Paracelsus burns books of Avicenna
- When
- 1527
- Where
- Basel market square
- Episodes
- 1
In 1527, Paracelsus, serving as city physician in Basel, publicly burned a copy of Avicenna's Canon of Medicine in the market square. This act was an openly defiant challenge to existing medical authorities, drawing comparisons to Martin Luther.
Episodes
Background and detail
Professional Context in Basel. By 1527, Paracelsus held the position of city physician (Stadtarzt) in Basel with the privilege to lecture at the University. He invited non-academic practitioners like barber-surgeons and alchemists as examples of his belief that only those who practised an art truly knew it.
The Burning of the Canon. On 23 June 1527, Paracelsus burned a copy of Avicenna's Canon of Medicine in the Basel market square. The text was described as an enormous tome and a pillar of academic study. Paracelsus was compared with Martin Luther because of his openly defiant acts against existing medical authorities.
People involved
- Paracelsus · Swiss physician and alchemist who performed the act
- Avicenna · Author of the Canon of Medicine, whose work was burned
Sources
- Paracelsus Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-10
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.