Cornelius Agrippa was a Freifechter

[bigdummy]

http://www.hroarr.com/heinrich-corneliu ... eyfechter/

G

[Oli Barker]

Cool - between him and Paracelsus, HEMA really has the Germanic occultist thing down. Maybe Tobler has the right idea…

[bigdummy]

Fill me in a Paracelsus, he was a fencer too?

BD

[Oli Barker]

He rather famously kept a sword close to hand, which was rumoured to have a familiar spirit in the pommel. I also have dim, beer-fogged memories of a conversation with Matt Galas in which he told me about references to fencing in some of Paracelsus' writings.

[bigdummy]

Ok cool thanks I'll have to ask him.

BD

[Ulrich von L...n]

About Paracelsus and fencing:

paracelsus.png (18.52 KiB) Viewed 861 times

The only serious problem is the author's name: H. P. Blavatsky
The Theosophist October 1886 to April 1887 by H. P. Blavatsky, Paracelsus and His Work, page 261

http://books.google.hu/books?id=WcqKzRY ... rd&f=false

[bigdummy]

Ah... madam Blavatsky..

[Oli Barker]

Yes, not exactly a reliable source. I'm pretty sure Matt was using someone more reputable.

[Paul B]

Whenever I read the thread title, I can't help thinking it reads like some defamatory remark written in impeccable handwriting above a urinal in the Kings College dorms.

Next to a drawing of a knob.

[bigdummy]

hahahaha

[Ulrich von L...n]

Paracelsus:

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para_122_a.png (28.22 KiB) Viewed 804 times

From Picture Museum of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy by Emile Grillot Degivry

[Ulrich von L...n]

From the above book:
"It was equally believed that Paracelsus had a demon shut up in the crystal pommel of his famous sword; various authorities assert that Azoth was the name of the creature. A work by Paracelsus, Astronomica et astrologica opuscula, contains a very curious woodcut portrait of the author, engraved by Augustin Hirschvogel; this does actually show Paracelsus with his hand on the pommel of his sword and the word (A)zoth written on the pommel (Fig. 89). From a perusal of his works, however - his Liber Azoth among others - it is easy to ascertain that Azoth was not a demon at all, and that Paracelsus used the word to designate the Vital Mercury."

Some additional portraits of Paracelsus (many with a sword):
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/paracelsus_portraits.html

[Ulrich von L...n]

http://www.humanehealthcare.com/Article.asp?art_id=474
A Journal of the Art and Science of Medicine

PARACELSUS: Physician, Alchemist, Healer (1493-1541)
Robert J. Weil, MD, FRCPC

"Paracelsus' personality was shaped by his physical appearance, an awareness of his father's illegitimate origin, his mother's mental illness and her tragic death, as well as the upheavals of his time. He was slightly built, barely 5 feet tall. His upper lip was short and did not quite cover his teeth. He was unhealthy in appearance and from an early age was almost totally bald. He was a restless, nervous man, easily aroused to violent temper."

"In Copenhagen he treated King Christian's mother for melancholia, and in 1520 the Grand Duke Basil of Russia called him to Moscow for consultations. While in Russia he was captured by the Tartars. During his lenient captivity among these roving warriors he learned some of the shaman's secrets. From a magus he received the recipe for laudanum and kept a constant supply of this opiate in the ball-shaped pommel of his sword, which he wore everywhere to emphasize his "noble" origin. With the Tartars he travelled to Constantinople and, after his release from captivity, journeyed through the Balkans to the Greek islands and up the Nile."

Another one.

Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus
written by Paracelsus, Henry Ernest Sigerist

From Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis ...
"There is more bliss in describing the mountain people underground than in describing fencing and service to ladies."

[bigdummy]

Wow... that is an interesting little detour! Fascinating that he was captured by the Tartars and apparently well treated by them. Being captured by the Tartars was not usually a picnic.

I was wondering about his invention of Laudanum because I seem to have seen it, or something like it, in lists of imported commodities by the Genoese from the Silk Road. I'll have to double check that.

BD

[Ulrich von L...n]

It seems to me that the whole Tartar story is a good deal of invention. Paracelsus wasn't very specific about his captors. Were they from the Kazan Khanate? From the Crimean Khanate? We are talking around 1520. And we get some details, then things are definitely moving into the realm of fantasy.

Let's consider this account:
"In the last mentioned country (Russia), if it be true that he ever reached it, he is reported to have been made prisoner by the Tartars, to have been brought before "the Great Cham" (sic!), to have become a favourite at the court of that potentate, and to have accompanied his son on an embassy from China to Constantinople." Page 14 (my italic & bold)

From:
The Hermetic and alchemical writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus the Great. Now for the first time faithfully tr. into English. Ed. with a biographical preface, elucidatory notes, a copious Hermetic vocabulary and index by Arthur Edward Waite (1894)

http://archive.org/details/hermeticalchemic00para

So I must agree with Waite:
"It is not an unusual device to account for obscure periods in the lives of Hermetic philosophers by extensive eastern travellings".

[Ulrich von L...n]

In regards to the question about Paracelsus and "fencing", I have found an interesting first-hand account by his former pupil, Johannes Oporinus:

para_29a.png (45.43 KiB) Viewed 749 times

para_30a.png (103.04 KiB) Viewed 749 times

From:
Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Rennaisance
by Walter Pagel (1958), Page 29,30

[bigdummy]

Fascinating, thanks for posting!

BD