The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from Ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic Period.
AlchemEast Panel, including 4 papers, organized by Gabriele Ferrario and Lucia Raggetti at the SISS National Conference Ad limina. Frontiere e contaminazioni transdisciplinari nella storia delle scienze
Rosa Caiazzo, Parmenide ‘naturalista risanatore’: l’eco della tradizione medica di Velia dall’antichità al medioevo
Bojidar Dimitrov, Ottenere la ‘nobile tintura’: Platone come autorità alchemica in un trattato del Corpus Jabirianum
Lucia Raggetti, Allucinazioni e cortine di fumo: la magia naturale dello Pseudo-Platone nella tradizione araba
Stefano Mulas, Aristotele, Ippocrate e Galeno: il dibattito tra antica e nuova medicina in alcuni frontespizi a stampa
PhD seminar organized by Raffaella Campaner, Lucia Maini, Marianna Marchini and Matteo Martelli in the framework of the “Making Science Happen” series (University of Bologna and University Ca’ Foscari, Venice)
May 25, 2022, Department of Chemistry ‘G. Ciamician’ (Navile district), Bologna
The AlchemEast team is part of this workshop, organized by Donna Bilak at the Loretz Center, which convenes scholars working at the intersection of sciences, artisanal practice, and humanities. Three talks by AlchemEast members:
Vincenzo Carlotta & Matteo Martelli, Ancient Alchemy: Gold and Mercury as Living Bodies
Gabriele Ferrario, Roudtable discussion: Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, and Arabic medico-alchemy
Matteo Martelli, Hand-off Mercury: AlchemEast laboratory reconstructions of ancient techniques for extracting mercury from cinnabar
Informal presentation and performace by Marianna Marchini and Lucia Raggetti in the framework of the “Pint of Science” Global Science Festival 2022 (9-11 May 2022).
AlchemEast Reading Sessions and Workshop organized by Matteo Martelli. Two days devoted to the reading of primary sources followed by 1-day workshop. Invited speakers: Godefroid de Callataÿ, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, Sébastien Moureau and Petra Schmidl.
Two papers delivered by AlchemEast team members:
Lucia Raggetti, The Craft of Talismans: Erratic Blocks and Technical Notes
Gabriele Ferrario, Bāṭinism in the fragments of the Cairo Genizah – Ikhwānian and Jābirian traces
May 2-4, 2022, Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, Bologna (Hybrid).
International Conference organized by Matteo Martelli (University of Bologna, ERC project AlchemEast) and Maria Michela Sassi (University of Pisa, PRIN 2017).
This conference brings together the expertise of historians of science and technology on the one hand, and archaeologists and historians of ancient art on the other, in a wide-ranging exploration of the production methods and uses of colour substances in the Greek and Roman worlds and in the ancient Near East. This project, strongly multi-disciplinary and the first of its kind, relies on the investigation of a variety of sources, from ancient scientific and technical literature to archaeological data and results of chemical analysis.
Two papers delivered by AlchemEast team members:
Eduardo Escobar, On the agency of change: Color and renewal in Assyro-Babylonian cultures
Matteo Martelli, Divine waters and dyeing ‘sauces’: Changing colours and transforming matter
Paper delivered by Gabriele Ferrario at the International Conference Power, Religion and Wisdom: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in al-Andalus and Beyond. Convened by Godefroid de Callataÿ (Université catholique de Louvain), as part of the ERC project PhilAnd. Sponsored by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS)
March 29 – April 1, 2022, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton