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Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge

Georgiana D. Hedesan
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A01=Georgiana D. Hedesan
Anima Sensitiva
Arbor Vitae
Astronomia Magna
Aura Vitalis
Author_Georgiana D. Hedesan
baptist
Category=PDX
Category=PN
Category=QRAB
Category=QRM
christian
Dator Formarum
De Febribus
De Vita Libri Tres
Du Chesne
early modern science
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
febribus
Flemish Philosopher
Flemish Physician
Franciscus Mercurius
helmont
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II
intellectual synthesis
jan
Jan Baptist
Jan Baptist Van Helmont
medical alchemy
medicinae
medicine
natural philosophy history
ortus
Ortus Medicinae
Paracelsian tradition
philosophy
post-Scholastic alchemical philosophy
Prisca Sapientia
religious persecution Europe
Robert Halleux
Terra Tremor
Tractatus De Anima
Universal Medicine
van
Van Helmont
Volatile Salts
Weapon Salve
Young Man

Product details

  • ISBN 9781472469168
  • Weight: 500g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 06 May 2016
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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Description

History of science credits the Flemish physician, alchemist and philosopher Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1579-1644) for his contributions to the development of chemistry and medicine. Yet, as this book makes clear, focussing on Van Helmont's impact on modern science does not do justice to the complexity of his thought or to his influence on successive generations of intellectuals like Robert Boyle or Gottfried Leibniz.

Revealing Van Helmont as an original thinker who sought to produce a post-Scholastic synthesis of religion and natural philosophy, Georgiana Hedesan reconstructs his ambitious quest for universal knowledge as it emerges from the text of the Ortus medicinae (1648). Published after Van Helmont's death by his son, the work can best be understood as a compilation of finished and unfinished treatises, the historical product of a life unsettled by religious persecution and personal misfortune. The present book provides a coherent account of Van Helmont's philosophy by analysing its main tenets.

Divided into two parts, the study opens with a background to Van Helmont's concept of an alchemical Christian philosophy, demonstrating that his outlook was deeply grounded in the tradition of medical alchemy as reformed by Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493-1541). It then reconstitutes Van Helmont's biography, while giving a historical dimension to his intellectual output. The second part reconstructs Van Helmont's Christian philosophy, investigating his views on God, nature and man, as well as his applied philosophy. Hedesan also provides an account of the development of Van Helmont's thought throughout his life. The conclusion sums up Van Helmont's intellectual achievement and highlights avenues of future research.
About Georgiana D. Hedesan
Georgiana D. Hedesan is a Wellcome Trust Fellow in Medical History and Humanities at University of Oxford, working on a research project on the quest for universal medicine and radical prolongation of life in seventeenth-century alchemy (2013-2016). Prior to this, she held a short-term Cantemir Junior Fellowship at University of Oxford and a Frances A. Yates fellowship at the Warburg Institute, London. A PhD in History from University of Exeter (2012), she is the author of several articles and reviews in scholarly journals dealing with Paracelsus, Van Helmont and alchemy, including articles published in Medical History and Ambix, as well as chapters in books either published or to be published by University of Chicago Press, Ashgate and Routledge.

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