Next SHAC on-line seminar, Thursday, 22 January 2026, 5pm (London Time)

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Michael Bycroft (University of Warwick) who will present:

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution

This will be live on Thursday, 22 January 2026, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-michael-bycroft-university-of-warwick/e-zkzlqg

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2
When booking please ensure that you provide the e-mail address where you would like your link to be sent. Both links will go live just before the seminar.

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution
Michael Bycroft
Chemistry is inseparable from the chemical crafts. This is a commonplace in the historiography of chemistry. But what about the relationship between the crafts themselves? How were chemical ideas shaped by the interaction between different arts, trades and industries? I answer this question with respect to gemstones in European chemistry in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In this period, and not before, chemists found general procedures for dividing gems into their component substances. Miners, apothecaries, glass-makers, and porcelain-makers were all involved in this process, as well as jewellers and diamond-cutters. These interactions between crafts were not just a matter of generalization or juxtaposition. New kinds of analysis emerged when two or more crafts interacted. Chemistry was greater than the sum of its crafts.

‘Michel Serres, historian of science despite himself’

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Emeritus Professor, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

9 April 17:00

Maison Française d’Oxford

Abstract:

In 1969 Michel Serres was elected professor in the history of science at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne where he served until 1989. However, this mathematician turned philosopher considered this election as a mistake or even a mischief and he never endorsed the role of historian. He taught the history of science in spite of himself although he was an expert in this domain, unlike Sganarelle, the Doctor in spite of himself staged by Molière. For him, teaching the history of science was a way to reconcile his two passions for science and literature.

In this paper I will outline three aspects of Serres’s unorthodox view of the history of science: i) there is no rigid boundary between science, fable and myths; ii) science generates a time of its own that is neither amenable to the arrow of progress nor to a timeline; iii) his history science raises a philosophical question: who are the subjects of knowledge?

https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/shac-spring-meeting-remembering-bill-brock-chemistry-and-culture

SHAC Spring meeting “Remembering Bill Brock: Chemistry and Culture“

10 April 2026

Arranged with and at the Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford, OX2 6SE

This meeting is being held to commemorate the life, work and legacy of William Hodson Brock (1936-2025), who spent his entire career at the University of Leicester. Sometime chair of SHAC and editor of its journal Ambix, Brock was one of the leading historians of chemistry in his time, writing the Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, as well as biographies of William Crookes, Justus von Liebig and Henry Edward Armstrong. (An extended obituary can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00026980.2025.2489298). The papers to be presented at this meeting take their starting point from Brock’s work and historical interests.

There is no charge for this meeting, but please let Frank James, frank.james@ucl.ac.uk, know if you wish to attend.

More information: https://mfo.web.ox.ac.uk/event/shac-spring-meeting-remembering-bill-brock-chemistry-and-culture

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Stefania Buosi-Moncunill (University of Barcelona) who will present:

From Sacred Plants to Golden Wine: The Alchemist’s Art of Healing

This will be live on Thursday, 27 November 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-stefania-buosi-moncunill-university-of-barcelona/e-aggypq 

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at

Both the Zoom and YouTube links will go live just before the seminar

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

From Sacred Plants to Golden Wine: The Alchemist’s Art of Healing

Stefania Buosi-Moncunill

This presentation explores the many healing dimensions of medical alchemy as it was practiced within the Occitan-Catalan school of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. It is based on extensive archival and philological research and forms part of the forthcoming collected volume The Medical Legacy of Medieval Alchemy: Elixirs, Healing Waters, and Precious Stones (Palgrave, 2025), co-edited with Lawrence M. Principe (Johns Hopkins University).

At the heart of the Occitan-Catalan medico-alchemical tradition lies the idea of a medicina integralis, a holistic vision in which the healing of the body and the regeneration of the spirit converge in a single quest for harmony with the cosmos. Remedies such as theriac, aurum potabile, and the elixir were not mere pharmacological compounds, but true thresholds of transformation leading toward deeper states of balance and knowledge.

Best regards

The SHAC Officers

William ‘Bill’ Hodson Brock (1936-2025) was one of the leading historians of chemistry of the last fifty years. As Chair of SHAC and editor of Ambix he played a major role in the Society from the 1960s to the 2000s. He also wrote on the history of publishing, education and many other aspects of nineteenth-century science and culture, publishing in 1992 The Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, a general history of chemistry from antiquity to the present.

To commemorate his life, work and legacy, SHAC is organising a one-day meeting to be held on Friday 10 April 2026 at the Maison Française d’Oxford.

Offers of papers (including a short abstract) related in some way to Brock’s work should be sent to Frank James (frank.james[at]ucl.ac.uk) by 30 November 2025.

Friday 20 March 2026 at the Allard Pierson Artis Library, Plantage Middenlaan 45, 1018 DC Amsterdam.

Deadline for submissions: January 5th 2026

This conference seeks to explore the relation between (al)chemical work and “The Secrets of Nature” within and beyond the laboratory. By foregrounding this theme, this conference emphasizes the central role of nature in Alchemy and Chemistry, disciplines that have been fundamental to the History of Science and to Intellectual History more broadly.

This conference invites participants to consider how the theme of Nature has been explored, represented, and debated across different contexts and periods. This topic allows for a wide range of approaches, from textual and visual analysis to conceptual and methodological reflections. The aim of this conference is to create an academic setting in which early career researchers can come together, share their work, and open new conversations about the place of the natural world in the history of alchemy and chemistry. We are delighted to announce that Prof. Dr. Frank James and Dr. Timothy Grieve-Carlson will deliver the keynote lectures at this event, which will be hosted in the Allard Pierson Artis Library, located in Amsterdam’s historic Plantage district. Surrounded by 19th-century architecture and botanical gardens, Artis has long been a center for the study and display of the natural world, playing a key role in the development of the History of Science in Amsterdam. Participants will also have the opportunity and are encouraged to engage with the rich collection of the State-owned part Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica of the Allard Pierson; the manuscripts and printed books from the collection are available for consultation, offering researchers the chance to work directly with sources. Access the collection online using the links provided below. https://www.allardpierson.nl/en/natural-history https://www.allardpierson.nl/en/collection/history-of-sciencehttps://www.allardpierson.nl/en/esotericism

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

● Conceptions of nature in alchemy, chemistry, and natural philosophy.

● (Al)chemical emblems and other visual strategies to transmit (al)chemical knowledge.

● (Al)chemical practice and the development of Early Modern medical knowledge in botanical gardens, for example the case of the Hortus Medicus in Amsterdam.

● Environmental history and historical understandings of the natural world.

● The transformation of substances: chemical processes and their conceptual frameworks.

We welcome proposals for 20 minute talks by graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars who have received their doctorate no more than three years ago. If you are interested in presenting your work, please send an abstract of approximately 300 words and a short bio to SHAC Student Representative Amber Rozenrichter at studentrep@ambix.org. The deadline for submissions is 5th January 2026.

If you have any questions please contact Amber Rozenrichter at the above email address.