Events

Το Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών (ΕΙΕ) σε συνεργασία με τη Γενική Γραμματεία Έρευνας και Τεχνολογίας (ΓΓΕΤ) σας προσκαλεί να γνωρίσετε την «Αλχημεία» του Βυζαντίου και τη σχέση της επιστήμης με τη θρησκεία στην Νοτιοανατολική Μεσόγειο, σε μια εκδήλωση ανοιχτή στο κοινό που διοργανώνει τη Δευτέρα 29 Μαΐου 2017.

Visit of Alain Touwaide

Historian of Greek medicine and botany Alain Touwaide is the recipient of one of the ten "Foreign Fellowships" awarded by the Onassis Foundation for the year 2015-16. He will be in residence for six months at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, and will work in close collaboration with the Program on History, Philosophy and Didactics of Science and Technology of the Institute for Historical Research directed by NHRF scholar Efthymios Nicolaidis.

Dacalbo final Workshop and Symposium ‘Greek alchemy: From the late Antiquity to the early Modernity’
Athens, NHRF, 25-27 June 2015.

At the Workshop the following themes will be discussed:
- the catalogue of Greek alchemical manuscripts and the inventory of manuscripts containing Greek texts that are relevant to alchemy,
- the relationships between alchemy and natural philosophy in Byzantine times, and the mutations of alchemy and the development of ‘chymistry’ in the post-Byzantine era,
- the educational applications of the historical material and on the reproduction of alchemical procedures.

The Workshop will be followed by the Symposium, ‘Greek alchemy: From the late Antiquity to the early Modernity’

The Conference is organized by the Interuniversity Centre for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT), a research centre associated with the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon.
Theme of the Conference: "Communicating Science, Technology and Medicine”.
Full programme in the Conference website

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Session “Alchemy and Medicine in Middle Ages”, in 7th Panhellenic Conference on "History and Philosophy of Science in Teaching Physical Sciences" (National Hellenic Research Foundation & Department of Education/UoA), Athens 1-3.11.2012

Dimitrios Gousopoulos, Gianna Katsiampoura: "Philosophy of matter in Byzantium : Michael Psellus, Omnifaria Doctrina"
Ioanna Fokou, Stella Bithimitri, Gianna Katsiampoura: "Women in Alchemy"
Stella Bithimitri, Ioanna Fokou, Gianna Katsiampoura: "Women and medicine in Middle Ages"

Alchemy was craft and science. Alchemy emerged from the combination of craftsmen’s practice and a discourse; a discourse supposed to account for the transformations of matter carried out by craftsman’s hands within the bounds of a work based on a simple imitation of nature, or depending on the case a discourse exposing real productions - true or supposed - equal to those of nature.

Historical research has traced the first written documents of alchemy back in the 3rd century AD. From the 1st to the 4th centuries, alchemical practice develops itself into an art of metallic transmutation and two distinct alchemical “schools” seem to emerge: the one, represented by Ostanes, is still based on the practical knowledge of craftsmen, blacksmiths and dyers, although a shift is being accomplished from “chrysosis” (giving to a base metal the appearance of gold) to “chrysopoeia” (transforming a base metal to gold); the other, represented by Zosimos and Maria the Jewess, assumes a religious, Gnostic orientation, putting the emphasis on the elaboration of distillation techniques.

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