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Thank you all for participating and making this conference a great memory!
Some impressions from the conference

Panels

  • Alchemy and Court
  • Alchemy and Digital Humanities
  • Alchemy and Laboratory
  • Alchemy and Kunstkammer

Tweet about this conference

Looking forward to @alchemietagung in Vienna Feb 19-21 2020 with visits to KHM and Oberstockstall. #alchemy #histsci #scihist #AlchemicalLabsVienna2020

More Information

Locations

  • University of Vienna
  • University of Vienna, Institut für Klassische Philologie
  • Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
  • Gemeindemuseum Kirchberg am Wagram
  • Gut Oberstockstall
Plan of University of Vienna buildingsDownload

“Alchemical Laboratories. Practices, texts, material relics”

The subject of this international conference is to reflect on Early Modern alchemical laboratory practices, as reflected in textual as well as material evidence. 

The three-day scientific workshop will include two excursions, to the Coin Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and the archaeological site of the alchemical laboratory of Oberstockstall.


Programme & Abstracts (PDF)
Conference Twitter Account

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Programme, Folders, Poster, etc.

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Conference Poster

Book of Abstracts

Programme with Abstracts

Programme Folder

Programme Folder

Programme

Day 1: Feb 19, 2020

Opening of the symposium

Panels “Alchemy and Court”, “Alchemy and Kunstkammer”, “Alchemy and Digital Humanities”;

Evening Lecture by R. W. Soukup

Day 2: Feb 20, 2020

Panel “Alchemy and Laboratory”

Poster-Session

Visit to Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (Alchemical coins)

Day 3: Feb 21, 2020

Gemeindemuseum Kirchberg am Wagram

Besichtigung Gut Oberstockstall

(Wed) Feb 19, 2020:

Mittwoch, 19. 2. 2020 (Universität Wien, Aula am Campus, 9:00-­18:00) 

  • Begrüßung und Einführung

    Welcome and Introduction

  • Panel I: Alchemie bei Hofe 

    Megan Piorko  (Georgia State University, Department of History): Arthur Dee: How to be an alchemist in the early-­seventeenth-­century court of Tsar Mikhail I. 

    Didier Kahn  (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), CELLF, Paris­-Sorbonne): An overview of alchemical patronage in France, 1567-1646.

    Stefan Guzy  (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar/Berlin): Alchemistische Handschriftenbeschaffung im Umkreis Kaiser Rudolfs II.  (cancelled due to illness)

    William Newman  (Distinguished Professor and Ruth N. Halls Professor, Department of  History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine at Indiana University): Johann de Monte Snyders: Newton’s Muse. (cancelled due to illness)

  • Panel II: Alchemie in der Kunstkammer

    Ute Frietsch  (Herzog­-August­-Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel): Strange New Instruments: The Kunstkammer of Rudolf II as a Working Collection 

    Corinna Gannon  (Goethe­-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut): Electrum in the Kunstkammer of Rudolf II. – Objects made from Seven Metals

  • Poster Session I

    1. Sándor  Fazekas,  The Alchemical Mass as a Chemical  Recipe. Commentaries and Controversies about the  Work Attributed to Nicolaus Melchior Cibinensis 
    2. Alexandra Krombholz, Stephanos von Alexandria – Ein spätantiker Alchemist am kaiserlichen Hof
    3. Elisabeth Moreau, The Inner Laboratory: Digestion and the Stomach in Early Modern Alchemy and Medicine 
    4. René Zandbergen, An alternative Hidden Markov Model for vowel-consonant identification, with an application to the Voynich MS text

  • Panel III: Alchemie und Digital Humanities 

    Donna Bilak  (Brown / Columbia University): The Furnace and Fugue project: Atalanta fugiens (1618) and Communities of Knowledge in the Digital Age 

    Alexander Kraft  (Netzwerk Alchemie am Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt, Gesimat Gmbh) & Sarah Lang  (Universität Graz, Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung, Netzwerk Alchemie am Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt) & Thomas Moenius  (Netzwerk Alchemie am Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt): Processus Universalis – Entwicklungen einer Prozessvorschrift in der Zeit von 1600–1750 

    Rainer Werthmann  (Netzwerk Alchemie am Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt, Styromag Gmbh)  & Christian  Heinrich Wunderlich  (Netzwerk Alchemie am Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt, Landesamt  für Denkmalpflege  und Archäologie Sachsen­Anhalt;  Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle): Processus Universalis. Ein experimenteller Zugang 

  • 19:00: Abendvortrag 

    Rudolf  Werner Soukup  (Universität  Wien, Institut  für Didaktik der  Chemie; Österreichische  Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte): Alchymistische  Kunststücke am kaiserlichen  Hof. Alchemie unter den Habsburgerkaisern  Rudolf II., Ferdinand III. und Leopold I.

(Thur) Feb 20, 2020:

Universität Wien, Institut für Klassische Philologie, 9:00-­16:30

  • Panel IV: Alchemie und Labor I 

    Natalia Bachour  (Universität Zürich, Asien-­Orient-­Institut): Mikrokosmos­-Makrokosmos­-Analogie und die Präparation des Steins der Weisen 

    Dóra Bobory  (Budapest/Wellington): The Everyday Life of an Early Modern Alchemist 

    Matteo Martelli  (Università di Bologna): The Ancient Chemistry of Mercury (cancelled due to illness)

    Sigrid von Osten (Oberstockstall): Die Labor-­Inventare von Oberstockstall/ Niederösterreich und Oberkapfenberg/ Steiermark (findet statt Fr. 21 in Oberstockstall)

  • Poster Session  II

    1. Birte Camen, Die Prunkhandschrift Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 11.450 
    2. Martin Schreiber, Michael Brenner, Ines Weißbarth and Birgit Schmölzer, Re-enacting as Alchemists at medieval festivals
    3. Elisabeth Tauschitz, Johann Friedrich von Rain ­ Alchemist und Allegoriker im Dienste Leopolds I. 
    4. Wolfgang Tomischko, Dr. Heinrich Khunrath, Arzt und Meister der spekulativen Alchemie zwischen Tradition und Inspiration 
    5. Umberto Veronesi, Glass and Alchemy at Oberstockstall. An Analytical Study of the Laboratory Equipment (presentation held at Oberstockstall on Friday)
    6. Sergei Zotov, Allegorical Iconography of the Alchemical Laboratory in 16­17 th  Century Manuscripts 

  • Panel IV: Alchemie und Labor II 

    Rafał Prinke  (University School of Physical Education, Poznań), Kamila Follprecht (The National Archives in Cracow): The laboratories of Michael Sendivogius: locations and owners  

    Ivo Purš  (Ústav dějin umění Akademie věd ČR): Alchemical  Laboratory in  the Mirror of 16 th   and 17 th Century Fine  Art and in the Alchemical  and Technological Works 

  • 17:00 Exkursion: KHM, Münzkabinett  – Besichtigung der Transmutationsmedaillen 

    Patrick Fiska  (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Institut für Kulturgeschichte der Antike)  & Elisabeth Klecker  (Universität Wien, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel­ und Neulatein): Transmutationsmedaillen als Medien der Herrscherrepräsentation und als Sammlungsobjekte 

(Fri) Feb 21, 2020:

9:00­-19:00 (ganztägig)

  • Vormittag: Besichtigung des Gemeinde-Museums 

    Rudolf  Werner Soukup  (Universität  Wien, Institut  für Didaktik der  Chemie; Österreichische  Gesellschaft für Wissen­schaftsgeschichte):  Führung mit Vortrag zur chemiegeschichtlichen Analyse des Fundkomplexes 

  • Nachmittag: Besichtigung des Gutes Oberstockstall

    Sigrid von Osten  (Oberstockstall): Die Labor-­Inventare von Oberstockstall/ Niederösterreich und Oberkapfenberg/ Steiermark (zugehörig zum Panel IV “Alchemie und Labor”)

    Peter Aichinger­-Rosenberger  (NÖ-­Gebietsbauamt Krems an der Donau): Führung mit Vortrag zur Baugeschichte – Vorstellung der neuen Befunde 

The subject of this international conference is to reflect on Early Modern alchemical laboratory practices, as reflected in textual as well as material evidence.


The three-day scientific workshop will include two excursions, to the Coin Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and the archaeological site of the alchemical laboratory of Oberstockstall.

Its aim is to showcase alchemy as a subject of considerable scholarly, aristocratic, and royal interest, as well as its reflections within the most important social circles of the Viennese and Prague Court in the Early Modern period. Alongside material evidence, such as the complete inventory of an alchemical laboratory from the 16th century, excavated at Oberstockstall Manor in Lower Austria, the project focuses on aristocratic correspondence dealing with alchemy and on alchemistic medals preserved at the Coin Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Both types of sources clearly reveal Early Modern alchemy as not only a subject for eccentric experts puttering about in arcane laboratories purely on their own impulse. Moreover, it was an exciting matter of exclusive entertainment and noble conversations in the most sublime social circles of the period.


In the personal presence of the emperor, alchemists such as Wenzel Seiler (~1648–1681) would astonish their audience by giving spectacular performances at the court and supposedly transmuting base metals into gold. The material legacy of such performances is preserved in the Coin Collection in Vienna.

Collaboration Partners

University of Graz
KHM Wien
Land Niederösterreich
University of Vienna
Institut für Österr. Geschichtsforschung (IfÖG)
Österr. Gesellschaft f. Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Österr. Akademie d. Wissenschaften

Gut Oberstockstall
Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC)


Marktgemeinde Kirchberg am Wagram
Zentrum f. Informationsmodellierung

Recent News

Finding your way around the Vienna campus and accomodation

Aula am Campus When it says on the programme “Aula am Campus”, this means the address of Areal des Alten Wiener AKH / Hof 1. This is the biggest courtyard of which the Aula is part of. You can find it in the “right upper corner” of Hof 1, room number 1.11 . Follow this…

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Bring books for the book booth

A presenter asked if we could do a book booth where participants can bring books they just published and sell them. We thought this was a nice idea and thus, invite you to bring publications you want to sell (or other ad material you wish to give away). Feel free to bring books and ad…

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Information for Poster Presenters

The Poster Sessions The poster presentations will be held in two sessions, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. Umberto Veronesi will do his presentation on Friday after lunch at Oberstockstall since it directly adresses Oberstockstall objects and fits best with Sigrid von Osten’s talk on the archaeology of Oberstockstall. The sessions will be held…

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Contribution towards expenses for non-presenters

We kindly ask our non-presenters for a contribution towards our expenses (such as renting the bus and the buffets). If you want to participate in all three days, a reduced rate of 30€ is available for all three days. Otherwise the contribution towards expenses is 10€ per day on Wednesday and Thursday and 20€ for…

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Current News on the Oberstockstall Visit

The visit to the archaeological site of Oberstockstall will take place on Friday, 21. 2. 2020 at Kirchberg am Wagram and Gut Oberstockstall (Familie Salomon). Programme We will start our bus journey from Vienna at 9:00­ and expect the trip to take until 19:00 (arrival back in Vienna). The morning will be spent visiting the…

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Contact

Organizers

Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Elisabeth KLECKER: Initiator of the conference, areas of expertise: literary history, Austrian court.
Mag. Sarah LANG: scientific concept & communication, Panel “Alchemy and Digital Humanities”
Univ.-Doz. Dr. Rudolf Werner SOUKUP: Keynote, expert on Oberstockstall, consulting historian of Chemistry with a focus on Austrian chemistry
MMag. Patrick FISKA
Mag. Michael FROESTL

Contact: alchemietagung@gmail.com
Or: sarah[dot]lang[at]uni[dash]graz[dot]at

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