Lecture by G. Hedesan (Oxford).

"This lecture will revolve around a painting of an alchemical laboratory created by Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605), a Flemish-born artist settled in Florence. In 1570, Stradanus, who was at the time part of the workshop of Giorgio Vasari, was commissioned for two paintings meant to adorn the Studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici (1541-1587)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juUchYEeVsk

"This article provides a first in-depth look at the La fonderia dell’Illmo et Ecc.mo Signor Don Antonio de’ Medici, a publication that was issued at the Casino di San Marco in Florence in 1604. This work has been deemed to be lost by many scholars on the Casino, but in fact a copy of it is found in the British Library."

Full text.

https://brill.com/view/journals/nun/37/1...anguage=en

"In the Segreti della signora Isabella Cortese (1561), one of the most popular "books of secrets" published in early modern Italy, the author—who presents herself as an itinerant female alchemist, addressing a readership of women—explains that the precious knowledge she shares has been gleaned from her travels along a well-worn route stretching from Italy to Moravia, Poland, and Hungary."

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/788014

This baroque palace in Cannaregio, features curious high reliefs; that are alchemical in theme. It was thought by some to be suggestive of a “Philosopher’s House”.

https://imagesofvenice.com/palazzo-lezze...symbolism/


   

Everything you ever wanted to know about generative artificial intelligence (AI) but were afraid to ask! Author and tech expert Tom Chatfield breaks down what AI is and what it means for authors and creators on the season finale of Authors' Matters.

https://tinyurl.com/2p883fb6

"This paper explores the life and work of 13th century English Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon in light of the spiritual-religious practice of alchemy. Bacon’s works in pertinence to alchemy reflect his belonging to a school of intellectual thought known as Hermeticism; which encompasses the practice of alchemy. Bacon can be placed among other philosophic practitioners of alchemy throughout history; allowing for expanded insight into the life of this medieval scholar. Throughout history, Bacon’s most well-known work, the Opus Majus, has been interpreted in a variety of ways. However, when considering what the practice of alchemy is at its Arabic roots, the sometimes vague and perplexing character of Roger Bacon becomes less elusive. Bacon has been called both a magician and a scientist as a result of the obscureness in his work; this paper explores the underlying motives Bacon had in constructing the Opus Majus. Roger Bacon expressed that sapientia or "divine wisdom" could be systematically obtained by following the revised scholastic curriculum he outlined in the Opus Majus. What is this sapientia? Where did Bacon get this idea? And why did Bacon work tirelessly to prove its efficacy to Pope Clement IV? This paper sets out to provide a deeper look into the place that alchemy held in Bacon’s life and the reasons he wished to integrate it into the Christian learning curriculum at the universities of Paris and Oxford."

By Victoria Tobes.

Full text.

https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.e...honors/12/

"This BOOK CELEBRATES the vision of Sir Francis Bacon on the 450th anniversary of his birth - as man of alchemy, science and mystery. It has great implications for our generation, since Bacon lived at a time before the split between religion and science took place - a period before the triumph of the materialistic model. Four and a half centuries later, that model is itself beginning to look very frayed at the edges, not just because of the revolutions in physics, but because of the discoveries of neuroscientists that we have the ability to change the shape of our own brains by our consciousness, independently of the brain itself, and the acknowledgment of medical researchers that consciousness also has a role to play in whether or not we heal."


http://www.polairpublishing.co.uk/viewbeyond.html

"Alchemy has traditionally been understood as a pseudoscience or protoscience that eventually gave way to modern chemistry. Less often have the writings of alchemists been studied on their own terms. Yet, given the endurance and prolific nature of the alchemical traditions and the involvement of important figures of "modern science" such as Isaac Newton in the field of alchemy, a teleological understanding of the transition from alchemy to chemistry seems inadequate for discussing how science was practiced in the past. This may be particularly true for the Ottoman context, where a longstanding tradition of alchemy becomes subsumed under a larger narrative of the triumph of Western science during the nineteenth century. In this podcast, Tuna Artun explores the world of alchemy and discusses its transformation during the Ottoman period."

https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/20...mpire.html

Also at Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/75rBqbicHUtsn5Y2XKHFOH

From Jacob Boehme To Mary Anne Atwood.

By Mike Zuber.

At Scribd:

https://www.scribd.com/document/57202447...nne-Atwood

"The paper is devoted to the analysis of relations between Hryhorii Skovoroda’s philosophy and the alchemical discourse. Skovoroda fundamentally rejects the traditional concept of the philosophers’ stone. However, his views are unexpectedly and deeply related with the spiritual alchemy of those times – the search for the “living philosophers’ stone” in the microcosm of human soul. Such “alchemical antialchemism” of Skovoroda’s  philosophy seems to be natural in the context of inner controversies of the  phenomenon of European alchemy of XVI – XVIII centuries."

By K. M. Rodygin.
English text with Russian abstracts.

At Scribd:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/316464418/THE...-SKOVORODA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hryhorii_Skovoroda