Didier Kahn

Didier Kahn (* 1960 ) is a French historian of science who deals specifically with the early chemistry, alchemy and pharmacy of the Paracelsus successor.

Kahn received his PhD from the University of Paris IV in 1998 and does research for the CNRS .

With his dissertation (Thèse de Doctorat) from 1998 (abridged and edited, published 2007), Kahn delivered a significant study of the distribution of Paracelsus followers ( iatrochemistry ) in France in the early modern period. This was accompanied by a dispute between the Paris Medical Faculty (supporters of Galen's classical medical teaching ) and the Paracelsians , which stretched from 1567 to the 17th century . Prominent Paracelsians in France were Joseph Duchesne (Quercetanus) and Théodore Turquet de Mayerne , both of whom were convicted by the Paris faculty. Kahn also clarified the Rosicrucian affair in Paris in 1623/24 as a joke by Étienne Chaume and his young friends: they posted advertisements in Paris for an RC brotherhood that was supposed to give its followers magical powers, which at the time caused a sensation and was a danger for who was responsible (Chaume had to flee).

He also researched the myth of Nicolas Flamel as an alchemist.

Fonts

• Alchimie et Paracelsisme en France à la fin de la Renaissance (1567-1625). Librairie Droz, 2007 (dissertation)
• Contributions in Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemy. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998
• Editor with Sylvain Matton: Alchimie, art, histoire et mythes: actes du 1er Colloque international de la Société d'étude de l'histoire de l'alchimie, Paris, Collège de France, 14-16 March 1991, Paris, Milan, Textes et Travaux de Chrysopeia 1, 1995
• Editor with Miguel Lopez Perez, Mar Rey Bueno: Chymia: science and nature in medieval and early modern Europe, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Cambridge Scholars 2010

Web links

• Didier Kahn, Un bref parcours d'histoire de l'alchimie, ENS, 2009, audio

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kahn also published The rosicrucian hoax in France (1623–1624) , in: Anthony Grafton , William Newman (ed.) Secrets of Nature, MIT Press 2001.
2. ↑ Review by William Newman, Renaissance Quarterly ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .