CfP: Magic, Alchemy and Cosmology in the Medieval and Early Modern World, 18-19 June 2019
Swansea University, 18-19
June
2019
is the UN International Year of the periodic table of chemical
elements, which represents in tabular form an attempt to classify and
understand the atomic
building blocks from which all visible matter, including the stars and
the planets, and all life is made. But how was matter understood in the
pre-modern era, and how were substances linked to each other and
combined in early philosophical, empirical, and
religious attempts to explain the world? How was knowledge of the
universe and its constituents defined, produced and communicated in the
medieval and early modern period? Keynote papers will be given by Dr Jo
Edge (John Rylands Library, Manchester), Dr Adam
Mosley (Swansea), and Dr Sophie Page (UCL), and Professor Wendy Turner
(Augusta University) will offer a conference response. In this Symposium
by the Sea, papers (20 minutes) are invited that explore:
- the shifting parameters of knowledge of the universe and its constituent substances between 500 and 1700CE
- cross-cultural transfers of cosmological knowledge, and their intersection with medical thought
- the intersections between religious explanations of the world’s ‘wonders’ and the emergence of philosophical and scientific discourses
- alchemy and magic as modes of cosmological thought and as practices for the manipulation of matter
- the uses and repression of magic and alchemy
- physical and textual evidence for empirical experiments
- networks of knowledge and communication
Paper proposals (200 words) and short bios should be sent by 30 April 2019 to: p.e.skinner@swansea.ac.uk