We are often told that ‘balance’ is the key to life – work/family balance, a balanced diet, and so on. But in early modern England, the quest for the perfect balance was thought to lead to prolonged life, more gold than could be dreamed of, and even the possibility of surviving the apocalypse.
Alchemy was the science that made these goals seem possible. We think of alchemists as fixated on precious metals, but alchemy overlapped with a field with which we are all familiar – medicine, and the fight to stay alive.
For Dr Jennifer Rampling, from Cambridge University's Department of History and Philosophy of Science, the origins of English alchemy are bound up with beliefs about medicine and disease. Rampling’s research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, takes a long-term view, spanning centuries – from 1300 to 1700 – and tracing the thread of English alchemy through hundreds of texts and manuscripts, taking in medicine, religion and culture.
Read the full story
Image: Detail from the Ripley Scroll housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum
Credit: Fitzwilliam Museum
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
____________________________________________