[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/10604\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EAlchemy: much more than male-driven pseudoscience\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbout 20 years ago, Matteo Martelli was browsing in a bookshop when he chanced upon an intriguing work. Opening the pages of \u201cThe Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt\u201d, he became engrossed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMartelli is a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy who trained in the history of classical languages. His interest was piqued by hints of alchemy\u2019s rich past and mythology in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/alchemy-jack-lindsay\/ALCHEMY%20JACK%20LINDSAY_djvu.txt\u0022\u003EJack Lindsay\u2019s 1970 book\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHistory lessons\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The text mentions a very interesting account on the origins of alchemy, in which its practices were said to be a revelation from fallen angels,\u2019 said Martelli. \u2018This hinted that the angels revealed the secrets of nature to women in exchange for sexual favours, which was something I had never heard about.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlchemy is shrouded in spirituality and religion, having often been dismissed as a pseudoscience involving deluded efforts to transform base metals into gold.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Martelli was inspired to find out whether there was more to it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis opened up a new path for him into the history of science, culminating in the EU-funded \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/724914\u0022\u003EAlchemEast\u003C\/a\u003E project that he led. The initiative, begun in December 2017, ended in April this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver the five years, AlchemEast looked into alchemy from 1 500 BC to the early 1 000s AD, tracing it from ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt to the early Islamic period and seeking to dismantle the traditional pejorative view on its practices.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFar from being just about gold, ancient alchemy drew on multiple techniques for manipulating raw materials to make dyed metals, artificial gemstones, coloured glass and textiles, and chemical compounds, according to Martelli.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Looking at this is important to understand what role chemistry and alchemy, which in my opinion are basically the same things in different periods, played in the past in the construction of modern science,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAncient experiments\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EApart from delving into ancient texts and chemical recipes, his team even tried to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/alchemeast.eu\/replications\/\u0022\u003Erecreate past practices\u003C\/a\u003E in the laboratory to get inside how some of the ideas evolved.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EYou can make silver look exactly like gold just by dipping a silver coin in these divine waters.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Matteo Martelli, AlchemEast\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers reproduced artificial golden ink using ingredients like honey and silica and experimented with so-called divine waters, which comprise sulphur-containing compounds.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s amazing: you can make silver look exactly like gold just by dipping a silver coin in these divine waters for a few seconds,\u2019 said Martelli. \u2018You can really understand why they started to believe it was possible to make gold using this process.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther experiments involving the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2123171119\u0022\u003Eextraction of mercury from cinnabar\u003C\/a\u003E added insight into why mercury was viewed in the alchemical tradition as a common constituent of all metals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMartelli plans to make perfumes from recipes inscribed on ancient Mesopotamian tablets. He hopes that experimenting in ways different from those used today will offer a new perspective and even result in scientific discoveries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFemale footprints\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research of Martelli and others in recent decades is prompting a reassessment of the traditional view of alchemy, now viewing it as a serious forerunner of modern chemistry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the process, light is being shed on the integral role women played in the practices of alchemy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWomen constitute only around \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/ark:\/48223\/pf0000377433\u0022\u003Ea third of scientific researchers worldwide\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and the lack of visible female role models is acknowledged as one of the reasons.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In the earliest phases of alchemy, women seem to have played an important role,\u2019 said Martelli. \u2018And they were not just practitioners but appeared as goddesses in the mythology, as with Isis, the ancient Egyptian goddess of healing and magic said to have encountered an angel who revealed alchemical secrets to her.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the most prominent early practitioners was Maria the Jewess, who lived in Alexandria sometime between the first and third centuries AD and who is credited with the invention of several types of chemical apparatus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese included the bain-marie, a hot water bath named after her and commonly used by chefs today.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWomen\u2019s involvement in alchemy continued into the early modern period, according to a separate EU-funded project called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/839419\u0022\u003EWALCHEMY\u003C\/a\u003E, which looked at literary works authored by women in 16th- and 17th-century Britain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWomen\u2019s writing\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe seeds of the project were sown when Dr Sajed Chowdhury, assistant professor of early modern English literature at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, was doing his doctorate on women\u2019s writing in the Renaissance period from the 14th\u0026nbsp;to the 17th centuries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018What I found was that a lot of the time female writers, like their male contemporaries, were drawing upon this idea of alchemy, which was really the craft of chemical transmutation of metals, herbs, minerals and plants,\u2019 Chowdhury said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EThe sheer range of women who were engaging with the language of alchemy surprised me.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Sajed Chowdhury, WALCHEMY\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAided by texts rediscovered by feminist scholars in recent decades, he found evidence \u2013 from literary forms such as poetry and chemical recipe books \u2013 that women\u2019s involvement was even more widespread than he expected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The sheer range of women who were engaging with the language of alchemy surprised me,\u2019 Chowdhury said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy analysing these texts, he reconstructed a history of alchemy that was not the sole domain of men but rather one in which women from a variety of backgrounds played a central role \u2013\u0026nbsp;helping tell the story of these forgotten voices.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018They weren\u2019t necessarily doing it for money but as charitable healthcare and part of their Christian endeavour to work in their communities,\u2019 Chowdhury said. \u2018Scientific endeavour in the household involved both men and women.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne example came from the recipe books and prose meditations of Lady Grace Mildmay, an English noblewoman who practised medical and spiritual alchemy in her home and local area of Northamptonshire during the second half of the 16th century.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Excerpt from Grace Mildmay\u2019s handwritten recipe (c. 1598). Reproduced with the permission of Northamptonshire Record Office, Northampton.\u0022 data-entity-type=\u0022file\u0022 data-entity-uuid=\u00225d05634c-d880-4c19-ae1d-96f54f5e2b84\u0022 src=\u0022\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/mildmay%20photo%20-%20alchemy.jpg\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EExcerpt from Grace Mildmay\u2019s handwritten recipe (c. 1598). Reproduced with the permission of Northamptonshire Record Office, Northampton.\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe sources pointed to a wider practice involving women.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018What survive in large numbers are recipe books that are basically instructions on how to run your household,\u2019 said Chowdhury. \u2018These contain what we would describe as alchemical procedures such as distillation, fermentation and calcination.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese processes involved the likes of herbs to use in medicines, instructions for making detergents and cleaning brass, and culinary procedures such as how to purify honey.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChowdhury said that even the work of Robert Boyle, an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher viewed by many as one of the \u201cfathers of modern chemistry\u201d, is thought to have been influenced by his elder sister, Lady Ranelagh, who carried out experiments in the household.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKey figures\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research has led to a study by Chowdhury entitled \u201cWomen Writers and Alchemy in Early Modern Britain\u201d, which is under peer review.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt highlights works by 12 women, focusing on, among others, Mildmay, Aemilia Lanyer, who was the daughter of a court musician, the republican Lucy Hutchinson and Protestant mystic Jane Lead.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeanwhile, Chowdhury plans further research into scientific practices in 17th-century convents in a bid to uncover what happened in all-female environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We know that women in these convents were practising medicine and engaged with herbology, but these convent archives are largely untapped and are scattered around Europe,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EApart from assigning greater gravity to alchemy, the study of this area is providing more prominence to women\u2019s role in the world\u2019s scientific past.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We see that the alchemist is female a lot of the time,\u2019 said Chowdhury. \u2018If we are to get a more inclusive understanding of the history of science, then we have to include women\u2019s contribution.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded via the EU\u2019s European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). 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