87371 - History of Ancient Science (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2020/2021

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Philosophical Sciences (cod. 8773)

Learning outcomes

Through the study of primary sources as well as of the main exegetical schools developed by modern interpreters, students will be provided with the intellectual tools necessary to: critically read and interpret scientific works, practices and theories from Antiquity; become aware of the historical and philological mechanisms that guided their transmission and promoted their influence over the centuries.

Course contents

Conceptualizing and Transforming Matter in Antiquity

The class will explore some important and influential theories of matter developed by Plato and Aristotle. Particular attention will be devoted to those writings that somehow anticipated the emergence of 'chemical' theories and practices in the ancient world. The second part of the class will focus on the origins and early development of alchemy in the Graeco-Roman Egypt as well as its reception in the Arabo-Islamic world. Particular attention will be devoted to: (1) the definition of alchemy and its main ancient doctrines related to the composition and transmutation of metals as well as to the concept of elixir; (2) a critical assessment of ancient sources and their mechanisms of transmission.

The main themes covered will be:

Plato and the Timaeus (7 hours)

Aristotle's Meteorology (7 hours)

The origins of alchemy in the Graeco-Roman Egypt (6 hours)

Natural philosophy and alchemy (5 hours)

Arabic alchemists: Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, al-Rāzī and Avicenna (6 hours) 

Readings/Bibliography

Readings/Bibliography

(1) Plato, Timaeus, 47e-61c. Suggested translation: Plato, Timaeus and Critias, a new translation by Robin Waterfield, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 40-57. 

(2) Aristotle, Meteorologica, book 3 (last section on the generation of metals ); book 4 (complete). Suggested translation: Aristotle, Meteorologica, with an English translation of H.D.P. Lee, Cambridge, MA - London: Loeb, 1952.

(3) Matteo Martelli, L’alchimista antico. Dall’Egitto greco-romano a Bisanzio, Milano: Editrice Bibliografica, 2019.

(4) Lawrence Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013, pp. 1-50 (chap. 1-2)

Students who cannot attend the classes, are also expected to read a selection of ancient alchemical texts from:  Michela Pereira (a cura di), Alchimia. I testi della tradizione occidentale, Milano: Mondadori/Meridiani, 2006, chapters 3-4, pp. 42-92 (chap. 3-4)

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures about the topics of the course;

Relevant passages of both medical and philosophical ancient sources will be read and commented on during the classes.

Students will be encouraged to deliver short presentations on particular topics (either individually or in groups)

Assessment methods

The exam consists in an oral interview during which the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated . The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to contextualise them in their historical epoch. The achievement of a systematic knowlege of the issues addressed during the classes and a critical approach to the sources combined with precision of language will be assessed with marks of excellence (28-30). Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of the texts combined with scholastic exposé will be assessed by good marking (23-27); training gaps and superficial contextualization and knoledge of the texts will be assessed with sufficient markings (18-22). Lacks of any of the above requirements will lead to a negative marking.

Teaching tools

Use of ppt slides, photocopies and multimedia educational tools.

Office hours

See the website of Matteo Martelli