ABSTRACT
For more than forty-one years Ole Worm served the University of Copenhagen as a professor. The first eleven years were spent in the Faculty of Philosophy until Worm became professor of medicine in 1624. Worm proved a hard-working member of both faculties.
In 1619 Ole Worm used his inaugural address as dean to warn the graduates against Rosicrucianism. That he took this opportunity to distance himself from a movement he had been deeply interested in since 1611 made eminent sense in the then less tolerant climate of Lutheran uniformity. A suspicion of religiously heterodox could prove detrimental. Even so Worm retained his interests in iatrochemistry and Paracelsianism.
Ole Worm always emphasised the importance of anatomy for medicine. His fascination with then recent discoveries such as Aselli’s lacteals and Harvey’s circulation of the blood demonstrated his emphasis on the importance of observation, demonstration, and description. His insistence on a hands-on, experimental approach was something he repeatedly told his students undertaking their peregrinatio academica. The extensive epistolary exchange between Worm and his students shows the importance of a sympathetic tutor for the student and the value for the teacher of talented students present at the leading universities of the age.
