Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Alchemists

  • The hectic life of Leonardo Fioravanti

    The first part of Leonardo Fioravanti’s life was uneventful; the second was tumultuous.1 Born in Bologna in 1517,1-4 he was fortunate in 1527 to survive a violent epidemic that may have been typhus. At age sixteen he began to study medicine, probably as an indentured apprentice to a barber-surgeon. At twenty-two he began practicing medicine…

  • The Philosophers’ Stone: History and myth

    S.E.S. MedinaBenbrook, Texas, United States “Of all Elixirs, Gold is supreme and the most important for us . . . gold can keep the body indestructible . . . Drinkable gold will cure all illnesses, it renews and restores.”—Paracelsus (1493–1541 AD) – Coelum Philosophorum1 “The universal medicine which cures all human and metallic diseases is…