September 16, 2019

AlchemEast

A project of unprecedented scope led by Matteo Martelli, combining the finest in lab-based research and historiography to broaden our understandings of hugely neglected areas in the history of alchemy. Their blurb is: Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD). This is a hugely significant project, both from the purely historiographical point of view and from the point of view of modern funding in the humanities; it is rare that a funding body recognises the significance of research into esoteric subjects to this degree, and shows that there are still gleams of light in the increasing darkness of the academy.