Hutten or not? A re-examination of two late medieval skeletons from the island of Ufenau SZ

Ulrich von Hutten (1488 - 1523) was a renowned German knight, humanist, and poet. With his famous treatise De Guaiacum medicina et morbo Gallico liber unus from 1519, he was also the first known patient describing the syphilis epidemic ravaging in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. He died from complications of his disease on the island of Ufenau (Lake Zürich, Schwyz – SZ, Switzerland). Two skeletons discovered in 1958 (H58) and 1968 (H68) have been assumed to be his remains. Thanks to renovation work on the island in 2016, we were able to re-exhume these skeletons and we present here our preliminary anthropological, palaeopathological and archaeometrical analyses. We compare the localizations of his syphilitic lesions as well as other possiblep athological manifestations with those described in Hutten's works. As he also reported at least eleven unsuccessful treatments with mercury ointments, we compare the mercury content of the two skeletons with that of eleven Late Medieval individuals from the St. Johann city church in Rapperswil-Jona (St. Gallen - SG, Switzerland). This reference could possibly help in the attribution of one of the skeletons to Ulrich von Hutten

Ulrich von Huttens Grab: Ist es wirklich Hutten?

In den Jahren 1958 und 1968 wurden auf der Insel Ufenau (Schwyz, Schweiz) zwei Skelette entdeckt, welche beide als die menschlichen Überreste des Deutschen Ritters, Humanisten und poeta laureatus Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523) beschrieben wurden. Sie wurden in der Gruft unter der Gedenkplatte auf der Südseite der Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul wiederbestattet und konnten im Rahmen von Umbauarbeiten auf der Insel Ufenau Ende 2016 erneut exhumiert und interdisziplinär untersucht werden

“Himmlische Philosophia” bei Paracelsus und Caspar Schwenckfeld

Coming from an astrological-magical tradition, the physician and radical reform theologian Paracelsus (1493/94–1541) developed 1530–1533 a new doctrine of the Eucharist based on the heavenly flesh of Christ and the need for spiritual rebirth. This teaching subsequently penetrated the thinking of many spiritualist theologians, mystics, and Paracelsists. At about the same time the spiritualist theologian Caspar Schwenckfeld (1489/90–1561) had developed a similar Eucharistic doctrine. This article discusses possible connections between the two men and presents building blocks for further research

Real or Fake? New Light on the Paracelsian De natura rerum

So far it has never been clearly decided whether the treatise De natura rerum constitutes an authentic work by the physician and natural philosopher Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493/94–1541) This article outlines the manuscript and printing traditions of De natura rerum, in which a recently discovered manuscript from 1571 is identified as the earliest source. The watermarks of this manuscript refer to the Tyrolean Inn Valley, where great alchemical expertise was available due to silver mining. A detailed examination of the content and style of the preface and the nine chapters indicates the involvement of at least three different authors. Some of these parts are definitely forgeries, while others cannot be judged with certainty as to their authenticity. On the other hand, three chapters, those on death, resuscitation and the signature of natural things, are most likely real writings of Paracelsus

The Virgin Mary and the Universal Reformation of Paracelsus

The first dated writings of Paracelsus are theological treatises on Mary, the Trinity, church criticism and scriptural interpretation. They were written in Salzburg in 1524/25. Paracelsus defended the purity and eternity of Mary and saw her as a goddess. The writing De genealogia Christi fulfilled the promise of metaphysical explanations. An anticlerical polemic written on the eve of the Peasants War meant a turn towards the Radical Reformation. Following the example of the church reformation, Paracelsus attempted in 1527 in Basel a reform of medieval medicine with experience in the first place

Cross and Crucible: Alchemy in the Theology of Paracelsus

Paracelsus was not only a reformer of medicine with a preference for medical alchemy, but also emerged as a radical church reformer. However, he only rarely used the imagery of alchemy as a parable for theological salvation. Fire as the driving force for every alchemical process was also suitable as an image for the purification of souls. A central idea of alchemy, to transfer a substance from its still impure original state into the purified final state, was very much in line with Paracelsus’s doctrine of the Last Supper, according to which the mortal human who had descended from Adam is to be brought to a new birth through baptism with the Holy Spirit. As an alchemist, Paracelsus was keenly interested in the transfiguration of Christ, which he first explained alchemically, but later magically, probably according to the model of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola