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Use and Abuse of Prisca Medicina: Petrus Severinus (1571) vs Andreas Libavius (1599)

par Moreau, Elisabeth
Référence 6th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) (4-6/09/2014: Lisbon, Portugal)
Publication Non publié, 2014

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

Focused on early modern alchemy and medicine, this paper examines the common alchemical rhetoric of two intellectually divergent authors: Danish physician Peder Sørensen or Severinus (1540-1602) and German physician Andreas Libau or Libavius (1555-1616). Both chymists received a medical education in European universities, where they were trained in Aristotelian and Galenic natural philosophy. Expressing a major interest in alchemy, they are both known in the historiography of early modern science for their contribution to the diffusion of alchemical ideas in the late Renaissance. On the one hand, Severinus's Idea medicinae philosophicae fundamenta (Basel, 1571) is a seminal treatise for the circulation of Paracelsian iatrochemistry in the early modern period. On the other hand, Libavius's medical treatises, such as De novus medicina veterum tam Hippocratica quam Hermetica tractatus (Frankfurt, 1599), are characterized by an anti-Paracelsian polemical tone, in the context of the academic controversy between Galenists and Paracelsians. Based on previous studies on Severinus and Libavius, respectively by Jole Shakelford (2004) and Bruce Moran (2007), this paper will survey the common rhetorical strategy of both chymists, intending to discredit the rival philosophy and support the recovery of a prisca medicina. Indeed, Severinus and Libavius resorted to the ideal of a primordial medical wisdom connected to chymical knowledge, and then spoiled by the mistakes of confused "modern" physicians. Both authors integrated this chymical topos into their antithetic appraisal of ancient and medieval debates on the ultimate constituents of the living body. First, the paper will compare their respective account of the genealogy and circumstances of the prisca medicina, rooted in ancient Greek and Arabic culture. Second, it will explore their particular criticism of the concurrent medical philosophy, as related to the Aristotelian four elements, the Galenic qualities, and the Paracelsian tria prima within the human body.