Alchemical knowledge and practical laboratory work

The interdisciplinary workshop accompanies the DFG project »Alchemy and Pietism. Alchemical Practice at the Historic Orphanage in the 18th Century«, which has been based at the Francke Foundations' Research Department since April 2023. The focus will be on medical alchemy and related early modern alchemical knowledge practices. The workshop will combine perspectives from the history of knowledge with those from the history of pharmacy and chemistry. The research results on alchemical practice and drug production at the Historic Orphanage in the 18th century that have been achieved so far in the DFG project will be discussed and contextualized together.

PROGRAMME:
Wednesday, March 5, 2025

12.30 Welcome coffee on the event floor, Historic Orphanage (House 1)
13.00 View of a vanished alchemical laboratory topography - guided tour of the Historic Orphanage and the grounds of the Francke Foundations
14.00 Holger Zaunstöck (Halle): Welcome and introduction to the DFG project on alchemical practices at the Historic Orphanage in the 18th century
14.15 Marian Füssel (Göttingen): The practices of knowledge in the early modern period: corporeality - materiality - spatiality
15.00 Coffee break
15.30 Stefan Laube (Berlin): Full of zest for action - reflections on the genre of the recipe in alchemy
16.15 Stefan Hanß (Manchester): Biochemical analysis of early modern drug prescriptions
17.00 Coffee break
17.30 Christian-Heinrich Wunderlich (Halle): Searching for traces in Wittenberg: a Paracelsian alchemy combine?
18.15 Claudia Weiß (Halle): Alchemical practice and drug production at the Halle orphanage in the 18th century

Thursday, March 6, 2025

09.00 Sarah Lang (Graz): Michael Maier and drinking gold
09.45 Rainer Werthmann (Kassel): Johann Rudolph Glauber and the Vera Tinctura Solis
10.30 Coffee break
11.00 Ute Frietsch (Wolfenbüttel): The philosophical key: Robert Fludd's experiments and images
11.45 Volkhard Wels (Berlin): Salt. A universal medicine for humans and metals
12.30 Closing discussion

Please register at weiss@francke-halle.de by February 28, 2025.