•
Occulta naturae miracula (1559, Antwerp) by the
University and State Library Düsseldorf) This was translated as
De gli occvlti miracoli,
Les Occultes Merveilles et Secretz de Nature (online text,
The secret miracles of nature, and
Wunderbarliche Geheimnisse der Natur online text). •
De habitu et constitutione corporis (1561, Antwerp). As
The Touchstone of Complexions (1576) (translation into English by
Thomas Newton) •
Herbarum atque arborum quae in Bibliis passim obviae sunt et ex quibus sacri vates similitudines desumunt. In English as
An Herbal for the Bible (1579, Newton translation). by the
University and State Library Düsseldorf His
Occulta naturae miracula, a
book of secrets, is his best-known work. It ran through many editions and was widely translated from Latin. It drew on classical sources, particularly
Aristotle. Lemnius was influenced, too, by the "airs, waters, places" doctrine from the
Hippocratic Corpus. The work attempted to reconcile
natural philosophy as found in classical sources with Christian doctrine, particularly on generation and reproduction, while emphasising extraordinary aspects. His
humoral theory was complex, with
phlegm being divided into four, and the other humours also being subdivided. He is credited with first mentioning in this work of
staining of
bone, with
madder root. In the same work he gives credence to the theory of
maternal impression; his theory of
teratology connects the Aristotelian theory of generation with birth defects. He contributed to
demonology, with
Johann Weyer, by suggesting that
mental illness and disturbance could be physically caused, rather than being a result of outside influence. He also credited
Solomon with the invention of the
magnetic compass. This work in some form had a lifetime of nearly four centuries. It was later combined with a German manual on
midwifery by
Jakob Rüff, to create ''Aristotle's Masterpiece'', a 17th-century work in English of advice on sex and reproduction, still sold in later editions in the 1930s. ==Notes==