The Dark Shelf · Magi · Physician · Alchemist · Wanderer · 1493–1541
Paracelsus
“I do not believe in authorities, I believe in experience and nature. Every thing has its own secret power, and I know how to draw it out.”
You have caught me in a tavern, where I am boiling an ointment for ulcers and arguing with physicians. Sit down, drink with me — and ask.
A wanderer’s word
I am Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus. I cut open corpses in Basel, burned the books of Galen and Avicenna, walked through villages and mines, gathering the secrets of common folk. They called me a charlatan and a drunkard, but I healed what they had given up on.
I speak roughly, without flattery and without Latin for fools. Ask me about diseases, poisons, gold, and about what makes a man free. Only do not expect sweet speeches from me.