Appraising Paracelsian Therapy: Panaceas, Signatures, and Metallic Drugs in Sennert’s Chymical Medicine (1619)

The diffusion of Paracelsian chymistry raised many debates in late-Renaissance medicine. One important innovation was the Paracelsian conception of therapy and pharmacy, which went against the tenets of the medical tradition. This led a series of German physicians to harmonize the Paracelsian system with Galenic medicine in order to introduce chymical remedies in their method of treatment. Among the actors of such chymical compromise, Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) emerged as a major figure of early modern medicine and natural philosophy. This article examines his stance on chymical therapy in De chymicorum liber (1619), where he surveyed some early digests of Paracelsian medicine by European adepts and detractors, including Severinus, Libavius, and Du Chesne, as well as lesser-known figures such as Francus, Scheunemann, and Dienheim, among others. In appraising their views, Sennert addressed important issues, such as the religious vocation of the Paracelsian adepts, the notion of “universal cure,” the doctrine of “signatures,” and the use of metallic ingredients for drug making. His resulting account of drugs and treatment sheds light on the diffusion of chymistry in seventeenth-century learned medicine.