ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

UNEARTHED II: Res inanimatae in Late Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

This panel explores the intersection of natural philosophy, alchemy, and medicine in the early modern period, focusing on the roles of res inanimatae (minerals, earths, stones, juices …) in medical theory and practice. Early modern physicians, apothecaries, and natural philosophers often turned to the mineral world and alchemical substances to develop remedies and explain bodily processes. Minerals, with their perceived transformative and purifying properties, were central to medical treatments: how were they prepared and dispensed in early modern paracelsian and non-paracelsian pharmacopeias? The panel will examine how these materials were conceptualised, prepared, and applied within the medical contexts. Topics include the alchemical preparation of mineral-based medicines, the theoretical frameworks that justified their use, and the cultural and spiritual dimensions of res inanimatae. By analyzing medical texts, alchemical treatises, antidotaries, and case studies, the panel will shed light on the blurred boundaries between science, medicine, and mysticism in this period as well as the complex relationship between the ippocratico-galenic and paracelsian traditions. This panel aims to contribute to the growing scholarship on the material culture of early modern medicine, offering new insights into the dynamic interplay between natural substances and medical innovation.
Questions include:
• What role did these substances play in the broader medical marketplace?
• How did early modern practitioners reconcile the material and spiritual properties of minerals and res inaanimatae?
• And how did their use reflect changing understandings of the body and nature?

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Tina Asmussen, Ruhr University Bochum / German Mining Museum Bochum

Individual Presentations

• The Role of the Lapidary as a Purveyor of Mineral Materia Medica in Early Modern London - Nichola Harris, SUNY, Ulster

• La Serenissima in Vial and Powder: Mineral Remedies in the Ricettari of Early Modern Venice - Sarah Seinitzer, Universität Wien / Università di Bologna

• Stones, Remedies, and Revolutions: Ulisse Aldrovandi Between Lapidaries and Paracelsianism - Monica Azzolini, University of Bologna

Session Organizers

• Monica Azzolini, University of Bologna

• Sarah Seinitzer, Universität Wien / Università di Bologna