The idea for this collection of essays on alchemy and other forms of early modern science began with a seminar on “Alchemy and Abjection” that I taught many years ago at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University. The atmosphere at the Society gave me room to rethink early modern science, beyond the Jungian and history of science models already circulating. The students in that seminar, Sean Teuton among others, inspired me to think differently about alchemy in particular, with their perceptive analyses of the highly elaborate rhetoric of the treatises they encountered over the course of the semester.
As is evident from the list of contributors, the work of many minds and hands went into this collection. I would like to thank my patient contributors, many of whom revised and polished their work over and over again, to make this collection of essays more of a harmonious whole. This project would never have come to fruition without the tireless support and wise advice of Erika Gaffney, our editor. Anything that is excellent in this project is due to her inspiration, as well as the hard work of the contributors; any errors are my own.
But the support of many others helped to refine our work, and I can only name a few here. Michael Giordano encouraged me from the very beginning of the long evolution of this collection. Gary Ferguson, David LaGuardia, and Larry Kritzman have given me advice on my work and on the collection, as well as opportunities to present portions of this material and receive feedback from others at the University of Delaware and at Dartmouth College. Marilyn Migiel read portions of the manuscript and gave valuable advice and kept me motivated throughout the process. I also thank our anonymous reader, who gave detailed guidance for reworking a number of the essays. My frequent exchanges with Leah DeVun have helped me to refine my understanding of medieval and early modern alchemy; she has been a valued interlocutor during this entire process. The Rare Book and Manuscript Division of the Cornell University Library has provided valuable resources for the research that went into this project; many of our images come from this collection. I am grateful to the entire staff of this collection for the help they extended to me as I undertook research on this topic. I thank Katherine Reagan in particular for the help she gave in navigating the collection. Last but not least my thanks go to my ever-patient and helpful tech support, Douglas Long, without whom this work would never have seen the light of day.