04462 - History of Science and Technique (G.B)

Learning outcomes

The history of science is by now a discipline present in almost all Italian universities and part of many degree courses of study, both in the humanities and sciences. The central role this course plays in university education is principally based on two fundamental motivations: 1) the recognition of the history of science as an ideal discipline in order to surpass the problematic fracture between humanist culture and scientific culture 2) the evidence that the development of science and technology is the most decisive and apparent aspect of the contemporary world. The history of science and technique course is therefore firstly characterised by its highly interdisciplinary content and by the possibility to offer outlooks of analysis and study that differ from and are alternative to the traditional approach of fields of knowledge, both in the humanist and scientific worlds.

Course contents

The course aims at tracing the history of ideas and practices that characterized the human approach to nature from Babylonian antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. The course will draw the main lines of theoretical development of Ancient, Hellenistic, Late Antique and Medieval natural philosophy; it will also focus on the technical and scientific content of artisanal practices and of investigatory and productive activities of the time which are often overlooked in the classical narrative on the development of pre-modern science. Particular attention will be devoted to the Mediterranean basin as a centre of lively scientific exchanges, both theoretical and practical, between disparate cultural, linguistic and ethic actors, and to the development of the sciences in the Arabo-Islamic context during the Middle Ages. The second part of the course, while following the historical outline traced in the first part, will investigate the history of alchemy, a discipline at the hinge between practice and theory; a selection of fundamental texts of Ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin origin will be analysed in the course. The themes and historical tendences identified in the first part of the course will resurface in the study of the history of alchemy and its textual lore.

First part, Science and Technique in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (40 hours):

Science before science? How to study pre-modern science

Babylon and Egypt

Science in Greece in the Classical period

Scientific developments in Hellenistic times

Roman civilization, sciences and techniques

Science in Byzantium

Science and Islām

The Greek-Syriac-Arabic translation movement

Mathematics, astronomy and astrology in the Islamic world

Places of scientific production in the Islamic world

The Arabic-Latin translations and the ‘12^th Century Renaissance’

Cathedral Schools and Universities

Scholastic Natural Philosophy

Science and Technique in the Latin Middle Ages

Second Part, Alchemy

The origins of alchemy

Etymological and Historiographical problems

Alchemy and artisanal knowledge in the Greek and Hellenistic world

Pseudoepigraphy, secrecy and authority

Alchemy in the Islamic world: letters, balances, alembics and crucibles

Alchemy, philosophy, religion and artisanal practices in the Latin Middle Ages

Alchemical imagery and practice

Alchemy, philology and laboratory replications

Readings/Bibliography

- First Part

1) Clericuzio, A., Uomo e Natura. Scienza, tecnica e società dall’antichità all’età moderna, Firenze: Carocci 2022, pp. 1-183

2) Gutas, D., Pensiero Greco e Cultura Araba, Torino: Einaudi 1998, pp. 1-124

3) Primary sources as read and commented in class (available on Virtuale)

4) Secondary literature as suggested in class (available on Virtuale)

- Second Part:

1) Pereira, M., Arcana Sapienza. L’alchimia dalle origini a Jung, Roma: Carocci 2001, pp. 66-147 (Students may replace pp. 31-65 of Pereira’s book with Martelli, M., L’alchimista antico. Dall’Egitto greco-romano a Bisanzio, Milano: Editrice Bibliografica 2019)

2) Nasr, S.H., Scienza e Civiltà nell’Islam, San Demetrio Corone: Irfan 2012, pp. 49-80

3) Primary sources as read and commented in class (available on Virtuale)

4) Secondary literature as suggested in class (available on Virtuale)

Teaching methods

Lecture on the course’s topics.

Reading and in-class commentary of relevant passages from primary sources in the history of pre-modern science.

Students will be encouraged to deliver short presentations on discreet topics (either individually or as part of a group)

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 texts covered during the course and to expand on their historical context. The achievement of a systematic knowledge of the topics addressed in class and of a critical approach to the sources together with the use of precise language will be assessed with marks of excellence (28-30). Mechanical and/or mnemonic knowledge of the topics together with proper exposition will be assessed by good marking (23-27); gaps in the mastery of the topics of the course, superficial contextualization and knowledge of the texts will be assessed with sufficient markings (18-22). Lack of any of the above requirements will lead to a negative marking.

Students not attending classes

Students not attending classes will have to write a short paper (2,500 words / 8 pages double-spaced) on a topic to be previously defined with the teacher during office hours. This paper must be submitted 10 days before the expected date of the oral exam.

Not-attending students should also complete the reading of either Gutas’ or Nasr’s books.

Teaching tools

Use of ppt slides and multimedia educational tools.

Office hours

See the website of Gabriele Ferrario