Convener
Dr Jenny Rampling (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)
Co-conveners
Dr Lauren Kassell (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)
Mr Peter Jones (History and Philosophy of Science/King's College, University of Cambridge)
Conference summary
Alchemists pursued many goals, from the transmutation of metals to the preservation of health and life. These pursuits were continually informed and modified by medical knowledge, while alchemical debates about nature, generation, and the achievability of perfection in turn impacted on medicine and natural philosophy. This three-day international conference will investigate these interactions, from alchemy’s development in late antiquity to its decline throughout the eighteenth century. It will ask how alchemical and medical ideas and practices changed over time, how they reflected the experience of individual readers and practitioners, and the extent to which they responded to significant currents in intellectual, political, and social life.
Keynote lecture by Bruce T. Moran (University of Nevada at Reno)
Speakers include:
- Chiara Crisciani (Università degli Studi di Pavia)
- Andrew Cunningham (University of Cambridge)
- Hiro Hirai (Radboud University Nijmegen)
- Didier Kahn (CNRS, Paris)
- William Newman (Indiana University)
- Michela Pereira (Università di Siena)
- Lawrence Principe (Johns Hopkins University)
- Nancy Siraisi (City University of New York)
- Emma Spary (University of Cambridge)
Panel themes include: Elixirs and the prolongation of life; Medicine, alchemy and patronage; The eighteenth-century transmutation of chemical medicine; Books, recipes and secrets; Medical practitioners as alchemists; Shared materials, practices and technologies; The transmission of alchemical and medical knowledge; Histories of alchemy and medicine.
Accommodation for non-paper giving participants
www.visitcambridge.org/index.php
www.cambridgerooms.co.uk
NB. CRASSH is not able to help with the booking of accommodation.
Sponsors
Programme
| Thursday, 22 September | |
|
13.00 |
Registration |
|
13.50 - 14.00 |
Welcome and Introduction |
|
14.00 - 16.00 |
Panel 1: Disciplinary identities I: medical practitioners as alchemists Chair: Andrew Wear
(University College London)
Bink Hallum (University of Warwick): An Islamic physician’s reading of the alchemical classics: the Book of Testimonies from al-R?z?’s Twelve Books
Peter M. Jones (University of Cambridge):Alchemical remedies of an English royal physician: John Argentein, c.1443–1508 Hiro Hirai (Radboud University Nijmegen): Alchemy and medicine in Joseph Du Chesne’s De priscorum materia (1603)
Adeline
Gasnier (Université de Tours): Iatrochemistry
vs. medical orthodoxy: a vain attempt to reconcile both doctrines at the
medical Faculty of Paris (1603–1609)
|
|
16.00 - 16.30 |
Tea and coffee |
|
16.30 - 18.80 |
Panel 2: Shared materials, practices and apparatus Chair: Karin Ekholm (University of Cambridge) Andrew Cunningham (University of Cambridge): Mercury, medicine and alchemy Valentina Pugliano (University of Oxford): Of resins and waters: the simple alchemy of Renaissance apothecaries Donna Bilak (Bard Graduate Center, New York): The laboratory construct of John Allin, Puritan alchemist in Restoration London |
|
18.00 - 20.00 |
Simon Forman
Quatercentenary Reception (sponsored by the Casebooks Project) |
| Friday, 23 September | |
|
09.00 - 10.30 |
Panel 3: Medicine, alchemy and patronage Chair tbc
Jennifer Rampling (University of Cambridge): The ‘vegetable stone’ and alchemical patronage in Tudor England Rafa? T. Prinke (Eugeniusz Piasecki University in Pozna?): Medicine, alchemy and patronage in late sixteenth century Prague: a microhistory Tuna Artun (Princeton University): Alchemy and medicine at the Ottoman Court in the reign of Murad IV |
|
10.30 - 11.00 |
Tea and coffee |
|
11.00 - 13.00 |
Panel 4: Prolongation of life Chair/commentator: Peter M. Jones (King’s College, Cambridge) Nancy Siraisi (City University of New York): Human lifespan, length of life, and the powers of Galenic medicine: issues and approaches in some fourteenth- to early seventeenth-century accounts Chiara Crisciani (Università degli Studi di Pavia): Elixir and radical moisture in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century alchemy
Jo Hedesan (University of Exeter): Recovering the Arbor Vitae: medical prolongation of life in early modern alchemy |
|
13.00 - 14.15 |
Lunch |
|
14.15 - 16.15 |
Panel 5: Disciplinary identities II: the transmutation of chemical medicine Chair: Hasok Chang (University of Cambridge) William R. Newman (Indiana University, Bloomington): Isaac Newton and chymical medicine Cécilia Bognon-Küss (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne): Explaining digestion and assimilation : from fermentation to « chylification » in 18th century medicine and philosophy Emma Spary (University of Cambridge): The chemistry of flavours in Paris, circa 1730 |
|
16.15 - 16.45 |
Tea and coffee |
|
16.45 - 17.45
|
Keynote lecture
Bruce Moran (University of Nevada at Reno): Scheide – Kunst: art and agency at the crossroads of early modern alchemy and medicine |
|
17.45 - 18.45 |
Roundtable discussion Chair: Lauren Kassell (University of Cambridge) |
| 19.30 |
Conference dinner |
| Saturday, 24 September | |
|
09.00 - 10.30 |
Panel 6: Books, recipes and secrets Chair/commentator: Anke Timmermann (Medical University of Vienna) Peter J. Grund (University of Kansas): ‘Master, I pray youe Enform me of the Errors in philosophie’: Scoller and Master and the transmission of alchemical dialogues in medieval and early modern England Elaine Leong (University of Warwick): Tweaking as creating: recipes and knowledge production in early modern England Margaret D. Garber (California State University, Fullerton): Circulating the secrets of the Alkahest within the culture of curiosities |
|
10.30 - 11.00 |
Tea and coffee |
|
11.00 - 13.00 |
Panel 7: Transmission of alchemical and medical knowledge Chair: tbc Matteo Martelli (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin): Alchemy and medicine in Graeco-Roman Egypt: the four books by Ps.-Democritus Gabriele Ferrario (Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge): Materia alchemica and materia medica in medieval Islamic lands. New evidence from the Cairo Genizah Sébastien Moureau (Université de Nancy 2): New investigations about the link between the De anima in arte alchemiae and Roger Bacon: alchemical and medical doctrines Didier Kahn (CNRS, Paris): The Apocalypsis spiritus secreti between John of Rupescissa, Hermes, and Paracelsus |
|
13.00 - 14.15 |
Lunch |
|
14.15 - 16.15 |
Panel 8: Histories of alchemy and medicine Chair tbc Michela Pereira (Università di Siena): Elixirs East and West Lawrence Principe (Johns Hopkins University): The Chymist and the Physician: Rivalry and Conflict at the Académie Royale des Sciences John R. R. Christie (Universities of Oxford and Leeds): Alchemical retrospects: historical self-consciousness in eighteenth-century chemistry |
|
16.15 - 16.30 |
Closing remarks: Jennifer Rampling (University of Cambridge) |
