The Volume and Work Beyond Wonder

Preface

AS will be discussed in more detail in the introduction, the editing of these two famous writings by Hohenheim Paracelsus's birth name was Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541). followed the general outlines of the Huser text of the Basel Quarto Edition [1589–1591] as a template. Johannes Huser was a physician who, decades after Paracelsus’s death, collected and edited his scattered manuscripts into a definitive ten-volume edition. The need has made itself felt—and this applies to the two Paramirum writings The Paramirum works (specifically the Opus Paramirum and Volumen Paramirum) are foundational texts where Paracelsus explains that diseases are not just physical imbalances, but arise from five "spheres" or influences. quite differently than to the Paragranum The Paragranum is another of Paracelsus's major works, defining the "four pillars" of medicine: philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics.—to correct the text, which in places was severely distorted and made ambiguous by printing errors or disruptive abbreviations, primarily insofar as fluid readability requires it. Doing any kind of violence to the text was far from our minds, especially the intention of offering a modernized "translation." Paracelsus cannot be "translated" without destroying the unique, antique timbre of his linguistic tone. The original spelling was—so long as it did not hinder readability or obscure the meaning of the words—largely left unchanged, a circumstance that makes it clear that a strictly consistent orthography standardized spelling could not be maintained. Fundamental guiding principles have been highlighted by me through spaced type. The original German uses "Sperrdruck," a typographic style of emphasis where spaces are placed between letters; this translation uses bold to reflect that intended emphasis. The annotations refer only to important questions and are, of course, not intended to be exhaustive.

I find myself obligated to [thank] the highly esteemed library—