1493?-1541

Swiss Physician, Pharmacologist and Alchemist

Paracelsus was arguably the most innovative medical mind of the Renaissance. Some denounced him as a charlatan (one who merely pretends to possess knowledge or skill) because of his devotion to magic and the occult. But other scholars agree that he accomplished too much in too many genuinely scientific fields for this accusation to make sense. In an age when authority was expected to remain unquestioned, Paracelsus rejected authority and conducted his own investigations. His iconoclasm inspired Canadian physician Sir William Osler (1849-1919) to dub him "the Luther of medicine."

Paracelsus was born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, the only son of Wilhelm von Hohenheim, a poor country physician. His real name was Philipp Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim. He created the pseudonym Paracelsus by combining the Greek prefix para-, meaning "beside" or "beyond," with the name of a great Roman physician, Aulus Aurelius...