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]