Aurum Potabile
Much like contemporary AI, potable gold was a highly contested preparation in the early modern period. It was by no means a single, clearly defined product but rather a marketing label applied to a wide range of medicinal preparations, whose chemical compositions could differ substantially.
Building on my research on Michael Maier and his relationship with Francis Anthony (Lang, 2021), I have since investigated potable gold (aurum potabile) in greater depth, examining the competing health claims and forms of medical authority that were negotiated through this controversy in the early seventeenth century.
In future work, potable gold will serve as one of the first case studies for in silico chemical replication. A selection of potable gold recipes will be analysed by simulating their underlying chemistry using computational (quantum) chemistry methods. This project will provide an initial proof of concept for a broader research programme that seeks to investigate historical chemical knowledge through computational simulation and will be the first of a series of planned case studies.
Image credit: “Pure gold precipitate produced by the aqua regia chemical refining” process (Wikimedia Commons).
References
2021
- Assessing Michael Maier’s Contributions to Francis Anthony’s Apologia (1616) Using StylometryIn Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Humanities Research 2021, 2021