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+--- Thread: Brill Fellowship: Alchemical Symbols & Notation (/showthread.php?tid=2792)
Brill Fellowship: Alchemical Symbols & Notation - Paul Ferguson - 11-27-2025
Ellen Hausner (Oxford University Faculty of History) is using a Brill Fellowship to study the development of symbols and notations in late medieval and early modern alchemical texts, so-called characters:
“Some of these manuscripts have very colourful and beautiful illustrations, but what I’m primarily interested in are these symbols. They are neither figurative images nor writing, but abstract linear forms. I’m studying the development of their use in alchemical texts from 1350 to 1700. What’s fascinating is that they were meant to both communicate and at the same time keep things secret. Alchemical authors clearly had an urge to systemize their work, but due to the difficulties of precise identification, we see lots of different local systems pop up during this time. The only fixed characters are the seven planets, which represent the most important metals.”
https://www.facebook.com/ubleiden/posts/alchemists-used-these-characters-to-denote-the-secrets-of-their-craft-chemicals-/1270663888427790/