Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the Spring 2026 series of the Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Please find the programme below.

Oxford Seminar in the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

Convenors: Ellen Hausner (Oxford), Sergei Zotov (Warburg), and Jo Hedesan (Oxford)

The meetings take place between 3 pm and 5 pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford.  

13 May 2026

Session 1 — Life and Nature in Early Modern Alchemy
Chair: Sergei Zotov (Warburg Institute)

Oana Matei (Western University of Arad): Can Life Rise from Ashes? Discussions on the Possibility of the Palingenesis of Plants in the Seventeenth Century

Xinyi Wen (Warburg Institute): Cosmos or Coitus? A Copy Census of Oswald Croll’s Basilica Chymica, 1609–1690

20 May 2026

Session 2 — Spiritual Foundations of Alchemy
Chair: Ellen Hausner (Oxford)

Mark Edwards (Oxford): Ancient Alchemy as Philosophy

Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute): Alchemy as Divination

3 June 2026

Session 3 — Computational History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Chair: Rob Iliffe (Oxford)

Vojtěch Kaše (University of West Bohemia, Plzeň), and Sarah Lang (Max Planck Institute, Berlin): Tracing the Histories of Early Modern Conceptual Ecosystems: Remote Sensing Methods for the Archaeology of Alchemical Knowledge

Guillermo Restrepo (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig): Computational History of Chemistry: How Big Data Illuminates Macrohistorical Trends and Microhistorical Events

Best wishes,

Sergei Zotov