The devil's doctor
by Philip Ball · first published 2006
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100% recommend
"Philip Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim - known to later ages as Paracelsus - stands on the borderline between medieval and modern; a name that is familiar but a man who has been hard to perceive or understand." "But who was Paracelsus and what did he really believe and practice? He has been seen both as a charlatan and as a founder of modern science, but Philip Ball's book reveals a more complex man - who used his eyes and ears to learn from nature how to heal, and who wrote influential books on medicine, surgery, alchemy and theology while living a drunken, combative, vagabond
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Correct. No self-respecting "doctor" wanted anything to do with the messy business of surgery. I found The Devil's Doctor by Philip Ball to be an interesting book on this sort of thing.
on “Killer Rabbits in Medieval Manuscripts” ↗The science writer Philip Ball wrote an interesting biography of Paracelsus and his world view "The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science" that is worth a read if you are interested.
on “Paracelsus: Revolutionary or Mystic?” ↗