The Alchemy Network, founded in December 2016, has set itself the goal of promoting exchange between historians and natural scientists on the reconstruction of alchemical processes in the early modern period, organising events on the topic and initiating joint projects. Guidelines for alchemy processes from the early modern period will be analysed and the extent to which these processes can be tangibly implemented in the laboratory will be investigated. The problems and opportunities of such a reconstruction will be discussed.
The key questions are:
How do we recognise discontinuities in alchemical texts? Do the discontinuities reveal the point at which practicality is abandoned to make way for theory and speculation?
What criteria were used to purchase formulas? Do these criteria change over time?
In alchemical reactions, phenomena are often described that are not observed when working under today's conditions (pure substances, stoichiometrically calculated input quantities, temperatures kept constant, etc.) or are considered insignificant by a modern-day experimenter. Assuming, however, that these were real observations, experimental confirmation will be sought in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the process.
According to which criteria did an alchemist judge the success of an experiment or the production of a substance?
Members
- Dr Gerhard Görmar (Leipzig)
- Dr Alexander Kraft (Berlin)
- Assoc. Professor Dr Hartmut Kutzke (Oslo)
- Dr Sarah Lang (Graz)
- Dr Thomas Moenius (Inzlingen)
- Professor Dr Lawrence Principe (Baltimore)
- Dr Berit Wagner (Frankfurt)
- Claudia Weiß (Halle)
- Dr Rainer Werthmann (Kassel)
- Dr Christian-Heinrich Wunderlich (Halle)
- Professor Dr Holger Zaunstöck (Halle)
Activities
Publications
Collected volumes
- Sarah Lang (ed.): Conference proceedings "Alchemical laboratories practices and legacies". Graz 2023.
- Berit Wagner and Corinna Gannon (eds.): Opus magnum. Matthäus Merian the Elder and the illustration of alchemy. Heidelberg 2024.
Monographs
- Jürgen Strein, Thomas Moenius: - Alchemy, Exoticism and the Princely Court - Letters and Documents on Johann Otto von Helbig (1654-1698). Early Modern Times Volume 256, Berlin 2024.
- Alexander Kraft: Two Dukes in the Gold Rush - Alchemy at the Princely Court of Saxe-Meiningen from 1680 to 1724. Leipzig 2024.
Research article
- Gerhard Görmar, Alexander Kraft and Thomas Moenius: Jacob Alstein - Remarks on the life of an unsteady alchemist. Sudhoffs Archiv, 107/2 (2023), 203-233.
- Rainer Werthmann: Michael Maier's Medicament Coelidonia - A Possible Explanation of its Composition and Production, Ambix, 271/4 (2024), 457-461.
- Hartmut Kutzke, Marianne Vedeler: Made with the Alchemist's False Art: Peder Månsson and the Arts of Gemstone Imitation in Medieval Scandinavia. In: Bärbel Arnold (ed.), Historical Techniques and Recipes, Part 2 - Forgotten and Rediscovered. Petersberg 2015, 64-71.
- Hartmut Kutzke, Ingunn Marit Røstad and Marianne Vedeler: Verden vil bedras. Kopiering og manipulering av smykker. In: Marianne Vedeler & Ingunn Røstad (eds.), Smykker. Personlig pynt i kulturhistorisk lys. Trondheim 2015, 155-176.
- Marianne Vedeler and Hartmut Kutzke: Smykkesteiner i middelalderens kosmologi. In: Marianne Vedeler & Ingunn Røstad (eds.), Smykker. Personlig pynt i kulturhistorisk lys. Trondheim 2015, 211-234.
- Marianne Vedeler, Hartmut Kutzke: Fra troskap til svindel -fingerringer og smykkesteiner fra middelalderens Oslo. In: Lise-Marie B Johansen, Jan Brendalsmo, Knut Paasche & Egil Marstein Bauer (eds.), En aktivist for Middelalderbyen Oslo. Festskrift til Petter B. Molaug i anledning hans 70-årsdag. Oslo 2015, 55-74.
- Gerhard Görmar: Joachim Tancke (1557-1609) - Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Paracelsist, Astronomer, Poet and Rector of the University of Leipzig. Announcements of the GdCH (History Section), No. 25 2017, 1-30.
- Thomas Moenius: Frederick I of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and the cavalry captain Johann Henrich Vierordt: A case study from the alchemical correspondence. Communications of the GdCH (History Section), no. 25 2017, 31-56.
- Alexander Kraft: Dorothea Juliana Wallich, née Fischer (1657-1725), an alchemist from Thuringia, Genealogy. German journal for genealogy, 33 (2017), 539-555.
- Alexander Kraft: Which alchemical writer is hidden behind the pseudonym Johann de Monte Raphaim?, Genealogie. German journal for genealogy, 34 (2018) 137-154.
- Alexander Kraft: Dorothea Juliana Wallich (1657-1725) and Her Contributions to the Chymical Knowledge about the Element Cobalt. In: Annette Lykknes, Brigitte van Tiggelen (eds.): Women in Their Element. Selected Women's Contributions to the Periodic System. World Scientific. Singapore (2019), 57-69.
- Alexander Kraft: The affair surrounding the alchemist Georg (von) Welling in Berlin between 1705 and 1715. Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie der GdCh, 26 (2020), 196-220.
- Claudia Weiß: "[V]on der löblichen Arts Alchymia." Alchemical pharmacy at the Halle Orphanage in the 18th century. In: Holger Zaunstöck and Thomas Grunewald (eds.): Healing body and soul. Medicine and hygiene in the 18th century. Halle 2021 (= Catalogues of the Francke Foundations 38), 230-243.
- Thomas Moenius, Juergen Strein: "Die Tessa" - a term from the "Geschöpfkunde" by Johann Otto von Helbig. Sudhoffs Archiv, 106, 2022/2, 132-151.
- Alexander Kraft: Animal oil, wound balm, Prussian blue, the fire and light principium and the philosophers' stone made from phosphorus: On the 350th birthday of the chymist Johann Conrad Dippel (1673-1734), Substantia, 7 (2023), 137-159.
- Alexander Kraft: "I know that many will be blessed by reading and working on my writings, and, when I have long decayed, will first praise and glorify me." Dorothea Juliana Wallich (1657-1725), an alchemist from Thuringia, Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe Geschichte der Chemie der GdCh, 27 (2023), 3-21.
- Thomas Moenius, Alexander Kraft, Gerhard Görmar: Andreas Orthelius and the "Processus Universalis". In Sarah Lang (ed.), Conference proceedings "Alchemische Labore Praktiken und Hinterlassenschaften". Graz 2023, 321-341.
- Rainer Werthmann, Christian-Heinrich Wunderlich: A reconstruction of alchemical laboratory processes. In: Sarah Lang (ed.), Conference proceedings "Alchemische Labore Praktiken und Hinterlassenschaften". Graz 2023, 351-362.
- Rainer Werthmann: Chemical knowledge in Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens. In: Simon Brandl and Volkhard Wels (eds.), Michael Maier and the Forms of (Al)chemical Knowledge around 1600. Wiesbaden 2024, 161-196.
- Rainer Werthmann: The Athanor of Heinrich Khunrath. Description, function and categorisation. In: Berit Wagner and Corinna Gannon (eds.), Opus Magnum. Matthäus Merian the Elder and the illustration of alchemy. Heidelberg 2024, 271-280.
Conferences and workshops
Previous events (selection)
- 11th meeting of the "Netzwerk Alchemie", Alchemie zwischen Bibliothek und Labor, in: H-Soz-Kult, 14/10/2024.
- 8th meeting of the "Netzwerk Alchemie", conference report in: H-Soz-Kult, 01.09.2022.
- 9th meeting of the "Network Alchemy", conference report in: H-Soz-Kult, 30/03/2023.
- 10th meeting of the "Netzwerk Alchemie", Alchemy between experiment and speculation, conference report in: H-Soz-Kult, 11.01.2024.
Upcoming events
- Under the title "Alchemy research in the laboratory and library", the Alchemy Network is organising another workshop at the Gotha Research Centre on Monday, 14 October 2024. The event will provide a forum for the exchange of different approaches to scientific alchemy research. If you are interested, please contact Dr Thomas Moenius.
Cooperations
- Francke Foundations in Halle
- Institute of Art History at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main together with the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library
- Saxony-Anhalt State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, Halle
- State Museum of Prehistory, Halle