Johann Chrysostom Magnenus

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Democritus reviviscens 1646

Johann Chrysostom Magnenus , actually Jean Chrysostome Magnen , (* around 1590 in Luxeuil , Burgundy , † around 1679) was a French doctor who worked in Italy and wrote an early book on atomism .

Life

Magnen studied at the University of Dole and received his doctorate there. He then went to Italy, where in 1646 he became professor of medicine and later additionally philosophy at the University of Pavia . He also practiced as a doctor. Pavia belonged to the Duchy of Milan and he had high-ranking patients in Milan such as the Archbishop and the Senate President. In 1660 he became the personal physician of the Count of Fuensaldagne, who was ambassador to Paris, where Magnen accompanied him at times.

In 1646 he published a book on the atomic theory according to Democritus . It was influential on Robert Boyle, for example . At the same time as Magnen, Pierre Gassendi was rediscovering atomistic theory in France. According to Magnen, matter, like Democritus, was made up of indivisible atoms, which differed depending on the element (in which he distinguished fire, water, earth, air was not an element for him, but a medium for the effect of others and also prevented a vacuum) in Differentiate between size and shape. He rejected the materia prima , according to him, elements could not be converted into one another, but retained their identity with chemical compounds. Unlike Democritus, he rejected the existence of a vacuum. He also stuck to the forms of Aristotelian natural philosophy and assumed a natural tendency for atoms to unite in compounds. In this he differed, for example, from the atomic theories of Boyle or Gassendi.

He also wrote a book on tobacco.

Fonts

  • Democritvs reviviscens sive de atomis. Addita est vita Democriti, Pavia 1646, Leiden 1648, London / Den Haag 1658 (the book was dedicated to the Senate of Milan)
  • De tabaco exercitationes quatuordecim, Pavia 1648, Pavia / Den Haag 1658
  • De manna liber singularis, Pavia 1648, Pavia / Den Haag 1658

literature

  • Martin Fichman: Magnenus, Johann Chrysostom, Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  • J. Güsgens: The natural philosophy of Johannes Chrysostomos Magnenus, Bonn, 1910 (= dissertation)
  • Friedrich Ueberweg: Outline of the History of Philosophy, Volume 3, Berlin 1924, pp. 171-174

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life data according to the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. According to Güsgens, however, born around 1600 and died around 1660.
personal data
SURNAME Magnenus, Johann Chrysostom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magnenus, Johann Chrysostomos; Magnen, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxeuil
DATE OF DEATH around 1679