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Tag: alchemy

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  • Image from alchemical manuscript.

    Alchemical images revisited

    16/12/2016

    Does monumental Truth lurk behind the colourful alchemical imagery of manuscripts held at the Wellcome Library? Images of this kind have fascinated scholars and artists for centuries, their rich symbolism being drawn on by Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Dryden, Goethe, Hugo,… Continue reading

  • Friar in apothecary

    The medicine of the friars in late medieval England

    28/01/2016

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 2 February. Speaker: Peter Jones (University of Cambridge) The medicine of the friars in late medieval England Abstract: Compared to occupational groups like physicians, surgeons, barbers, apothecaries and… Continue reading

  • Alchemical furnaces

    Alchemy and the quest for long life: Wellcome MS. 446

    23/06/2015

    Alchemy, with its cryptic language and fantastic symbolism, evokes many aspects of the culture of the Middle Ages. In alchemical manuscripts, drawings of alembics, funnels and furnaces vividly represent this long lost art. Alchemy’s goal of transmuting base metal into… Continue reading

  • Spotlight: vanity of vanities, all is vanity

    17/02/2015

    Jodocus Müller, city apothecary of Dresden, was a prominent and presumably wealthy citizen of that town. In a certificate of 1675 he listed the six pursuits to which he had dedicated his life:  To learn the ‘A. B. C.,’ to… Continue reading

  • Conservation in Action: Ripley Scrolls

    08/12/2011

    In the first of a new series, Conservator Amy Junker Heslip talks us through the conservation treatment she undertook on some of the Wellcome Library’s alchemical manuscripts. The Ripley Scrolls are manuscripts which illustrate the pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone.… Continue reading

  • Item of the Month, June 2011 – “An important alchemical manuscript…”

    28/06/2011

    This year’s Manchester International Festival sees the premier of a new opera, based on the life of the Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer and alchemist, John Dee. We’ve already tweeted about the Opera and flagged up some Dee-related items from our collections.… Continue reading

  • Wellcome Library Insight – The Occult

    10/05/2010

    This week’s free Wellcome Library Insight session – on Thursday 13th May – explores the Library’s collections relating to the Occult. Our Insight sessions offer visitors to the Wellcome Library an opportunity to explore the variety of our holdings. Sessions… Continue reading

  • Wellcome Library Insight – The Occult

    02/02/2010

    This week’s free Wellcome Library Insight session – on Thursday 4th February – explores the Library’s collections relating to the Occult. Our Insight sessions offer visitors to the Wellcome Library an opportunity to explore the variety of our holdings. Sessions… Continue reading