that bit his tail, also known as Ouroboros, both recognized alchemical symbols). The fact that several renowned alchemists recognized him as an adept reinforces the thesis that he was an alchemist. He was also, like most wise men of his time, an astrologer. He was born in the Crown of Aragon, probably Villanueva de Jiloca (Aragon) or Valencia, and he studied medicine and he also took some courses of theology. After living at the court of Aragon and teaching for many years in the Montpellier School of Medicine, he went to Paris, where he gained a considerable reputation; but he incurred the enmity of ecclesiastics. In 1311 he was summoned to Avignon b ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Saint-Nicolas-de-Port
Saint-Nicolas-de-Port () is a Communes of France, commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle ''Departments of France, département'' in north-eastern France. The town's basilica, ''Saint-Nicolas, Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, Saint Nicolas'', is a pilgrimage site, supposedly holding relics of Saint Nicholas brought from Italy. It is one of France's Monument historique, Monuments historiques, and a minor basilica since 1950. The town's inhabitants are known as ''Portois''. In the past, the ''Portois'' were known as loudmouths; their neighbours across the Meurthe (river), Meurthe at Varangéville liked to gather on the opposite river bank to bombard them with a chorus indicating a wish to defecate in their mouths: :::''Booyaî d'Senn 'Colais,'' :::''Tend tet ghieule quand je...'' which in the local Lorrain language, Lorrain dialect means: :::Loudmouths of St Nicks, :::Open your gob when I'm taking a...Graham Robb, ''The Discovery of France'', p37, Picador (2007), , citing Vital Collet "Sobriquets c ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Thomas Erastus
Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians should be punished by the State, and that the Church should not withhold sacraments as a form of punishment. They were published in 1589, after his death, with the title . His name was later applied to Erastianism. Biography He was born of poor parents on 7 September 1524, probably at Baden, canton of Aargau, Switzerland. In 1540 he was studying theology at the University of Basel. The plague of 1544 drove him to the University of Bologna and from there to the University of Padua as student of philosophy and medicine. In 1553 he became physician to the count of Henneberg, Saxe-Meiningen, and in 1558 held the same post with the elector-palatine, Otto Heinrich, being at the same time professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. His ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Otto Truchsess Von Waldburg
Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (25 February 1514 – 2 April 1573) was Prince-Bishop of Augsburg from 1543 until his death and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. Childhood and Education Otto was born at Scheer Castle to the Swabian noble House of Waldburg, which, for their support in the German Peasants' War was vested with the title of a hereditary Imperial Seneschal (''Truchsess'') by Emperor Charles V in 1526. Designated for an ecclesiastical career, he studied at the Universities of Tübingen, Dole, Padua, Bologna, where he received his degree of Doctor of Theology in 1534, and Pavia. He was a fellow student of Cristoforo Madruzzo, Stanislaus Hosius and Viglius van Zwichem. At an early age he had received canonries at Trent, Speyer, and Augsburg. In 1541 he was appointed Imperial councillor and acted as a strong advocate of the Catholic faith against the Protestant Reformation at the 1542 Reichstag of Speyer. Thereafter, while on an embassy to Rome, was made a papal chamberla ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]