Welcome to the Website of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC), publisher of the scholarly journal Ambix.
Founded in 1935, SHAC has consistently maintained the highest standards of scholarship in all aspects of the history of alchemy and chemistry from early times to the present. The Society has a wide international membership from over thirty countries.
We hold meetings and webinars, offer scholarly prizes and grants, and publish the journal Ambix. The Society’s newsletter, Chemical Intelligence, is published twice a year. We have also established the Graduate Network to bring together postgraduate students in the field.
Keep up to date with the news and events of SHAC by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
You can watch our SHAC Online Seminars on YouTube here.
Please note that changes are processed manually and you will receive a confirmation email when our records have been updated. For any queries please find relevant contact information on https://www.ambix.org/contact-us/
A mixture of meetings, webinars, appeals for volunteers, information on Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry and the call for nominations for the 2027 Morris Award this month!
1. New SHAC Communications Editor Wanted
The SHAC Communications Editor is responsible for advertising upcoming SHAC sponsored events and award opportunities on the SHAC social media accounts (Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook), as well as managing the Linktree associated with the SHAC Instagram account. The Communications Editor works with the Website Content Editor, the Newsletter Editor, and the Grants Chair to promote content related to the society on social media and communicates with the Ambix editorial board to promote special issues of Ambix and other news related to the journal. This is a great opportunity for a social media savvy early career scholar to connect with scholars in the field at history of science events (posting on social media from SHAC sponsored events) as well as observing the functions of Council and the journal Ambix. If you are interested in finding out more please send a paragraph outlining your research interests and relevant expertise to SHAC Chair, Frank James (frank.james@ucl.ac.uk).
2. SHAC Meeting at the Deutsches Museum, Munich, 5-6 November 2026
A programme and registration details for SHAC’s autumn meeting, kindly hosted by the Deutsches Museum will be available shortly. The provisional social programme will include an optional museum visit and conference dinner. Numbers are limited due to the capacity of the Museum’s meeting room and participants are recommended to register as soon as booking opens.
3. Boyle@400 – 25 January 2027, Royal Society of Chemistry, London
Robert Boyle was born at Lismore Castle on 25 January 1627. To mark the 400th anniversary of this event, a one-day conference celebrating Boyle and his achievements will be held at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London, on Monday, 25 January 2027. This event is organised by the Historical Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Speakers will include Peter Anstey, Michael Bycroft, Michele DiMeo, Sachiko Kusukawa and Lawrence Principe. There is no charge for registration, but those wishing to reserve a place should send an e-mail, with ‘Boyle meeting’ in the subject line to the SHAC administrative co-ordinator at meetings@ambix.org
4. SHAC AGM Minutes
Minutes of the AGM covering 2025 held in May 2026 are now available on our website
SHAC is looking for a new Treasurer. If you are interested in finding out more about this role please contact Chair, Frank James on frank.james@ucl.ac.uk
5. Next SHAC Webinar
This will take place on Thursday 24 September 2026 at 5pm BST. Look out for details in SHAC member emails, social media, Chem-Hist and Mersenne. The most recent seminar was given by Professor Lawrence Principe on “John of Rupescissa’s The Book of the Light of the Great Magistery.” This can be viewed athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=559edYHk9sY .
6. Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry
Lawrence M. Principe’s critical edition, English translation, and detailed study of the Book of the Light of the Great Magistery by the Franciscan friar, alchemist, and prophet of the antichrist John of Rupescissa (ca. 1310-1366) forms the third volume of Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry. It will be dispatched to members in summer 2026. Based on over one hundred surviving manuscripts, many recently discovered, this critical edition restores substantial original text omitted from the printed editions and corrects longstanding textual errors.
7. Morris Award 2027 – Call for Nominations
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry solicits nominations for the 2027 John and Martha Morris Award for achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry. This award honours the memory of John and Martha Morris, the late parents of Peter Morris, the former editor of Ambix, who has contributed the endowment for this award. The recipient chosen to receive the Morris Award will be expected to deliver a lecture at a meeting of SHAC, where the awardee will be presented with an appropriate framed photograph, picture or document and the sum of £300. The award is international in scope, and nominations are invited from anywhere in the world.
A complete nomination consists of
• a complete curriculum vitae for the nominee, including biographical data, educational background, awards, honours, list of publications, and other service to the profession;
• a letter of nomination summarising the nominee’s scholarly achievement in the history of recent chemistry (post-c. 1960) and the unique contributions that merit this award; and
• names of two or three individuals for the panel to contact for further information if needed.
Only complete nominations will be considered for the award and the nomination documents must be submitted in electronic form. The Award will be judged by the selection panel on the basis of excellence in scholarly publication (papers and/or books), with nominations encouraged of scholars at all career stages and from chemist-historians and historians of chemistry. All nomination materials should be submitted by e-mail to Peter Morris at doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com and a separate email which indicates that the material has been submitted should be sent to the same address (a precaution in case of incomplete transmission of documents) for arrival no later than 1 May 2027.
THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN NORTHWEST EUROPE: LOCAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES, LILLE, TUESDAY 5 MAY 2026, 11.00-17.20 CET
The history of the chemical industry has long attracted scholarly attention and continues to do so today. This workshop, organised by Gabriel Galvez Behar and Joris Mercelis, reflects on the current state of the historiography, including its implications for other areas of research. Focusing on Northwest Europe and its connections to other regions, the workshop provides a forum to discuss works in progress and identify avenues for future research. Those interested in attending, either in person or virtually, are encouraged to register via this link:
2. SHAC ONLINE SEMINAR – JOHN OF RUPESCISSA’S THE BOOK OF THE LIGHT OFTHE GREAT MAGISTERY: ALCHEMY, ANTICHRIST, AND IMPRISONMENT – THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2026
The next on-line seminar will be given by Professor Lawrence Principe (Johns Hopkins University). This will be live on Thursday, 28 May 2026, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour. To register please e-mail meetings@ambix.org with ‘SHAC on-line seminar’ in the subject line. You will then be sent a Zoom link on the morning of the seminar.
The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
Abstract: Convinced that the antichrist was “at our gates,” the fourteenth-century Franciscan friar, alchemist, and prophet John of Rupescissa wrote The Book of the Light of the Great Magistery while imprisoned in papal Avignon. John’s goal was to provide a means for restoring a devastated post-antichrist Christendom using the philosophers’ stone, the substance able to transmute base metals into gold and silver. With this alchemical gold and silver, the true and faithful Franciscans, the “poor men of the Gospel,” could rebuild the Church and help usher in a millennium of peace and prosperity.
In this book launch seminar, Lawrence Principe will discuss the first critical edition, modern English translation, and focused study of John’s Book of the Light. The friar’s restored text, produced using both philological tools and laboratory reworkings, reveals John as an innovative thinker and practitioner whose ideas often oppose key features of Aristotelian natural philosophy, and requires a reassessment of the actual conditions of John’s long imprisonment.
Remember the deadline is 31 May 2026 and application forms have to be requested in advance from grants@ambix.org .SHAC offers two types of award: support for research into the history of chemistry or history of alchemy by both new and independent scholars and support for Subject Development of either history of chemistry or history of alchemy.
SHAC is delighted to announce that its next meeting will take place at the Deutsches Museum, Munich. Following the success of the meeting at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia in 2025, SHAC is continuing its programme of holding meetings outside of Britain and welcomes offers of papers from all with a scholarly interest in the history of alchemy and chemistry.
It is intended that the first day of this two day meeting will cover the history of alchemy and early modern chemistry, while the second day will discuss the history of chemistry from then to the modern period. A tour of the museum’s collections will also be arranged as part of the meeting. Offers of papers on any aspect of the history of alchemy and chemistry, including their historiography, should be sent, with a short description, to the SHAC chair, Professor Frank James (frank.james@ucl.ac.uk), by 31 May 2026.
Remember the deadline is 31 May 2026 and application forms have to be requested in advance from grants@ambix.org . SHAC offers two types of award: support for research into the history of chemistry or history of alchemy by both new and independent scholars and support for Subject Development of either history of chemistry or history of alchemy.
SHAC is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2026 Partington Prize is Dr Flavio Bevacqua of University of Padua for the entry “Alchemy in 15th-Century Byzantium: The Case for the Role of Georgios-Gennadios Scholarios’ Circle”.
Flavio’s entry brings together for the first time two medieval texts in the history of alchemy, reconstructing the intellectual milieu surrounding the Byzantine scholar Georgios-Gennadios Scholarios. The author diligently and judiciously integrates manuscript evidence with philological analysis and cultural contextualization, illuminating a previously underexamined dimension of alchemical history in Byzantium. We congratulate Flavio Bevacqua for his groundbreaking work.
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize-winning article will be published in the Society’s journal, Ambix, in 2026.
3. SHAC SPRING MEETING – REMEMBERING BILL BROCK: CHEMISTRY AND CULTURE 10 April 2026, Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford, OX2 6SE https://www.mfo.ac.uk/
This meeting is being held to commemorate the life, work and legacy of William Hodson Brock (1936-2025), who spent his entire career at the University of Leicester. Sometime chair of SHAC and editor of its journal Ambix, Brock was one of the leading historians of chemistry in his time, writing the Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, as well as biographies of William Crookes, Justus von Liebig and Henry Edward Armstrong.
There is no charge for this meeting, but please let Frank James know, (frank.james@ucl.ac.uk) by 5 April 2026 if you wish to attend.
4. OXFORD SEMINARS IN THE HISTORY OF ALCHEMY AND CHEMISTRY – SPONSORED BY SHAC 13TH, 20TH MAY AND 3RD JUNE
Convenors: Ellen Hausner (Oxford), Sergei Zotov (Warburg), and Jo Hedesan (Oxford)
The meetings take place between 3 pm and 5 pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford, OX2 6SE.https://www.mfo.ac.uk/ There is no charge for these seminars and all are welcome to attend. No prior registration required.
13 May 2026
Session 1 — Life and Nature in Early Modern Alchemy Chair: Sergei Zotov (Warburg Institute)
Oana Matei (Western University of Arad): Can Life Rise from Ashes? Discussions on the Possibility of the Palingenesis of Plants in the Seventeenth Century
Xinyi Wen (Warburg Institute): Cosmos or Coitus? A Copy Census of Oswald Croll’s Basilica Chymica, 1609–1690 20 May 2026
Session 2 — Spiritual Foundations of Alchemy Chair: Ellen Hausner (Oxford)
Mark Edwards (Oxford): Ancient Alchemy as Philosophy
Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute): Alchemy as Divinatio 3 June 2026
Session 3 — Computational History of Alchemy and Chemistry Chair: Rob Iliffe (Oxford)
Vojtěch Kaše (University of West Bohemia, Plzeň), and Sarah Lang (Max Planck Institute, Berlin): Tracing the Histories of Early Modern Conceptual Ecosystems: Remote Sensing Methods for the Archaeology of Alchemical Knowledge
Guillermo Restrepo (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig): Computational History of Chemistry: How Big Data Illuminates Macrohistorical Trends and Microhistorical Events
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2026 Partington Prize is Dr Flavio Bevacqua of University of Padua for the entry “Alchemy in 15th-Century Byzantium: The Case for the Role of Georgios-Gennadios Scholarios’ Circle”.
Flavio’s entry brings together for the first time two medieval texts in the history of alchemy, reconstructing the intellectual milieu surrounding the Byzantine scholar Georgios-Gennadios Scholarios. The author diligently and judiciously integrates manuscript evidence with philological analysis and cultural contextualization, illuminating a previously underexamined dimension of alchemical history in Byzantium. We congratulate Flavio Bevacqua for his groundbreaking work.
Flavio Bevacqua is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padua. He graduated from the same university with a bachelor’s degree in Classics and a master’s degree in Classics and Ancient History. He then obtained his doctorate in Classical Philology and Ancient Philosophy in 2025 in a joint agreement (cotutelle) between the University of Padua and the Sorbonne Université in Paris, with a dissertation focused on the works of the so-called Anepigraphos Philosopher, a seventh- or eighth-century author transmitted within the Greek alchemical corpus. His main research interests lie in the study of history of science and natural philosophy in all their aspects, including alchemy, biology, botany, physics, and metaphysics; the transmission of scientific and philosophical knowledge from Antiquity to Byzantium and the Islamicate world, on to early modern Europe; and Greek manuscripts, palaeography, and codicology, with a focus on the history of texts and philology
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry established the Partington Prize in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman. It is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize-winning article will be published in the Society’s journal, Ambix, in 2026.
We are pleased to announce the Spring 2026 series of the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Please find the programme below.
Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Convenors: Ellen Hausner (Oxford), Sergei Zotov (Warburg), and Jo Hedesan (Oxford)
The meetings take place between 3 pm and 5 pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford.
13 May 2026
Session 1 — Life and Nature in Early Modern Alchemy Chair: Sergei Zotov (Warburg Institute)
Oana Matei (Western University of Arad): Can Life Rise from Ashes? Discussions on the Possibility of the Palingenesis of Plants in the Seventeenth Century
Xinyi Wen (Warburg Institute): Cosmos or Coitus? A Copy Census of Oswald Croll’s Basilica Chymica, 1609–1690
20 May 2026
Session 2 — Spiritual Foundations of Alchemy Chair: Ellen Hausner (Oxford)
Mark Edwards (Oxford): Ancient Alchemy as Philosophy
Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute): Alchemy as Divination
3 June 2026
Session 3 — Computational History of Alchemy and Chemistry Chair: Rob Iliffe (Oxford)
Vojtěch Kaše (University of West Bohemia, Plzeň), and Sarah Lang (Max Planck Institute, Berlin): Tracing the Histories of Early Modern Conceptual Ecosystems: Remote Sensing Methods for the Archaeology of Alchemical Knowledge
Guillermo Restrepo (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig): Computational History of Chemistry: How Big Data Illuminates Macrohistorical Trends and Microhistorical Events
Professor John C. Powers (Virginia Commonwealth University) will present Defending the New Chemistry: The Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, c. 1811-13 This will be live on Thursday, 26 March 2026, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.
From this seminar we are changing the system for registering to attend the event. To register please e-mail meetings@ambix.org with ‘SHAC on-line seminar’ in the subject line. You will then be sent a Zoom link on the morning of the seminar.
The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
Defending the New Chemistry: The Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, c. 1811-13
John C. Powers
During the first decade of the 19th Century, several tenets of Lavoisier’s antiphlogistic chemistry had come under serious scrutiny through the work of Thomas Thomson, Humphry Davy and other British chemists. Details of this work quickly crossed the Atlantic and became a topic of discussion and debate among American chemists and physicians. In Philadelphia, two Professors of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, James Woodhouse (prof. 1795-1809) and John Redman Coxe (prof. 1809-18) embraced the British critiques of the new chemistry and exposed the new chemistry’s weaknesses to their students. Coxe, in fact, published a book, Observations on Combustion and Acidification (1811) in which, following suggestions from Davy, he advocated a return to a version of the phlogiston theory.
In a curious twist, many chemistry and medical students in Philadelphia did not support their professors’ critical approach to the new chemistry. In 1811 students founded the Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, an organization which provided an outlet for them to present their own practical work in chemistry as well as refute claims which undermined Lavoisier’s views. This talk will examine some of the papers by these students, who went on to have careers as prominent chemists or physicians, such as Thomas D. Mitchell, Franklin Bache, and James Cutbush, and provide some context regarding the ongoing debate over the new chemistry in the United States.
