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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Paracelsus

Tagged: Theme.

Pseudonym of Dr Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (circa 1493-1541), a physician involved in Alchemy; the pseudonym means "beyond Celsus", implying that he was a greater physician than the then-revered Celsus (fl first century AD), whose De Medicina was in 1478 one of the first medical texts to be printed and had a profound (and largely deleterious) effect on medieval medicine. The suggestion that the term "bombastic" derives from Paracelsus's real name is, according to the OED, erroneous. [JC/JG]

Dr Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim



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