In person at Bowen Hall, PRISM, Princeton University / Livestreamed via Zoom webinar
Thursday May 26 – Saturday 28, 2022
Register for in person or virtual attendance at the conference website: https://ripleyscrolls.princeton.edu/. A link will be sent to everyone who registers for livestream access.
This conference explores the visual language of alchemy within the broader cultural and intellectual context of pre-modern Europe. The pre-modern science and art of alchemy is famous for its vivid, often bizarre imagery. Alchemical images often represent chemical ingredients and processes allegorically, suggesting analogies with other aspects of creation: from human generation and reproduction to the motion of heavenly bodies. Alchemists also used descriptive and diagrammatic images to envisage the inner structures of matter, or to frame their work in relation to philosophical and religious doctrines. Such imagery might catch the eye of readers and patrons, or present visual arguments for ideas about nature and artifice. Images also changed over time, as new audiences sought to decipher and adapt earlier depictions—whether reflecting new artistic trends, or revealing changing attitudes towards nature, matter, and antiquity.
The conference accompanies the Princeton University Library exhibition “Through a Glass Darkly: Alchemy and the Ripley Scrolls, 1400–1700,” open in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery until July 17, 2022.
Speakers include:
Donna Bilak (NYU Gallatin), Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck, University of London), Leah DeVun (Rutgers University), Marina Escolano-Poveda (University of Liverpool), Peter J. Forshaw (University of Amsterdam), Janna Israel (Princeton University Art Museum), Didier Kahn (CNRS, Paris), William R. Newman (Indiana University Bloomington), Lawrence M. Principe (Johns Hopkins University), and Melissa Reynolds (Princeton University Society of Fellows)
Sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Innovation, the Princeton Humanities Council, and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC). Organized by Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton University).