Abstract
Joseph Du Chesne advocated for the fusion of chemistry and medicine, claiming that chemical medicine could offer substantial benefits to academic or Galenic medicine. This advocacy was contemporaneous with bitter controversies, ranging from the agitation of Paracelsus’s followers to the rise of Spagyrists, and the debates over the need to purify Galenism. A backdrop to all of this was the changes in and growth of alchemy. Du Chesne proposed two things: first, a conceptual framework that would serve as the theoretical basis for chemical medicine and, second, a practical, demonstrative system, characterized by distillation. In addition, Du Chesne was well aware that he faced significant challenges in proposing his chemical innovations, but he persevered in the hopes that his new medical system would gain adherents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Primary Literature
Aubert, Jacques. 1575. Jacobi Auberti,... De metallorum ortu et causis contra chemistas brevis & dilucida explicatio. Lyon: Johannem Berion.
Aubert, Jacques. 1576. Jacobi Auberti,... Duae apologeticae responsiones ad Josephum Quercetanum. In priore de Paracelsicorum ladano et calcinatis cancrorum oculis disseritur, in posteriore chemiam esse vanam ostenditur. Lyon: I. Ausulti.
Chesne, Du, and Joseph. 1607. Pharmacopoea dogmaticorum restituta pretiosis selectisque hermeticorum floribus abunde illustrata. Paris: Claudium Morellum.
Du Chesne, Joseph. 1587. Le Grand Miroir Du Monde. Lyon: B. Honorat.
Quercetanus, Joseph. 1575. Ad Iacobi Auberti Vindonis De ortu et causis metallorum contra chymicos explicationem. Jos. Quercetani brevis responsio; ejusd. de exquisita mineralium, animalium & vegetabilium medicamentorum spagyrica praeparatione & usu perspicua tractatio. Lyon: Joannem Lertotium.
Quercetanus, Joseph. 1576. Josephi Quercetani medici Sclopetarius, sive, De curandis vulneribus, quae sclopetorum & similium tormentorum ictibus acciderunt, liber ejusdem Antidotarium spagiricum adversus eosdem ictus. Lyon: Joannem Lertotium.
Quercetanus, Josephus. 1603. Liber de priscorum philosophorum verae medicinae materia. Saint-Gervais: Eustache Vignon.
Secondary Literature
Debus, Allen G. 1977. The chemical philosophy : Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. New York: Science History Publications.
Franckowiak, Rémi. 2010. I Salify, therefore I can see and touch: The case of the chemical principles. In Chymia: Science and nature in medieval and early modern Europe (1450–1750), ed. M. López-Pérez, 279–289. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars.
Gilly, Carlos. 1979. Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation: Theodor Zwinger und die religiöse und kulturelle Krise seiner Zeit. Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde 77: 57–137; 79: 125–233.
Hirai, Hiro. 2005. Le concept de semence dans les théories de la matière à la Renaissance. Tournhout: Brepols. ch. 12.
Hirai, Hiro. 2010. The world-Spirit and quintessence in the Chymical philosophy of Joseph du Chesne. In Chymia: Science and nature in medieval and early modern Europe (1450–1750), ed. M. López-Pérez, 247–271. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars.
Kahn, Didier. 2004. L’interprétation alchimique de la Genèse chez Joseph Du Chesne dans le contexte de ses doctrines alchimiques et cosmologiques. In Scientiae et artes: Die Vermittlung alten und neuen Wissens in Literatur, Kunst und Musik, ed. Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer, 641–692. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Kahn, Didier. 2007. Alchimie et paracelsisme en France à la fin de la Renaissance (1567–1625). Paris: Droz.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
López-Pérez, M. (2022). Du Chesne, Joseph. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_1094
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_1094
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-14168-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-14169-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities