Contracting the philosopher’s stone: fraud, risk and profit in early modern alchemy

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Tara Nummedal (Brown University)
• Thursday 14 February 2008, 16:30-18:00
• Seminar Room 2, History and Philosophy of Science, Department of.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Lauren Kassell.

For the princes who sought to hire alchemists, build laboratories, and fund substantial alchemical operations in the early modern Holy Roman Empire, the question of fraud was crucial. The possibility of hiring a false alchemist rather than a real one haunted princely desires to put alchemy into practice, yet patrons had few obvious resources for determining whether or not an individual was a fraud (or Betrüger). In this paper, I will examine the methods alchemical patrons and practitioners devised to minimize risk, as well as the consequences of those methods for the practice and meaning of alchemy in early modern central Europe.

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge talks
• Department of History and Philosophy of Science
• Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science
• Featured lists
• History and Philosophy of Science long list
• Philosophy Events
• Seminar Room 2, History and Philosophy of Science, Department of
• Trust & Technology Initiative - interesting events
• hc446
• jer64's list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.