Jean Roberti (also Johannes) (1569 – 14 February 1651)[1] was a Jesuit from Luxemburg who became known for his part in a medical and scientific controversy. He was also a theological writer.
He was born in Saint-Hubert and studied in Jesuit colleges at Liège and Cologne. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1592, held teaching posts, and was awarded a D.D. at Mainz. He became rector of the college at Paderborn, and died at Namur.[2] Remacle Roberti (Remaclus Robertius), an official and adviser in the Spanish Netherlands, was his brother.[3] [4]
In 1609 Roberti wrote a reply, his Brevis anatome, to a 1608 work of Rudolph Goclenius on medical astrology from a Paracelsian perspective, that had mentioned a weapon salve (a type of sympathetic magic). Roberti objected to the efficacy of the weapon salve being attributed to purely natural causes. He called the explanation of Goclenius necromantic, and a confusion of natural magic with other kinds. Goclenius replied by listing 45 kinds of "evil magic", and 24 effects that had been achieved by a magus, and could not be explained by natural causes. A pamphlet war continued; in 1621 Goclenius died, but Johannes Baptista van Helmont then published the same year his De magnetica vulnerum curatione, a severe attack on Roberti as well as critical of Goclenius who (in his opinion) had a simplistic view. The attacks of Roberti had some effects: van Helmont went through an examination by the Inquisition, and some sideblows against the Rosicrucians he made in 1618 were picked up in 1623 by Marin Mersenne and Jean Boucher.[5] [6] [7] [8]
Mysticae Ezechielis quadrigae was a work on the four Gospels. Roberti edited the Flores epytaphii sanctorum of Theofried of Epternach, Legend of St. Hubert, and other works of hagiography.[9]