Michael Toxites

Michael Toxites, born Johann Michael Schütz (19 July 1514, Sterzing, South Tyrol[1] – 1581, Haguenau, Alsace) was a doctor, alchemist and poet of the Holy Roman Empire.

Michael Toxites
Born
Johann Michael Schütz

July 19, 1514
Sterzing, South Tyrol
Died1581
Haguenau, Alsace
Occupation(s)Doctor, poet, and alchemist

Biography

Toxites began his studies in Dillingen and later completed his Bachelor of Arts in Tübingen. In 1535, he continued his studies at the University of Pavia and earned a Master of Arts in 1542 at Wittenberg, where he studied under Philip Melanchthon.[2] From 1537 he was a Latin teacher in Bad Urach in Baden-Württemberg. He poetic talent was such that he was named poet laureate by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1544.

When Wilhelm Xylander published the first Latin version of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Toxites is credited with having provided the codex containing the original for the work.[3]

Toxites next found himself as head of school in Brugg in the Swiss canton, working there from 1549 to 1551.[2] Between 1551 and 1556, he studied medicine at Strasbourg. He next served various as a professor of rhetoric and poetics at the University of Tübingen until 1560. That same year he returned to Strasbourg, earning his doctorate in medicine in 1562. In 1564, Toxites established a laboratory in Strasbourg, where he carried out his research and experiments on antimony.

In 1574, he moved to Haguenau, where he died seven years later in 1581.[4]

In 1574, Toxites was the first to define the alkahest as du mercure préparé pour le foie, by approximating a mysterium mercurii presented by Paracelsus as a medicine for the liver. This definition was picked up by the French Paracelsian Roch Le Baillif in 1578 and by the Belgian Gerhard Dorn in 1583. It was repeated in the dictionary which appears among the appendices of Paracelsi opera omnia (1658), the Latin edition of the works of Paracelsus.

Works

Toxites edited a number of medical and alchemical works, 23 of which were the writing of Paracelsus.[4]

See also

References

Notes
  1. Sterzing has been a part of Italy since the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and is now known as Vipiteno.
  2. Urs Leo Gantenbein, "Toxites, Michael", in Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse
  3. Ceporina, Matteo (2 April 2012), "3", in Marcel van Ackeren (ed.), A Companion to Marcus Aurelius, John Wiley & Sons, p. 55, ISBN 978-1-118-21984-3, retrieved 16 December 2016
  4. Ménard and Desenne, eds., Dictionnaire historique, critique et bibliographique contenant les vies des hommes illustres, célèbres ou fameux des tous les pays et de tous les siècles, suivi d'un dictionnaire abrégé des mythologies et d'un tableau chronologique, vol. 26 (1823): 140.

Sources

Bibliography
  • Soukup, Rudolf Werner, and Helmut Mayer. Alchemistisches Gold, Paracelsistische Pharmaka: Laboratoriumstechnik im 16. Jahrhundert. Wien, 1997.
  • Soukup, Rudolf Werner. Chemie in Österreich: von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. Wien, 2007.
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