Page 6 - Paracelsus Three Books of Philosophy

Introduction

Adam McLean

This work by Paracelsus appears to have first been published in a German edition
as :

Phisophiae [sic] ad Athenienses, drey Bücher. Cöln: durch die Erben
Arnoldi Byrckmanni. 1564.

The English translation was printed with Oswald Croll’s ‘Philosophy reformed’ as :

Philosophy reformed and improved in four profound tractates. The I.
discovering the great and deep mysteries of nature: by that learned
chymist & physitian Osw: Crollius. The other III. discovering the
wonderfull mysteries of the creation, by Paracelsus: being his philosophy
to the Athenians. Both made English by H. Pinnell... London 1657.

This is one of Paracelsus’ philosophical and cosmological works, and reveals his
thoughts on the spiritual processes that underlie outward creation. Although this not a
technical alchemical work it throws light upon ideas of how the world was constructed,
and the interplay of the spirits of the elements that was an important aspect of
Paracelsus’ world view.

This work connects to Paracelsus’ book ‘Concerning the generations of the
elements’, and to ‘A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the
other Spirits’, the Liber De nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris
spiritibus: Basel 1589-91.

It is not entirely certain whether the ‘three books to the Athenians’ was written by

1