LE PAULMIER, Pierre.

by Pierre Le Paulmier

£2,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

A very good copy of the second edition of this fascinating chemical and medical work très rare (Caillet). Pierre Le Paulmier (Palmerius, b.1568) was nephew of Julien, physician to Charles IX. After studying at Paris and qualifying in 1596, he worked as a physician at the H√¥pital H√¥tel-Dieu. In 1603, he was summoned to the Faculty of Medicine to defend himself for proposing that apothecaries should be taught Paracelsian spagyric chemistry, the separation and re-assembling of the fundamental elements of bodies (Kahn, 360). First published in 1608, Lapis philosophicus worsened his ambivalent reputation as a supporter of the Faculty s Hippocratic and Galenic doctrines and an advocate of chemical medicines, according to Paracelsianism. Whilst believing that health depended on the harmony of the micro- and macrocosm, Paracelsus upheld that physicians should have sound knowledge of chemistry and the natural sciences, pioneering the use of chemical substances and minerals for treating illnesses. Through an attack on his disciple Libavius, Lapis sought to compromise between the ancient tradition and Paracelsianism, by celebrating the first whilst preserving the valuable parts of the second ( true alchemy , or chemistry) which, he argued, Libavius and Paracelsus had nevertheless misunderstood. It begins with an account of Paracelsus s ideas, and reasons to reject them, Libavius s Paracelsianism in relation to the Greek tradition, the nature and chemistry of medicaments, chemic

• Binding: Hardcover

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