An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

LOCATELLI, Lodovico

1 entries
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Theatro d’Arcani del medico Lodovico Locatelli da Bergamo; nel quale si tratta dell’arte chimica, et suoi arcani, con gli afforismi d’Ippocrate commentati da Paracelso, et l’espositione d’alcune cifre, et caratteri oscuri de filosofi.

Milan: Gio. Pietro Ramellati, 1644.

‘It is apparent that by the 1640’s Paracelsian medicine had gained momentum in Italy and that iatrochemical theories were being adopted by a number of Italian physicians. […] In 1644 there appeared the first Italian translation from Paracelsus, made by ... Ludovico Locatelli, who included a version of Paracelsus’ Erklärung über etliche Aphorismen des Hippokrates in his Teatro d’arcani. Unlike Bardi, Locatelli was a fervent Paracelsian; he espoused Paracelsus’ medicine and philosophy, and explicitly rejected traditional medicine. Locatelli, who travelled to Germany in 1642, maintained that chemical reactions took place in the human body that were the same as those produced in the laboratory. Natural bodies contained a subtle and pure spiritual substance that chemists could extract and use for their remedies. Following Bovio, Locatelli attacked Galenists as ignorant and greedy, and promoted a great number of chemical remedies, like arcanum corallinum, tartar, vitriol, mercurius vitae, and aurum potabile, most of them taken from Paracelsus. (A. Clericuzio, ‘Chemical Medicine and Paracelsianism in Italy, 1550–1650’, in M. Pelling and S. Mandelbrote, eds., The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500–2000, 2005, p. 77). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: Chemistry › Alchemy, Renaissance Medicine