Paracelso, alchimia e chemica: aspetti del dibattito storiografico contemporaneo

The essay aims at offering an assessment of the contemporary debate and research on Theophrast von Hohenheim, alias Paracelsus in the context of the history of alchemy and of the early modern chemistry. The essay approaches the subject from two different perspectives. In the first section it offers a critical summary of the debate on Paracelsus, and demonstrates that the progress in recent historical research ha given rise to new, outstanding imagese of the Swiss physician. The second section reconstructs the pictures of Paracelsus in literature and on screen in the first half of the twentieth century, with a particular emphasis on G.W. Pabst's film of 1942-1943. The presence of Paracelsus in German popular culture during the Nazi era enables us to clarify the different historical constructions of the Swiss physician. These manifold approaches to Paracelsus confirm his elusiveness.