Transcript Gemma Frisius (1508

Quintessence and World-Spirit
Quercetanus’s Paracelsian Natural Philosophy
Hiro HIRAI
Chemical Heritage Foundation
[email protected]
Paracelsus (ca. 1493-1541)
Petrus Severinus (1540/42-1602)
Idea Medicinae Philosophicae (Basel, 1571)
Joseph Du Chesne alias Quercetanus (1546-1609)
“As for Paracelsus, my intention is not to defend his
theology, nor to support him in all things as if I
were forced to follow all that he said.”
Quercetanus’s Short Biography
1546
1574
0
28
1591
1603
45
1604
1609
58
57
63
born in Gascogne (France)
settled in Geneva
Theodore Zwinger’s (1533-88) circle in Basel
Theodore Birckmann’s introduction to Paracelsianism
physician to Henri IV
De priscorum philosophorum materia medicinae (Paris)
attacked anonymously by Jean Riolan (1539-1606)
Ad veritatem Hermeticae medicinae (Paris)
died
Ad veritatem Hermeticae medicinae (Paris, 1604)
2. Nature and World-Soul
First principle of the Universe = God
↓
Second principle = Nature
Universal nature
= universally diffused virtue of God
= World-Soul
= heaven
+
Particular nature
= natural things’ specific nature
having divine signature
Plato speaks of the universal nature in Timaeus
when he says: “Nature is a certain force infused
into everything, mediator and nurse and, because
of it, the principle of movement and rest is found
in things.” Hermes said almost the same thing […].
The Pythagoreans said that this force was God.
Virgil the great disciple of the Pythagoreans wrote:
“Spirit nourishes from inside.” The Platonists
called it “World-Soul.”
[The Hermeticists] add that from this soul of the
world come the forms, powers and properties of
things, by which everything is vivified and
sustained. Just as the soul and the body are united
into one thanks to a spirit as the link uniting both
sides since it belongs to the nature of both, the soul
and the body of the world are united together by
the mediating and interposing ethereal spirit.
By the World-Soul the Platonists meant a spirit,
which fosters, animates, preserves and sustains
everything, like a certain spirit of that Elohim,
which hovered over the [Biblical primordial]
waters. Since Plato [was] not of ignorant of the
story of Genesis, he could bear it in mind and
construct from it his [theory of the] World-Soul.
3. Seeds, Principles, Elements and Quintessence
3 “hypostatical” principles
=
Paracelsian 3 principles (Salt, Sulfur and Mercury)
Physical world
Superior globe (Fire + Air)
+
Inferior globe (Water + Earth)
4 elements = matrix-like receptacles of natural things
Spiritual entities
Astral seeds
↓
3 principles
↓
4 Elements
Natural beings
Invisible-Spiritual (Seeds, Principles and Elements)
+
Visible-Material (Material Vestments)
When the artist separates the bodies of these
elements and reduces them to nothing, he obtains
by the separation of the passive and material
elements the three hypostatical, formal and active
principles. Contracted into one, they form a mixed
body, which philosophers call “quintessence” or
“quartessence.” It is free of any corruption and
rich in perfection […].
Since Moses did not make any mention of fire in
Genesis, 1.1, where he teaches the Creation of all
things, we confirm the opinion of the divine
prophet more willingly than the reasoning of the
pagan philosopher. Thus we do not recognize any
other fire than the ethereal heaven […]. This
heaven must be called “fourth formal and essential
element” or “fourth essence” extracted from the
other elements. In fact the Hermeticists reject the
fifth body or the quintessence, since there are not
four elements from which the quintessence is
drawn, but only three from which the fourth
essence is extracted.
4. The Quest for the Universal Medicine
[The universal medicine] is called “quintessence”
(though we prefer to call it “quartessence”) and
“celestial stone of philosophers.” Riolan did not
have any knowledge of this [entity]. So he
misunderstood that by speaking of the stone of
philosophers, that is, this universal medicine I was
thinking of the transmutation of metals as if such a
transmutation were the highest medicine of the
human body. He did not realize that in the
microcosmic man lie hidden the mines of
imperfect metals, from which many sicknesses are
propagated. A good, pious and wise doctor must
reduce them into gold and silver, that is, into
perfect purification by virtue of that marvelous and
precious medicine […].
Creation story of Genesis in chemical terms
Concordance of Ancients (Plato and Aristotle)
+
Hermeticists = Chemical Philosophers
+
Authority of Bible (Moses and Genesis)
Key:
“Ancient theology” (Prisca theologia) and Christianization
Quintessence and World-Spirit
Quercetanus’s Paracelsian Natural Philosophy
Hiro HIRAI
[email protected]