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SUMMARY:Approaches to Alchemy (the history of~) - Anke Timmermann
DTSTART:20140121T131000Z
DTEND:20140121T140000Z
UID:TALK50198@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Katherine Bowers
DESCRIPTION:As a craft and science with various applications\, alchemy for
 med a ubiquitous part of the Western world from the 12th through the 18th 
 century. The historical investigation of alchemy\, by contrast\, is a rela
 tively recent development in scholarship\, and one with many confused and 
 confusing ancestors. Today\, erroneous associations of alchemy with the oc
 cult or magic have been replaced by questions about laboratory practices\,
  terminology\, concepts and skills that fueled the tradition of alchemy fo
 r many centuries: what were alchemical practitioners doing\, and what did 
 they think they were doing?\n\nBut the history of alchemy comes with its o
 wn set of problems: much of the evidence survives in the form of recipes a
 nd treatises\, in a highly technical yet imprecise language\, written by c
 raftsmen for their own purposes. How is it possible to write the history o
 f alchemy from such historical manuscripts?\n\nThis talk will provide a br
 ief introduction to alchemy (or rather\, the history of)\, with special fo
 cus on my own approaches to its intriguing historiographical conundrums\, 
 through the analysis of surviving manuscripts\, recipes and images.\n
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
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