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.
Paper delivered by Lucia Raggetti in the frame of the ERC PhilAnd workshop ‘Science and Craft: the relations between the theoretical and practical sides of esoteric disciplines in al-Andalus and their link with craft’
17 June, 2019 – Warburg Institute, London
Working Seminar by Prof. Markham J. Geller (UCL London).
10 May 2019, 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies,
CIS – Seminar Room
1st Floor – Via Zamboni 38, Bologna
Flyer
Lecture delivered by Matteo Martelli within the framework of the All Souls College Seminar in the History of Premodern Science (Conveners: Dmitri Levitin, All Souls; Jennifer Rampling, Princeton)
8 May 2018 – All Souls College, Oxford
Workshop
The development of a complex scientific discourse is not necessarily linked to writing. However, written codifications certainly played a key role in the transmission of technical knowledge. Along with literary texts dealing with different technai (or arts), technical knowledge found its own form of expression in recipes. In Antiquity, this kind of written texts serves to codify and transmit a wide variety of practices, not only medical, but also ritual and technological. The workshop will explore this variety in Graeco-Roman Egypt, by taking into account different sources (from papyri to the iconography of Egyptian temples) and comparing different disciplines (medicine, magic and alchemy).
7 march 2019 – 3 PM
Aula Mondolfo
(via Zamboni 38 – Bologna)
Reading Seminar (Dr Sean Coughlin)
The Mendesian is an ancient Egyptian unguent known to us only through Greek and Latin sources. It was produced in Mendes, on the eastern Nile delta, at least until the end of the Ptolemaic kingdom, and it was one of the most sought after and expensive aromas in antiquity. Even Plato is said to have used it to adorn his symposia. This reading seminar will go over some issues that came up as we tried to identify its ingredients and method of production, and what happened when we tried to replicate it.
1 March 2019 – 10:30 AM
Aula Mondolfo
(Via Zamboni 38 – Bologna)
Workshop
Spontaneous generation has been a hot issue of the ancient and premodern scientific debate. Far from being doubted, in its long history this idea has seen a large diffusion in different fields of scientific and technical knowledge. This workshop will explore the idea of spontaneous generation in the continuum of the Graeco-Arabic tradition, and the success it met with in several fields of ancient science, such as alchemy, medicine and natural philosophy.
28 February 2019 – 3:30 PM
Aula Mondolfo
(via Zamboni 38 – Bologna)
Symposium / Book Launch
In the occasion of the recent publication of the book ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī’s Book On the Useful Properties of Animal Parts, the AlchemEast project organizes a symposium on the role of animals and their properties in premodern science. The speakers will address a topic of their research related to the book, introducing the discussion with the author on some crucial aspects of animal presence in technical literature.
27 February 2019 – 4:30 PM
Sala Rossa – Centro Internazionale di Studi Umanistici “Umberto Eco”
(via Marsala, 26 – Bologna)
Paper by Miriam Blanco delivered at the workshop “Textos y contextos de la antigüedad grecolatina. III seminario de formación doctoral”.
18 December 2018, University of Valladolid (Dato de filología clásica. Facultad de filosofía y letras)
Paper by Matteo Martelli delivered at the International Conference “Drugs in the Medieval World (ca. 1050-ca. 1400)”.
7-8 December 2018, London, King’s College
Workshop by Gerasimos Merianos (National Hellenic Research Foundation – Institute for Historical Research).
30 November 2018, 10:30-12:30 AM
Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, Aula Mondolfo (via Zamboni 38, Bologna).