Ivan Leopold Payer and the Reception of Paracelsus\u27Views in Croatia

Prirodoznanstvena sredina u Hrvatskoj u prvim desetljećima18. stoljeća bila je veomaskromna. Stoga je dragocjen svaki doprinos koji je u to doba bio ostvaren na tlu Hrvatske. Istraživanje djela varaždinskog gradskog fizika Ivana Leopolda Payera, pod naslovom Fundamentum naturae medicatricis adaequatum…(Prilagođena osnova prirode lječiteljice…), koje je napisano u Varaždinu i tiskano god. 1710. u Grazu, pokazalo je da je on uspio prihvatiti i prenijeti suvremena gledišta zapadnoeuropske znanosti u Varaždin, Hrvatsku i u Austrijsku carevinu. Pokazano je da je preuzeo nauk Paracelsusova kritičara i sljedbenika, flamanskog prirodoslovca Johannesa (Joana) Baptista van Helmonta, bez natruha misticizma i okultizma, Taj nauk izložen je u djelu Ortus medicinae (Osvit medicine) iz god. 1648, koje je, između ostalog, prevedeno i na njemački (1707) i kojim se najvjerojatnije služio naš Payer. Van Helmontov nauk odnosio se na kritiku četiriju počela (zemlje, vode, zraka i vatre) i na uvođenje vode kao jedinog počela svih stvari svijeta, što je bilo od povijesnog značenja za razvitak iatrokemije. Voda je istinsko počelo jer je u njoj, po Bogu prosuto i boravi sjemenje (semina) svih anorganskih i organskih tvari. Pri tome je Payer zanemario van Helmontovo mistično tumačenje o dualističkoj, tjelesno-duhovnoj naravi sjemenja. Za razliku od van Helmonta Payer je izložio i svoju kritiku nauka o atomima, koji su zastupali neki iatrokemičari, a kojim se van Helmont nije bavio. Također je istaknuto da su upravo prirodnofilozofijski pogledi o vodi kao počelu nadahnuli Payera da načini i prvu kemijsku analizu jedne hrvatske mineralne vode (1709).Therefore each contribution realized on Croatian soil at the time is precious. The research into the work of the Varaždin town doctor Ivan Leopold Payer entitled Fundamentum naturae medicatricis adaequatum… (Adequate Basis of Nature the Healer…), written in Varaždin and published in Graz, Austria, in 1710, shows that he had managed to accept the contemporary views of the Western European science and transfer them to Varaždin, to Croatia, and to the Austrian Empire. The paper shows that he had taken over the doctrine of Paracelsus’ critic and follower, the Flemish natural scientist Johannes (Joan) Baptiste van Helmont, without any elements of mysticism and occultism. This doctrine was presented in the work Ortus medicinae (The Rising of Medicine) from 1648 which was, among other languages, translated into German (1707) and which Payer was most likely to have used. Van Helmont’s doctrine refers to the critique of the four elements (earth, water, air, and fire) and the introduction of water as the only element of all the things in the world, which was of historical importance for the development of iatrochemistry. Water is the true element, for God had scattered the seeds (semina) of all the organic and anorganic substances into it, and they dwell in it. At the same time Payer ignored van Helmont’s mystic interpretation of the dualistic, bodily-spiritual nature of the seeds. Unlike van Helmont, Payer presented his own critique of the doctrine concerning atoms, advocated by several iatrochemists, and which van Helmont did not deal with. The paper also points out that it was the natural-philosophical views regarding water as an element that motivated Payer to perform the first chemical analysis of a Croatian mineral water (1709)