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University of Bologna research - Paul Ferguson - 01-12-2023
Can alchemy be described as a protoscience? Do ancient texts with obscure formulas and procedures describe mystic rituals and allegoric visions? Or do they record instructions to carry out real scientific experiments? In other words, can alchemy be considered the ancestor of chemistry?
A group of scholars at the University of Bologna comprising philologists, historians of science, and chemists has attempted to answer these questions. To do so, they not only revived and studied ancient alchemical texts in detail but also put the described procedures into practice in the laboratory. The results of this interdisciplinary work - developed within the AlchemEast ERC project awarded to Prof. Matteo Martelli, Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies - have been published in the journal PNAS.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/958189
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2123171119