Philology of Alchemy
Projektdaten
| Leitung | Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen |
| Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter | Dr. Josephine Musil-Gutsch |
| Partnerinstitution | LMU Cluster of Excellence: Cross-Cultural Philology |
| Förderung | DFG Projektnummer: 533680712 |
Project Description
Philology of Alchemy
The project develops a new perspective on the history of philology through the example of the history of alchemy and alchemic research. Alchemy was a heterogeneous field of knowledge, which was practiced, discussed, and transmitted in different linguistic and cultural contexts, taking on different meanings and formats that ranged from artisanal experimental recipes to occult rituals. Using long-term comparative analysis, this project will reconstruct how knowledge about nature, materials, and artisanal skills was generated philologically, and conveyed in texts. The project spans multiple eras and relies on cooperation within the cluster: it links the alchemical-philological practices of the pre-modern era with their reception in 19th- and 20th-century history of science (e.g. by Julius Ruska), and contrasts these earlier discourses with current methodological approaches such as digital or performative methods. In this context, “philological practices” are understood as a multi-perspective form of knowledge production that has developed historically and is culturally influenced, and which has also exercised an impact far beyond philology in its narrow sense.