From the book
Nine Books on the Nature of Things
Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAetas can mean elapsed age, a period of life, or a destined lifespan.
- In the workThe botanical chiromancy discussion attributes larger, more conspicuous lines to older plants and weaker operation to increasing age.
- In this editionNotes 99–101 explain the root passage’s grammatical difficulty, the historical medical claims, and underground longevity assertions.
- A place to read“quotannis herba ea renovatur”
Meaning
Aetas can mean elapsed age, a period of life, or a destined lifespan. Senium emphasizes ageing and decline; praedestinatum tempus names an appointed duration. In Book Nine age is something signs are supposed to reveal, not usually a number written on the thing. The significance of greater age varies sharply between herbs, mineral veins, and animals, so one general equation between age and strength would be misleading.
Use in the book
The botanical chiromancy discussion attributes larger, more conspicuous lines to older plants and weaker operation to increasing age. A seasonal objection forces the author to distinguish the annual herb from the longer-lived sustaining power in its root. Renewal can recur as long as that spirit remains; loss of the spirit ends the root’s life. The age being investigated therefore need not be identical with the visible shoot’s months above ground.
The medical application is not perfectly consistent. One paragraph pairs younger herbs with older ailments and older medicines with recent ailments; the next says medicine should always be younger than the disease. Both claims belong to the historical argument, and the stronger later formulation should not be silently substituted for the earlier contrast. Neither supplies contemporary treatment advice.
In mining, greater age is assigned the opposite favourable direction: older veins are said to accompany richer deposits as metals continue growing in their matrix. The account then distinguishes things exposed to external elements from supposedly protected underground bodies and extends the latter’s duration to the final day. Animal signs add numerical rules for antlers, horn rings, and teeth. These diverse uses show age as an inferred relation between visible marks, development, and appointed limits, not one uniform biological measure.
Places to read
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 38Latin“quotannis herba ea renovatur” Annual renewal depends on the root’s continuing spirit.
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 39Latin“recentibus autem, veteres herbae” The first medical formulation permits older herbs for recent ailments.
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 40Latin“perpetuo medicinam morbo iuniorem” The next formulation is more absolute.
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 43Latin“praedestinatum suum vivendi & moriendi tempus” Duration belongs to a cosmology of appointed limits.
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 64Latin“ex quibus aetas eiusdem cognoscitur” Animal features are treated as age-signs.
Translation in this edition
Notes 99–101 explain the root passage’s grammatical difficulty, the historical medical claims, and underground longevity assertions. Note 111 preserves the animal numbers without validating them as exact modern ageing rules.