Rudolph Goclenius the Younger
Rudolph Goclenius the Younger was a German physician and professor at Philipps University of Marburg.
Goclenius was born in Wittenberg, the oldest son of Rudolph Goclenius, who was also professor of physics, logic, mathematics and ethics at Marburg. He enrolled at the University of Marburg at the age of 15. As a student, Goclenius was a respondent to his father in a physical disputation and received his master's degree in 1591. After obtaining his medical degree in 1601, Goclenius became the first rector of the newly founded gymnasium in Büdingen and a personal physician to Wolfgang Ernst I, Count of Isenburg-Büdingen. In 1608, he was appointed to the professorship of physics, astronomy and arithmetic at Marburg University. Afterwards, he took over the chairs of medicine and mathematics at the same place.
The younger Goclenius died in Marburg. His father wrote a poem for his funeral on 4 March 1621
As a physician he worked on cures against the plague. He became famous for his miraculous cure with the "weapon salve" or Powder of Sympathy. Based on the hermetic concepts of Paracelsus he published 1608 the proposition of a "magnetic" cure to heal wounds: the application of the salve on the weapon should heal the wounds afflicted by the weapon. This concept was brought to England by the alchemist Robert Fludd. A famous proponent was Sir Kenelm Digby. Synchronising the effects of the powder was actually suggested in the leaflet Curious Enquiries in 1687 as a means of solving the longitude problem.
He is the eponym of the lunar crater Goclenius. Already in 1651, the Jesuits Riccioli/Grimaldi honored him on behalf of his book Urania on astrology and astronomy.
Publications
As a medical student:- In Obitum Illustriss. Principis, &c., in: Kirchner, H. Parentatio, Perpetuae recordationis ergo habita,... Domino Georgio, Landgravio Hassiae, Marburg 1596, p. 37 Aphorismorum Chiromanticorum Tractatus Compendiosus, Lich 1597De Luctu Minuendo Ex currentis seculi perversitate: Oratio Brevis, Kopenhagen 1598Quaestiones Mixtas In Utramque Partem Controversas, cum adjuncta disputatione de Principiis Medicinae Paracelsicae, quod in arte medendi non habeant fundamentum, Marburg 1600
- Epistola Dedicatoria, in: Goclenius, R., Physicae Completae Speculum, Frankfurt 1604 De Luxu Convivali Nostri Seculi,..., Oratio, Lich 1604, Marburg 1607 De Pestis, Febrisque Pestilentis Causis, Marburg 1607Weiß und Weg / Sich for der schweren Seuche der Pestilenz /... / zubewahren, Marburg 1607Uranoscopiae, Chiroscopiae, Metoposcopiae, Et Ophtalmoscopiae, Contemplatio, Frankfurt 1608 De Vita Proroganda, Mainz 1608
- * Tractatus Novus De Magnetica Vulnerum Curatione, Frankfurt 1613
- * De Magnetica Vulnerum Curatione,..., Tractatus, s.l. 1613 Vulnerum Curatione in Sylvester Rattray's Theatrum Sympatheticum Auctum. It was translated into German by F. J. Schmidt.]Apologeticus Pro Astromantia Discursus, Marburg 1611
- , Marburg 1612Loimographia, Frankfurt 1613Physicae Generalis Libri II, Frankfurt 1613
- Responsio ad quaestionem propositam, in: Promotio Solennis XX. Magistrorum, Marburg 1614, pp. 34–43Uraniae Divinatricis, Quoad Astrologiae generalia, Libri II Pro Artium Mathematicarum Laude, dignitate & praestantia, Oratio, Marburg 1615Urania Cum Geminis Filiabus, Frankfurt 1615Synarthrosis Magnetica, Opposita Infaustae Anatomiae Joh. Roberti D. Theologi, Et Jesuitae, Pro Defensione Tractactus, de Magnetica vulnerum curatione, Marburg 1617 Against Jean Roberti.Tractatus De Portentosis Ac Luxuriosis Nostri Seculi Conviviis et Commessationibus, Marburg 1617Acroteleution Astrologicum, Marburg 1618Morosophia Ioannis Roberti D. Iesuitae, In Refutatione Synarthroseos Goclenianae, Anno 1618, Frankfurt 1619 Assertio Medicinae Universalis Adversus Universalem Vulgo jactatam, Marburg 1620Synopsis Methodica Geometriae, Astronomiae, Astrologiae, Opticae & Geographiae, Frankfurt 1620Physiognomica & Chiromantica Specialia, Marburg 1621