Idé- och lärdomshistoria, Uppsala, arrangerar årets Hans Rausingföreläsning. Lawrence M. Principe, Johns Hopkins University: ”Theory, Practice, and Demonstration in Medieval Alchemy: John of Rupescissa’s Alchemical Preparations for the Antichrist”:
The fourteenth-century Occitan Franciscan friar, alchemist, and prophet John of Rupescissa wrote two alchemical treatises, one on chrysopoeia (gold-making) and one on pharmaceutical medicine, both intended to help Christians survive the imminent arrival and persecutions of the antichrist. Although widely claimed to be derivative works that John compiled from literary sources while imprisoned by the Pope at Avignon, new critical editions of these works–together with modern laboratory reworkings of their processes–reveal John as a original theorist and an experienced practitioner. Indeed, his methodological principles stand in surprising contrast with contemporaneous Scholastic matter theory, and require a significant reevaluation of the operational principles and practices employed by Medieval alchemists. This lecture will describe John’s life, texts, and work, as well as their place in the broader history of chemistry.
Tid: 7 november kl 18.15. Plats: Universitetshuset, sal IX, Uppsala. Läs mer här.