Suchten [Zuchta], Alexander

1. Dates

Born: Tczew, Poland, 1520? According to Haberling, born in Gdansk. Hubicki argues, however, that an Alexius Zuchta de Gedana, alias Suchten, who was registered as a lecturer at Krakow University in 1521, was the same man (pp. 103- 4). Hubicki admits serious weaknesses in both his and Haberling's dating. Hubicki is willing to accept Eufemia Schultz and Jerzy Zuchta as his parents; the Gdansk marriage register records their date of marriage in 1511.

Died: Bavaria, 1590?

Dateinfo: Both Dates Uncertain

Lifespan: 70

2. Father

Occupation: Government Official

His father was George (Jürgen, Jerzy) Suchten, an assessor for the Gdansk town court. The Suchtens were an important family, possessing houses in Gdansk and an estate near Tczew. An uncle, Christopher Suchten, was a secretary to King Sigismund I Jagiello. A grandfather and another uncle had been mayors of Gdansk.

Obviously affluent at the least, more likely wealthy.

3. Nationality

Birth: Tczew, Poland

Career: Germany, Poland

Death: Bavaria, Germany

4. Education

Schooling: Louvain, Sapienza (Rome), Ferrara, Bologna; Padua, M.D.

1535-9, studied at Elblag.

Since higher clerical positions could only be filled by those who had studied at a foreign university for three years and taken a doctorate (according to the decree of Johannes Dantiscus, Bishop of Warmia), Suchten went to Louvain, where he studied medicine, then to Rome, Ferrara, Bologna, and Padua. I assume a B.A. or its equivalent.

He obtained his doctorate from the university of Padua around 1545.

Hubicki tells a somewhat different story about his early years. He contends that Suchten began his career as a poet, a student of the famous humanist Pawel Proceler of Krosno. Due to finanical problems, he was forced to take up work in the royal chancellery. Then to Louvain, 1540-4, and then Italy as above.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, Heterodox

He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1545. In the 50's he became an Aryan (does this mean Socinian?)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Medicine, Chemistry

He was a distinguished Paracelsian, who dedicated himself to attacking deceit and charlatanism in medicine. He published several works in medicine and in chemistry. He was perhaps the first scholar to write on the history of chemistry.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Patronage, Medicine, Personal Means

Secondary: Church Life

Hubicki claims that Suchten's maternal uncle, Alexander Schultze was responsible for obtaining a hotly contested canonate in Frauenberg (which he himself was resigning) for Suchten in 1539. (Incidentally, Schultze was one of Copernicus's few friends.) At appears that Suchten was dismissed from the canonate in 1540 because of a decree by the Bishop of Warmia that all higher clerical positions be filled only by those with a doctorate and at least three years of study in a foreign university. It was at this point that Suchten began his medical studies abroad.

1545, he was poet and physician at the court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia in Königsberg. He had turned to Albrecht in 1545 for assistance after the Bishop of Warmia confiscated his inheritance in conjunction with his excommunicated (both apparently entangled in the affairs of the uncle Schultze). He succeeded in salvaging his family wealth by contesting the confiscation before the king in 1552. Other sources contest this, and claim that Suchten never got it back. When his brother Bartholomew died in 1567, there was a family struggle over the inheritance.

1549, physician and librarian to the elector of the Palatinate, Ottheinrich.

1554-about 1564, he returned to Poland as physician to Sigismund II Augustus.

He returned for a short time to Königsberg, where he resumed his position as physician to Duke Albrecht.

He then went to the court of the German magnate Johann von Seebach in Bavaria, where he appears to have ended his life.

8. Patronage

Types: Eccesiastic Official, Court Official, Aristrocrat

Suchten's uncle, Alexander Schultze (Sculteti), a canon of Fromberg, resigned his canonry, with consent from Rome, in favor of his nephew. This uncle, a follower of Heinrich Bullinger, was accused of heresy and his estate was confiscated. Suchten became involved in his uncle's trial and ended up being deprived not only of the canonry but also of his paternal inheritance for a time.

Suchten twice worked at the court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia, who appears to have been his firmest patron.

He was physician to the Elector of the Palatinate, Ottheinrich.

He was physician to Sigismund II Augustus, (King?) of Poland. About 1564, Suchten wrote two treatises that so enraged a number of famous physicians that Sigismund dismissed him.

Suchten spent the last years of his life at the court of the German magnate Johann von Seebach in Bavaria.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

Almost all of his positions involved practicing medicine, at least nominally.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Hubicki maintains the Suchten probably studied with Paraclesus in Italy. (But I was not aware that Paracelsus was ever in Italy.

Sources

1. Wlodzimierz Hubicki, "Doktor Aleksander Zuchta. Zapomniany polski chemik, lekarz i poeta XVI wieku," Studia i materialy z dziejow nauki polskiej, 1 (1953), 102-20.
2. Bogdan Suchodolski, gen. ed. Historia Nauki Polskiej. 3 vols. (Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy imienia ossolinskich wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1970). Vol. 1: Sredniowiecze, by Pawel Czartoryski and Odrodzenie by Pawel Rybicki. Vol. 2: Barok, by Henryk Barycz and Oswiecenie by Kazimierz Opalek.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. Wlodzimierz Hubicki, "Alexander von Suchten," Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, 44 (1960), 54-63.
2. Wilhelm Haberling, "Alexander von Suchten...," Zeitschrift des westpreussischen Geschichtsvereins, 69 (1926), 177-230.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.