Paracelsus

Paracelsus, whose real name was Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim, was born in the last decade of the 15th century. After leaving Basel University, he studied chemistry and alchemy with Bishop Trithemius of Wiirzburg, and afterwards made practical observations in the mines of the Tyrol. After wandering all over the Continent he, in 1526, settled at Basel as town physician, having acquired a great medical reputation. In two years' time he, however, left the town, having made enemies by his personal peculiarities, as well as by lecturing in German (instead of the orthodox Latin) and by expressing contempt for Galen and other traditional medical authorities.

For the rest of his life he wandered from town to town in the south of Germany, finally settling in Salzburg, where he came to a sudden end. Numerous works were attributed to him for many years after his death, but of these only a small number are now considered genuine. His Practica was printed at Augsburg as early as 1529.