Occult knowledge and digital methods
This course introduces students to early modern sources of occult knowledge and explores how Digital Humanities methods can be applied to their analysis.
Instructor: Sarah Lang
Course Overview
The course focuses on early modern sources associated with occult and secret knowledge, including recipe books, astrological writings, and cryptographically encoded texts. Students examine the specific challenges posed by these source types and explore how their historical contexts shape their interpretation.
Alongside source criticism, the seminar introduces a range of Digital Humanities methods and tools that can be applied to the analysis of historical texts. Through practical exercises, students gain experience in selecting and applying appropriate digital methods to different source materials.
This source-based seminar Okkultes Wissen und digitale Methoden accompanied the lecture Okkultes Wissen und Wissensorganisation von Alchemie bis AI and was taught at Bergische Universität Wuppertal as part of a guest professorship in Summer Semester 2026.