Dear colleagues,
Please find below two announcements related to the history of alchemy:
- Talk by Prof Jennifer M. Rampling at the Oxford Seminars in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
Monday 24 April 2023, 4pm-5:15pm,
Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SE
(walk-in, no registration required)
Fantasy or experiment? Reading alchemical imagery in early modern England
Alchemy is famous for its spectacular, allegorical images, in which chemical substances and processes are frequently depicted as human and animal figures, from battling dragons to the famous “chemical wedding.” But can this imagery tell us anything about how chemical processes were actually practiced and understood – and how can we tell the difference between experimental information and fantastical speculation? This talk will trace how practitioners in medieval and early modern Europe – especially in England – manipulated visual imagery in order to signal their place within ancient genealogies of knowledge, while also advertising new practical developments. Drawing on my own attempts to reconstruct historical experiments in a modern laboratory, I ask how these practitioners used images to promote alchemical projects to readers and patrons, even as they struggled with the dual challenge of reproducing accurate images on the page, and authentic chemical effects in the laboratory.
- Oxford Seminars in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (Oxford Trinity Term 2023)
The Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, which has been organised at the Maison Française d’Oxford (2-10 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SE) for more than a decade, is now back to in person meetings during Oxford’s Trinity term (May-June 2023). The event is co-organised by Jo Hedesan and John Christie, and can be attended by anyone who wishes to without prior registration. The meetings are scheduled between 3 and 5pm on the following Wednesdays:
3 May – Medieval Islamic Alchemy and its Influence
- Chair: Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton)
- Salam Rassi (Edinburgh) – ‘Alchemy and Religious Authority in the Islamic World: The Case of Ibn Umayl (fl. c. 912)’
- Tom Fischer (EPHE Paris) – ‘New Perspectives on the Transmission and Influence of Senior Zadith’s Tabula chemica’
17 May – Vintage Analogies in Medieval and Early Modern Medical Alchemy
- Chair: Rob Iliffe (Oxford)
- Mark Thakkar (St Andrews): ‘Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel? Medieval Sermons as a Source for the History of Fermentation’
- Carmen Schmechel (FU Berlin): ‘The “Wine Stone”: Tartar as a Cause of Disease in Paracelsus and Joseph Duchesne’
24 May – Religion and Medicine in Early Modern Alchemy
- Chair: Jo Hedesan (Oxford)
- Zoe Screti (Oxford): ‘“This Parallisme Shews”: Comparing Alchemy and Religion in a Sixteenth-Century Alchemical Treatise’
- Elisabeth Moreau (Cambridge): ‘Galenic and Paracelsian Methods of Healing in Daniel Sennert’s Chymical Medicine (1619)’
31 May – Chemical Careers in New Contexts, 1760-1860
- Chair: John Christie (Oxford)
- Robert Fox (Oxford): ‘Thomas Garnett. Science, medicine, mobility in eighteenth-century England’
- Frank James and Anna Simmons (UCL): ‘The Disappearing Act of William Thomas Brande: How History of Science Marginalises Some but not Others’
14 June – What’s in a Substance? Making Identity and Purity in Modern Chemistry
- Chair: John Christie (Oxford)
- Catherine Jackson (Oxford): ‘Solving the Synthesis Paradox: Making Purity and Identity’
- Marabel Riesmeier (Cambridge): ‘Individuating Chemicals: Substantial Shifts in the 20th Century’
On behalf of the organizer,
Georgiana Hedesan