Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment

Description

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

Sponsors

Generously supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, the Bibliographical Society, the 'Generation to Reproduction' strategic award, supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, the Society for History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC), the Society for Renaissance Studies and the British Society for History of Science.