Dr. Ulrich Schlegelmilch Arbeitsstelle

Dr. Ulrich Schlegelmilch
Arbeitsstelle Frühneuzeitliche Ärztebriefe der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Zweigstelle
Röntgenring 10
D-97070 Würzburg
Tel. +49 931 318 1070
[email protected]
Till death do us part: Balthasar Timaeus’ medical correspondence on consumption (1656-1661)
Balthasar Timaeus (1600-1667), nobilitated as „von Güldenklee“, was a physician in Kolberg, today’s Polish Kołobrzeg,
Pomerania. Educated in Thorn, Wittenberg, and Padua, he also became physician to Brandenburg’s Elector Friedrich
Wilhelm and the Swedish Queen-Widow Maria Eleonora. Famous for his success in saving a whole Swedish expedition force
from lethal diarrhea, he also witnessed other diseases labelled as epidemical during his almost forty years as a practicioner.
Among those, consumption is a major topic in what Timaeus later published under the title of Casus resp. Epistolae
medicinales. These collections which I have analysed for the long-term project of the Munich Academy of Sciences,
Frühneuzeitliche Ärztebriefe 1500-1700, allow us not only to take a close look at a network of medical correspondence. They
provide insight into private affairs, too, as this seventeenth century physician tries to cope with the deadly illness of his
beloved wife. Beside his own attempts to save her, Timaeus turns to colleagues for help: his brother Christian, a nearbyliving town physician, medical professors at Jena and Rostock, and the famous court physician at Berlin, Martin Weise.
I shall first consider the debate of the time on consumption, the (non)-possibilities of its cure and the resulting helplessness of
doctors as well as relatives, before turning to Timaeus’ letters. From these a five years’ struggle becomes visible – ending in
loss –, Timaeus being torn between the sobriety of the learned physician and the desperation of the husband who seeks for
arcane medicine as well as for consolation – first from his fellow physicians, and in the end in God.
C. V.
1968 born in Bremen
1989-97 Staatsexamen in Classics and History at Würzburg and Pavia, Italy
2001 Dr. phil. in Classical Philology on Neo-Latin Jesuit and other religious poetry featuring early modern church buildings
and inauguration ceremonies (publ. Regensburg, 2003, as Descriptio templi)
2002-2008 Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the Chair of Klassische Philologie II (Latin), University of Würzburg
since 2009 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Institute of History of Medicine, University of Würzburg (with the
“Akademievorhaben Frühneuzeitliche Ärztebriefe” of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften)
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