Pierre-Jean Fabre
French doctor and alchemist
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Pierre-Jean Fabre (1588- 9 January 1658) was a French doctor and alchemist . Born in Castelnaudary , France in 1588, he studied medicine in Montpellier , France . He became a practitioner of the iatrochemical medicine of Paracelsus . Beginning in 1610 he practiced medicine in Castelnaudary. He became famous as a specialist in the plague which was particularly severe in central Europe during the Thirty Years' War . Fabre prescribed chemical medications for the treatment of the plague and was at one time the private physician of King Louis XIII of France . [1]
Fabre was a practising alchemist, and claimed to have succeeded in the alchemical transmutation of lead into silver on 22 July 1627. [2] He was strongly attracted to mystical aspects of chemistry, drawing parallels between the chemical operations of alchemy and the sacraments of the Christian church, particularly in his Alchymista Christianus (1632). [1] [3] [4]
Fabre died in Castelnaudary on 9 January 1658. [5]
Alchymista Christianus
"He saw valid correspondences between the sacraments and chemical operations: calcination symbolised penitence; fire and water corresponded to baptism; and the Philosopher's Stone could be compared to nothing less than the Eucharist. Assuming this, Fabre thought that true alchemists were like priests; the spirit of mercury was like the angels; the earth was like the Virgin Mary; and the life-giving properties of salt gave it a valid connection to Christ. These correspondences could be visualised because they were sculpted on the great churches of France, whose artist-architects had presented their esoteric knowledge to the viewer." - [6]
Bibliography
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- Palladium Spagyricum , Toulouse, Bosc, 1624, 276 p.
- Chirurgica spagyrica , Toulouse, Bosc, 1626, 176 p. Traduction française manuscrite de Pierre Mallet, Chartres, 1649.
- Insignes curationes variorum morborum quos medicamentis chymicis jucundissima methodo curavit , Toulouse, Bosc, 1627.
- Myrothecium spagyricum , Toulouse, Bosc, 1628, 448 p.
- Traité de la peste selon la doctrine des médecins spagyriques , Toulouse, 1629, Castres, 1653.
- Alchymista christianus , Toulouse, Bosc, 1632. Trad. (XVIII° s.) : L'alchimiste chrétien (édition de Frank Greiner), Paris et Milan, Archè, 2001, 732 p. Paraphrase alchimique de la Theologia naturalis de Raymond Sebond . Texte latin 1632, 32-236-4.
- Hercules pio-chymicus , Toulouse, Bosc, 1634.
- L'Abrégé des secrets chymiques, où l'on voit la nature des animaux, végétaux et minéraux entièrement découverts, avec les vertus et propriétés des principes qui composent et conservent leur être; et un traité de la médecine générale , Paris, Pierre Billaine, 1636. Gutenberg Reprints, 1990.
- Hydrographum spagyricum , Toulouse, Bosc, 1639, 260 p.
- Propugnaculum alchymiae adversus quosdam misochymicos... , Toulouse, Bosc, 1645, 128 p. Traduction française manuscrite en 1790 par le chevalier Dernelon : Rempart de l'alchimie .
- Traduction et notes du Cursus triomphalis Antimonii de Basile Valentin , Toulouse, Bosc, 1646.
- Panchymicus, seu Anatomia totius Universi Opus , Toulouse, Bosc, 1646.
- Sapientia Universalis quatuor libris comprehensa. Videlicet 1. Quid sit sapientia, & de modiis ad eam perveniendi, 2. De cognitione hominis, 3. De medentis morbis hominum, 4. De Meliorandis metallis , Toulouse, Bosc, 1654.
- Remèdes curatifs et préservatifs de la peste donnez au public en 1652 par Pierre-Jean Fabre , Réimprimé en 1720 à Toulouse, 16 p.
- Manuscriptum ad Serenissimum Fridericum...res alchymicorum explanans , 1653, édité par G. Clauder dans les Miscellanea Curiosa de l'Académie impériale léopoldine de Nuremberg, 1690; in J. J. Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa , 1702.
- Opera reliqua volumine hoc posteriore comprehensa , Francfort, Beyer, 1652; Francfort, Beyer, 1656.
Resources
- Greiner, Frank, Introduction à L'Alchimiste chrétien ( Alchymista christianus ), Paris, S.É.H.A. et Milan, ARCHÈ, 2001, p. VII-CXVII.
- Greiner, Frank, " Pierre-Jean Fabre ", in Dictionnaire de réseaux culturels toulousains en Europe entre 1480 et 1780 , Bibliotheca Tholosana
- Joly, Bernard, "La réception de la pensée de Van Helmont dans l'œuvre de Pierre-Jean Fabre", in Z.R.W.M. von Martels (éd.), Alchemy Revisited , Brill, Leiden, 1990, pp. 206–214.
- Joly, Bernard, Rationalité de l'alchimie au XVIIe siècle , Vrin, 1992.
- Joly, Bernard, "Pierre-Jean Fabre", apud The dictionary of seventeenth-century french philosophers , Thoemmes Press, 2004.
- Nelly, René, "Un médecin alchimiste : Pierre-Jean Fabre", La Tour Saint-Jacques , n° 16, Paris, 1958.
- Ricalens, Henry, "Pierre-Jean Fabre, médecin et alchimiste de Castelnaudary (1588-1658) et son traité de la peste selon la méthode des médecins spagyristes", Bulletin de la société d'études scientifiques de l'Aude , 2003, vol. CIII, p. 113-120.
- Secret, François, "Pierre-Jean Fabre, médecin spagirique et alchimiste", Bibliothèque d'humanisme et Renaissance , Genève, t. XXXV, 1973.
References
- 1 2 Debus, Allen G. (1991). The French Paracelsians : the chemical challenge to medical and scientific tradition in early modern France (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 9780521400497 .
- ↑ Calmettes, Alain (2017). "Histoire: Pierre-Jean Fabre, alchimiste et médecin du Roi" . Couleur Lauragais - les Journaux . 196 (October) . Retrieved 1 December 2017 .
- ↑ Maxwell-Stuart, P.G. (2012). The chemical choir : a history of alchemy (Paperback ed.). London: Continuum. ISBN 9781441132970 . Retrieved 1 December 2017 .
- ↑ Principe, Lawrence M. (10 December 2012). The Secrets of Alchemy . Chicago, IL: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. ISBN 9780226103792 .
- ↑ Greiner, Frank. Bibliotheca Tholosana: Dictionnaire de réseaux culturels toulousains en Europe entre 1480 et 1780 . pp. Pierre-Jean Fabre . Retrieved 1 December 2017 .
- ↑ A.G. Debus, The Chemical Challenge to Medical and Scientific Tradition in Early Modern France, p75.
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