The Oxford seminar in the history of alchemy and chemistry will will take place during Trinity Term, and is organised with the support of SHAC. It’s convenors are John Christie, Oxford and Marie Thébaud-Sorger, MFO.

See here the programme:

Wednesday 22 May, 3.00-5.00pm


Jo Hedesan, Oxford

« Alchemy and Paracelsianism at the Casino San Marco in Florence under the patronage of Antonio de’ Medici (1576-1621) »


Ute Frietsch, Wolfenbüttel

« Alchemy as an organising principle of the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II »


Wednesday 29 May, 3.00-5.00pm

A prospect and preview of A Cultural History of Chemistry (6 vols., Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
With Peter Morris (Joint Editor-in Chief), John Christie (contributor, vol. 4).

Wednesday 5 June, 4.00-6.00pm

Pierre Teissier, Université de Nantes 

« Chemical Substitutions in XXth Century Materials Research »

Mat Paskins, LSE

« The Substitutes Directory: Narratives and Practices of Substitution »

Location :

Maison française d’Oxford

2-10 Norham Road

OX2 6RF Oxford

The Cambridge Bibliographical Society will be hosting an event which may be of interest to SHAC’s members. On 1 May, Ed Potten and Tim Chesters will give a paper on “’Spiritus anima’ – an unrecorded seventeenth-century alchemist’s library at Clare College, Cambridge.”

The talk will take place on 1 May in Milstein Seminar Rooms, at the main University Library, 5.00-6.00pm, with refreshments from 4.30pm. All are welcome.

About their paper:
“The identity of the annotator of a collection of extraordinary seventeenth-century alchemical manuscripts, now in the Sloane Collection, has long eluded scholars. The recent discovery of a collection of sixty printed books in the Fellows’ Library at Clare College, Cambridge, all annotated in the same characteristic hand, utilizing the same complex system of cross-referencing and the same approach to organizing and recording knowledge, casts new light on the Sloane annotator, his methods and his identity. Ed Potten (University of York, and formerly Head of Rare Books at the University Library) and Dr Tim Chesters (Modern & Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge) will share their discoveries about this enigmatic annotator, accompanied by a display of books.”

The British Society for the History of Pharmacy is hosting two short courses which may be of interest to SHAC’s members.

The first course covers a three-day programme on the history of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry from 1-3 July. The programme and the application form can be downloaded here.

The second course is about ethics and philosophy of medicine and runs from 1-2 July. The programme and the application can be found here.

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is also hosting a three-day conference on the history and future of medicine, from 1 to 3 May. For more information and to apply, click here.

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites submissions for the 10th Annual Postgraduate Workshop. This year’s topic will be“Society and the Creation of (al)Chemical Knowledge.”

The workshop will take place on 29-30 November, 2019, and will be hosted by the Ritman Library in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

The deadline for applications is 1 June, 2019.
More information about the workshop and about applying can be found here.

Applicants are invited to apply for grants under a new Special Award Scheme from the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) to support attendance of early-career scholars and independent scholars at the 12^th International Conference on the History of Chemistry in Maastricht on 29 July to 2 August 2019. Awards of up to £500 will be made as a contribution towards the cost of travel, accommodation and registration fees for those giving a paper at the conference. Early-career scholars are defined as post-graduate students (both masters and doctoral students) and those who have obtained a PhD since January 2014.

Applicants must be members of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry in good standing at the time of making an application and if successful through the period of the award. For more information and application forms please contact grants[AT]ambix.org stating that you are applying for a grant to attend ICHC.

Details of how to join the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry can be found at https://www.ambix.org/subscription/ . Membership enquiries should be made to newjoiner[AT]ambix.org

The deadline for applications is Sunday 7 April 2019. Please note this an earlier deadline than for the 2019 SHAC Award Scheme. It is expected that applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application in time to register for early-bird conference fees which are available until 1 May 2019.

An activity report must be submitted at the end of the conference. This will usually be published in SHAC’s Chemical Intelligence Newsletter.

Please note that applying for a Special ICHC12 Award does not preclude applying to the usual SHAC Award Scheme for 2019.

Matter, Ideas and Nature:  A Conference in Memory of David Marcus Knight

Durham University, 14-15 June 2019

SHAC’s spring meeting is being organised jointly with Durham University’s Department of Philosophy and will take place at Durham University’s Business School on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 June 2019.

The registration fee for the meeting will be £20.

Please visit the following link to book a place at the conference

https://www.dur.ac.uk/conference.booking/details/?id=1205

FRIDAY 14^TH JUNE

SATURDAY 15^TH JUNE

On 4 and 5 March, the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry and the Maison Francaise in Oxford will organise a conference on “Biographies of Materials and the Crossroads between Natural Sciences and Humanities.”

During the conference, both historians and material scientists will shed light on the hybrid life of materials as natural entities or social and economic agents.

Attendance is free, but registration is required.

For the full programme and ways to register, see here.