BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Alchemy as 'practical exegesis' in early-modern England - Jennifer
  Rampling (Department of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20101125T163000Z
DTEND:20101125T180000Z
UID:TALK26660@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Nicky Reeves
DESCRIPTION:Alchemy had many goals\, from the transmutation of metals to t
 he creation of the 'vegetable stone': a powerful medicinal elixir capable 
 of healing bodies\, restoring youth\, and prolonging life. In the late fif
 teenth century\, English practitioners began to describe a mysterious subs
 tance\, 'sericon'\, used in the manufacture of the vegetable stone. Yet th
 e nature of sericon was not fixed. Both its identity and the alchemical pr
 actice it represented underwent radical reinterpretation between the fifte
 enth and seventeenth centuries\, as the original process was eclipsed by n
 ew methods and materials\, notably those popularised by George Starkey (16
 28–1665). The rise and fall of 'sericonian' alchemy provides a case stud
 y for examining one challenge facing modern scholars: the difficulty of is
 olating and charting changes in alchemical ideas\, practices and nomenclat
 ure without succumbing to anachronism. I shall argue that early modern pra
 ctitioners faced similar interpretative difficulties when decoding their a
 uthorities\, which they tried to solve by refashioning their medieval sour
 ces in light of both textual exegesis and practical experience.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR