Adam von Bodenstein

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Adam von Bodenstein (* 1528 in Kemberg near Wittenberg ; † February 1577 in Basel ) was a German doctor and alchemist . He is considered an important Upper Rhine Paracelsist in the 16th century.

Live and act

He was born as the son of the theologian Andreas Bodenstein from Karlstadt and his wife Anna von Mochau (* approx. 1507) from Seegrehna . He had four brothers Johannes (* 1523), Daniel (* 1539), Küngold (* 1573) and Jakob as well as a sister Gertrud. He was married to Esther von Bodenstein (1547–1564), née Wyss; both had a daughter Salome Schwartz, née von Bodenstein (born January 15, 1551). In his second marriage he was married to Maria Jacobea Schenck zu Schweinsberg (1565-1618), who came from Sinnershausen near Meiningen and whose brothers he was acquainted with. One of the brothers gave him a farm near Basel, which he neglected, so that in 1576 his brother-in-law complained to the Basel council.

Adam Bodenstein grew up in Basel. His father probably also sent him to study with Heinrich Bullinger in Zurich (1541). In Basel he came into contact with medicine through the doctor Joseph Stöckle. He studied at the university (enrolled in 1537, Baccalaureus in 1546, Magister artium in 1548), in Freiburg, Leipzig and Mainz and received his doctorate in medicine in Ferrara in 1550. In 1551 he was in Vienna. From 1553 he served the Count Palatine Ottheinrich , who was interested in science and philosophy and built one of the most important libraries of the time ( Bibliotheca Palatina ), as an innate servant for matters relating to medicine and philosophy. The Count Palatine and Elector was also the godfather of his first son. A stay in Neuburg an der Donau with Adolph Hermann Riedesel and in Alzey can be proven. In Neuburg he also studied the Paracelsus estate located there. In the service of the Count Palatine he translated and explained the Occulta Philosophia by Agrippa von Nettesheim (the work is lost). Around 1556 in Basel (where he returned that year) he was cured of an illness by a Paracelsian medicine, began to study alchemy (using a distiller in the practice ) and became a follower of the teachings of Paracelsus (ab 1559). In 1558 he was admitted to the Consilium facultatis medicae of the university in Basel . In the same year he was in Bolzano. In Basel he was on the side of the Calvinists (he was a supporter of Théodore de Bèze ) in religious disputes and was an opponent of more liberal currents around Sebastian Castellio . He was often at the Frankfurt fair, where he also treated some of the high nobility who visited them. Because he edited numerous Paracelsus writings "one know" of the Basel medical faculty and since he, as a Paracelsus supporter, opposed the medical teaching that was also prevalent in Basel, he was excluded from "Facultet and Consilio" at the end of January 1564. In 1566 he was at the Reichstag in Augsburg and tried to gain influence on Emperor Maximilian with the Paracelsist Michael Toxites . At that time both were considered the main representatives of the Paracelsists.

In 1572 he is mentioned as a citizen of Basel (before he was only a citizen of Basel until 1564) and as lord of the castle of Pratteln . In 1572/73 the French ambassador Pierre de Grantrye led a lawsuit against Bodenstein for fraudulent gold-making (he also experimented with Grantrye and received gold and silver from this for alchemical experiments). He is said to have conjured up a spirit according to how Bodenstein stated one of the Paracelsian writings (a Coelestis philosophia ). In the process, Gerhard Dorn appeared against Bodenstein.

Initially he published as a traditional galenist , also publishing astrological medical literature. In 1577 he published Prognostika (predictions) by Lucas Gauricus in German translation. Before he turned to Paracelsus, he also published in the sense of older alchemy (Search for the Philosopher's Stone, 1559, introduction to one of Arnaldus de Villanova's alchemical writings). As the leading head of early German Paracelsism, Adam Bodenstein published over forty Paracelsian writings from 1560, which contributed significantly to the emergence and further development of Paracelsism. His editions do poorly even under contemporary standards, but with the Paracelsus editions by Gerhard Dorn and Michael Toxites, they significantly promoted the dissemination of Paracelsus' teachings. Dorn and Toxites (whom he taught in Paracelsian medicine) visited him in Basel and Georg Forberger also met him in Basel, to whom he also made writings available that he used in his Paracelsus edition by Pietro Perna . He also had contacts with the Paracelsist Leonhard Thurneysser and the Paracelsus editor Johann Huser was probably influenced by him when he was studying in Basel in the 1560s.

In addition, he published in medicine on gout (Podagra) and, in addition to the Paracelsus writings, later only a philosophical advice on combating plague (1577).

He died of the plague in Basel in February 1577 . This had already raged in Basel in 1564, where his wife and many of his children fell victim to her at that time (he himself moved to Frankfurt am Main at the time). His former opponent Theodor Zwinger the Elder wrote the funeral motto , who had meanwhile turned into a Paracelsist and in it praised Bodenstein as the first, most loyal and best interpreter and translator.

Bodenstein published a dictionary to explain the writings of Paracelsus ( Onomasticon Paracelsicum , Strasbourg 1566, revised new edition Basel 1575)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Kühlmann, Joachim Telle, Der Frühparacelsismus, De Gruyter 2013, Volume 1, p. 104ff
  2. ^ Hans Ulrich Bächtold: Karlstadt. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ↑ Carlos Gilly, Bodenstein article in Hist. Lexicon of Switzerland
  4. ↑ Kühlmann, Telle, Frühparacelsismus, Volume 1, p. 107
  5. ↑ Adam von Bodenstein: Onomasticon, Auslegunge heymlicher Paracelsischer words. In: Paracelsus: Opus chyrurgicum. Strasbourg 1566

6. Adam von Bodenstein: The most highly experienced Medici Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi rob Schreyben of the sick as much as his S. Veyts Thantz, falling sick days, melancholia and nonsense tc. sampt him warhafften curen. Basel, si 1567

personal data
SURNAME Bodenstein, Adam von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 1528
PLACE OF BIRTH Kemberg
DATE OF DEATH February 1577
Place of death Basel