Paracelsian Moments: Science, Medicine, and Astrology in Early Modern Europe.

Gerhild Scholz Williams and Charles D. Gunnoe, Jr., eds. Paracelsian Moments: Science, Medicine, and Astrology in Early Modern Europe.

Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2002. xxii + 274 pp. index. illus. bibl. $44.95 (cl), $34.95 (pbk). ISBN: 1-931112-12-6 (cl), 1-931112-11-8 (pbk).

Whenever we come across references to Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, more commonly known as Paracelsus, we usually see words such as "mysterious," "enigmatic," or even "strange" associated with his name, despite the attention that he and his ideas have received in recent years. Thanks to the efforts of Gerhild Scholz Williams and Charles D. Gunnoe, Jr., their edited collection of essays, Paracelsian Moments: Science, Medicine, and Astrology in Early Modern Europe, brings a great deal of context and clarity to the man and his work.

Charles Gunnoe considers Paracelsus through the work of one of his critics, the sixteenth-century physician Thomas Erastus. Erastus is notable to non-specialists for his advocacy of state control over the church. However, Erastus was also an opponent of Paracelsus, and in his essay Gunnoe assesses the historical validity of the attacks Erastus leveled at the unconventional physician. Gunnoe concludes that, although Erastus was selective in his sources, as biased as his perception was, it had an historical authority. Continuing the exploration of Paracelsian and anti-Paracelsian rhetoric and sentiments, Mitchell Hammond approaches the issue socially through a study of Augsburg and examines precisely who found Paracelsian methods appealing. Hammond concludes that despite its negative associations, Paracelsian ideas were being transmitted through the most significant cities of the empire and that patients, not academic physicians, were often the conduit of Paracelsianism. Jole Shackelford learnedly considers the reception of Paracelsianism in another intellectual center of Europe: Denmark. Shackelford assigns himself the daunting task of defining Paracelsian principles and then assesses their reception, arguing that two influential professors of medicine, Caspar Bartholin and Ole Worm, rejected it. Lynda Payne continues the discussion of medicine and its context in yet another setting: Tudor London. Turning to both textual and visual evidence, Payne tells a compelling story of how the establishment of the Barber-Surgeons' Company of London in 1540 effected a reformation in medicine that influenced how surgeons interacted with patients.

Hildegard Elisabeth Keller begins a series of essays that address the theological and spiritual aspects of Paracelsian thought. Keller argues that Paracelsus proposed "a particularly independent worldview" of seeing that led him to a gendered view of the universe: males and females had separate microcosms; however, both operated in relation to the macrocosm. For Paracelsus, seeing had a theological goal. Seeing revealed God's secrets to the physician, and in that way God was praised. Dane Thor Daniel illustrates the deep connections Paracelsus saw between his religious philosophy, his anthropology, and his natural philosophy through an examination of the sacrament of baptism. The theological relationship between baptism and Paracelsianism is convincing and Daniel is quite right to note it is a promising direction of further study. In a chronologically ambitious essay, Heinz Schott illustrates that the imagination and even magnetic qualities in Paracelsus prefigured the "animal magnetism" described by the nineteenth-century figure Franz Anton Mesmer. Schott argues that magnetism was "a vector for imagination" in Paracelsianism. Imagination for Paracelsus was essentially "belief," and belief in the curative methods of the Paracelsian physician was part of a magnetic transformative process.

The second half of the book is devoted to natural magic and wonders not necessarily related directly to Paracelsianism. Sheila Rabin presents a subtle argument that although Pico della Mirandola accepted natural or "true astrology" in the 900 Theses, in his later Disputations he no longer made distinctions between judicial astrology--which he had always rejected--and natural astrology. In the Disputations, that distinction collapsed and Pico rejected astrology itself, believing all of it judicial. Rabelais made even more careful distinctions of astrology. Dene Scoggins argues that as a physician Rabelais believed that stars influenced humans, but he ridiculed astrologers who predicted events and, of course, those who believed them. Michael Walton considers how Robert Boyle's corpuscularism was conditioned by his study of Genesis in the original Hebrew. Boyle was a skilled Hebraist and Walton shows how Boyle's familiarity with the Hebrew language and its literature shaped his natural philosophy. As far-reaching as Boyle's insights were, Walton convincingly reminds us that, ultimately, Boyle's natural philosophy had a theological purpose.

Gerhild Scholz Williams brings us into the world of the late-seventeenth-century German poet, Johannes Praetorius, a world of marvels, demons, and, in this essay especially, giants. Williams demonstrates how Praetorius turned to topography, history, and mythology to demonstrate the truth and validity of giants.

The boldest essay is Stuart Clark's consideration of vision. Clark compares our ability to create a computer-generated virtual reality with early modern perceptions of vision. Clark considers the dynamic understanding of vision in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, appreciating the role of sight and vision in the Protestant Reformation and the reliability and uncertain role of sight in witch accusations.

Although the index is excellent and the volume is handsomely bound, there is one irritating aspect of its production. The contributors are not identified, and this omission needs to be noted. The contributors deserve to be recognized and their institutions and affiliations deserve to let readers know how fortunate they are to have them. Williams and Gunnoe have assembled an international cadre of both senior and younger scholars and all of them deserve to be recognized clearly.

The title of the volume is particularly appropriate because all of these essays address Paracelsus only momentarily. The editors and contributors are to be commended for addressing narrowly defined topics and beginning a discussion of larger, broader themes: historical authority and validity, early modern perceptions of reality and certainty. Although many of these essays will invite debate, this volume is a notable accomplishment.

BRUCE JANACEK

North Central College