The Book on Alums and Salts of Pseudo-Rāzı̄: The Arabic and Hebrew Traditions by Gabriele Ferrario

The Book on Alums and Salts of Pseudo-Rāzı̄: The Arabic and Hebrew Traditions by Gabriele Ferrario

On Alums and Salts, sometimes attributed to the Persian polymath al-Rāzī, is one of the most influential treatises in the European alchemical tradition. This Arabic alchemical work, produced in twelfth-century al-Andalus, gained wide fame in its Latin translations, and is also represented by a unique and fascinating Hebrew manuscript that includes practical commentary added by its anonymous Jewish compiler. Gabriele Ferrario’s new edition presents both the Arabic and the Hebrew texts, each with a full translation into English. Together, the two editions of On Alums and Salts tell the story of the active acquisition of chemical knowledge, of lexical creativity and ingenuity, and of scientific engagement that crossed chronological, linguistic, cultural, and religious boundaries.

Gabriele Ferrario is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bologna. He works on the history of medieval sciences and on the transmission of scientific ideas across languages and cultures. His publications focus mainly on medieval Arabic, Hebrew, and Judaeo-Arabic alchemy. He held fellowships and post-docs at the Warburg Institute (London), the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now Science History Institute – Philadelphia), the Genizah Research Unit (Cambridge, UK), Clare Hall College (Cambridge, UK), and in the ERC project AlchemEast, in Bologna. Before moving to Bologna, he was a Visiting Assistant Research Professor in the History of Science Department at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore).