Joan Baptista Van Helmont
Reformer of Science and Medicine

An intellectual biography of Van Helmont (1579–1644), showing a scholarly appreciation of his creative insights.

Walter Pagel (Author)

9780521526555, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 June 2002

232 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.393 kg

Only comparatively recently have historians begun to recognize the importance and influence of Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579–1644) in the history of medicine and chemistry. Van Helmont's theories on the nature of life, biological time, physiology and disease, the structure of matter, and the processes of chemical change are veiled in his writings by a brand of Renaissance mysticism. His organic conception of the natural world, together with his belief in alchemy and astral forces, has resulted in a predominantly unsympathetic attitude among historians of science, by whom he is generally regarded as purveying an unpalatable and inherently 'un-scientific' amalgam of medicine and philosophy. Dr Pagel now demonstrates that by painstaking analysis it is possible to appreciate the creative insights of a figure like Van Helmont. His book is a model of its kind, and is the culmination of many years of reflection on the topics discussed.

Preface
Abbreviations
1. The life of Van Helmont in the light of his endeavour
2. New aims: the hunt for perfect knowledge
3. The nature of nature
4. Biological ideas
5. The ontological conception of disease
6. Final assessment
Bibliography of Van Helmont
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]