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Jennifer Rampling

Princeton University, History of Science, Faculty Member

University of Cambridge, Clare Hall, Post-Doc

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I am a historian of science and medicine, with particular research interests in the history of alchemy and early chemistry. My first book, The Experimental Fire, traces alchemical ideas and practices in England over four centuries, from 1300-1700. My second book project investigates the visual culture of alchemy, focusing on a spectacular group of manuscripts known as the ‘Ripley Scrolls’.

I have edited several collections of essays, including one on the Elizabethan mathematician and astrologer, John Dee (1527–1609), and another on alchemy in early modern Europe. I am also engaged in recreating early chemical experiments.

From 2013-2017 I was the Editor of Ambix, the Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, and the leading specialist journal in the history of alchemy and chemistry. With Prof. Lawrence Principe, I am also general editor of a series of critical editions and translations: Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry.
Address: Princeton University
Department of History
129 Dickinson Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
USA

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Peter J Forshaw

University of Amsterdam

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Pratt Institute

Alexandra Marraccini

School of Advanced Study, University of London

LAERA ass.cult.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

Joyce Pijnenburg

University of Amsterdam

University of Kansas

University of Arizona

Alinda van Ackooy

University of Amsterdam

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Papers by Jennifer Rampling

Rampling - Elixirs for Times of Plague and Bullion Shortage

Nature, 2020

Rampling Elements. A 2,000 Year Story

Nature, 2019

From Alchemy to Chemistry

Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World Macropaedia

Tudor technology: Shakespeare and science

Nature, 2014

ABSTRACT To mark the 450th anniversary of the bard&#39;s birth, Jennifer Rampling probes how ... more

Alchemy as "Practical Exegesis" in Early Modern England

An influential strand of English alchemy was the pursuit of the “vegetable stone,” a medicinal el... more An influential strand of English alchemy was the pursuit of the “vegetable stone,” a medicinal elixir popularized by George Ripley (d. ca. 1490), made from a metallic substance, “sericon.” Yet the identity of sericon was not fixed, undergoing radical reinterpretation between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as Ripley’s lead-based practice was eclipsed by new methods, notably the antimonial approach of George Starkey (1628–65). Tracing “sericonian” alchemy over 250 years, I show how alchemists fed their practical findings back into textual accounts, creating a “feedback loop” in which the authority of past adepts was maintained by exegetical manipulations—a process that I term “practical exegesis.”

Transmission and Transmutation: George Ripley and the Place of English Alchemy in Early Modern Europe

Continental authors and editors often sought to ground alchemical writing within a long-establish... more Continental authors and editors often sought to ground alchemical writing within a long-established, coherent and pan-European tradition, appealing to the authority of adepts from different times and places. Greek, Latin and Islamic alchemists met both in person and between the covers of books, in actual, fictional or coincidental encounters: a trope utilised in Michael Maier's Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum (1617). This essay examines how works attributed to an English authority, George Ripley (d. c. 1490), were received in central Europe and incorporated into continental compendia. Placed alongside works by the philosophers of other nations, Ripley's writings helped affirm the unity and truth of alchemy in defiance of its critics. His continental editors were therefore concerned not only with the provenance of manuscripts and high-quality exemplars, but by a range of other factors, including the desire to suppress controversial material, intervene in contemporary polemics, and defend their art. In the resulting compilations, the vertical axis of alchemy's long, diachronic tradition may be compared to the horizontal plane of pan-European alchemy.

Depicting the Medieval Alchemical Cosmos

Alchemical images take many forms, from descriptive illustrations of apparatus to complex allegor... more

Introduction - John Dee and the Sciences: Early Modern Networks of Knowledge

When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Sc... more

John Dee and the Alchemists: Practising and Promoting English Alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire

Alchemy Rudolf II Prague Manuscript circulation a b s t r a c t This paper investigates John Dee'... more Alchemy Rudolf II Prague Manuscript circulation a b s t r a c t This paper investigates John Dee's relationship with two kinds of alchemist: the authorities whose works he read, and the contemporary practitioners with whom he exchanged texts and ideas. Both strands coincide in the reception of works attributed to the famous English alchemist, George Ripley (d. c. 1490). Dee's keen interest in Ripley appears from the number of transcriptions he made of 'Ripleian' writings, including the Bosome book, a manuscript discovered in 1574 and believed to have been written in Ripley's own hand. In 1583, Dee and his associate Edward Kelley left England for East Central Europe, taking with them a proportion of Dee's vast library, including alchemical books-the contents of which would soon pique the interest of continental practitioners. Kelley used Ripley's works, including the Bosome book, not only as sources of practical information, but as a means of furthering his own relationships with colleagues and patrons: transactions that in turn influenced Ripley's posthumous continental reception. The resulting circulation of texts allows us to trace, with unusual precision, the spread of English alchemical ideas in the Holy Roman Empire from the late sixteenth century.

The Catalogue of the Ripley Corpus: Alchemical Writings Attributed to George Ripley (d. ca. 1490

Ambix, 2010

Establishing the Canon: George Ripley and his Alchemical Sources

Ambix, 2008

The Elizabethan mathematics of everything: John Dee's ‘Mathematicall praeface’ to Euclid's Elements

Bshm Bulletin: Journal of The British Society for The History of Mathematics, 2011

This article considers John Dee's famous classification and justification of ‘the Sciences, and A... more This article considers John Dee's famous classification and justification of ‘the Sciences, and Artes Mathematicall’ in his Mathematicall praeface to Henry Billingsley's Elements of geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570), the first English translation of Euclid. It is a revised version of a lecture presented to the British Society for the History of Mathematics Autumn Meeting, October 2010, under the title ‘John Dee and the Elizabethan Mathematics of Everything’.

Book Reviews by Jennifer Rampling

Trial by Gender

Women at the Edge of Science

by Jennifer Rampling and Meredith K. Ray

Nature

Rampling - Elixirs for Times of Plague and Bullion Shortage

Nature, 2020

Rampling Elements. A 2,000 Year Story

Nature, 2019

From Alchemy to Chemistry

Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World Macropaedia

Tudor technology: Shakespeare and science

Nature, 2014

ABSTRACT To mark the 450th anniversary of the bard&#39;s birth, Jennifer Rampling probes how ... more

Alchemy as "Practical Exegesis" in Early Modern England

An influential strand of English alchemy was the pursuit of the “vegetable stone,” a medicinal el... more An influential strand of English alchemy was the pursuit of the “vegetable stone,” a medicinal elixir popularized by George Ripley (d. ca. 1490), made from a metallic substance, “sericon.” Yet the identity of sericon was not fixed, undergoing radical reinterpretation between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as Ripley’s lead-based practice was eclipsed by new methods, notably the antimonial approach of George Starkey (1628–65). Tracing “sericonian” alchemy over 250 years, I show how alchemists fed their practical findings back into textual accounts, creating a “feedback loop” in which the authority of past adepts was maintained by exegetical manipulations—a process that I term “practical exegesis.”

Transmission and Transmutation: George Ripley and the Place of English Alchemy in Early Modern Europe

Continental authors and editors often sought to ground alchemical writing within a long-establish... more Continental authors and editors often sought to ground alchemical writing within a long-established, coherent and pan-European tradition, appealing to the authority of adepts from different times and places. Greek, Latin and Islamic alchemists met both in person and between the covers of books, in actual, fictional or coincidental encounters: a trope utilised in Michael Maier's Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum (1617). This essay examines how works attributed to an English authority, George Ripley (d. c. 1490), were received in central Europe and incorporated into continental compendia. Placed alongside works by the philosophers of other nations, Ripley's writings helped affirm the unity and truth of alchemy in defiance of its critics. His continental editors were therefore concerned not only with the provenance of manuscripts and high-quality exemplars, but by a range of other factors, including the desire to suppress controversial material, intervene in contemporary polemics, and defend their art. In the resulting compilations, the vertical axis of alchemy's long, diachronic tradition may be compared to the horizontal plane of pan-European alchemy.

Depicting the Medieval Alchemical Cosmos

Alchemical images take many forms, from descriptive illustrations of apparatus to complex allegor... more

Introduction - John Dee and the Sciences: Early Modern Networks of Knowledge

When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Sc... more

John Dee and the Alchemists: Practising and Promoting English Alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire

Alchemy Rudolf II Prague Manuscript circulation a b s t r a c t This paper investigates John Dee'... more Alchemy Rudolf II Prague Manuscript circulation a b s t r a c t This paper investigates John Dee's relationship with two kinds of alchemist: the authorities whose works he read, and the contemporary practitioners with whom he exchanged texts and ideas. Both strands coincide in the reception of works attributed to the famous English alchemist, George Ripley (d. c. 1490). Dee's keen interest in Ripley appears from the number of transcriptions he made of 'Ripleian' writings, including the Bosome book, a manuscript discovered in 1574 and believed to have been written in Ripley's own hand. In 1583, Dee and his associate Edward Kelley left England for East Central Europe, taking with them a proportion of Dee's vast library, including alchemical books-the contents of which would soon pique the interest of continental practitioners. Kelley used Ripley's works, including the Bosome book, not only as sources of practical information, but as a means of furthering his own relationships with colleagues and patrons: transactions that in turn influenced Ripley's posthumous continental reception. The resulting circulation of texts allows us to trace, with unusual precision, the spread of English alchemical ideas in the Holy Roman Empire from the late sixteenth century.

The Catalogue of the Ripley Corpus: Alchemical Writings Attributed to George Ripley (d. ca. 1490

Ambix, 2010

Establishing the Canon: George Ripley and his Alchemical Sources

Ambix, 2008

The Elizabethan mathematics of everything: John Dee's ‘Mathematicall praeface’ to Euclid's Elements

Bshm Bulletin: Journal of The British Society for The History of Mathematics, 2011

This article considers John Dee's famous classification and justification of ‘the Sciences, and A... more This article considers John Dee's famous classification and justification of ‘the Sciences, and Artes Mathematicall’ in his Mathematicall praeface to Henry Billingsley's Elements of geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570), the first English translation of Euclid. It is a revised version of a lecture presented to the British Society for the History of Mathematics Autumn Meeting, October 2010, under the title ‘John Dee and the Elizabethan Mathematics of Everything’.

Trial by Gender

Women at the Edge of Science

by Jennifer Rampling and Meredith K. Ray

Nature