Everyday poisons:
The many faces of poison in Medieval and Early Modern Treatises.

Poison was strongly present at all times in the daily life of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. It was used as a weapon, deliberately and otherwise, but it could be found in even the simplest actions, used with an awareness of its lethality but also of how useful and fundamental certain poisonous substances could actually be in art, medicine, or cosmetics. This workshop, therefore, intends to analyze all aspects of that dealt with poisonous elements, materials, plants or animals. It focuses on treatises and recipe collections, which explain how to prepare pigments, binders or varnish, but also jams, syrups, or even beauty findings. Among the many recipes, however, one can find not only those for counteracting the effect of certain poisons, but also those for preparing them. Contributions that discuss ingredients, substances, minerals, plants, and any reference to poison in treatise literature and cookbooks from the 15th to 18th centuries will therefore be welcome. Submissions dealing with the use of poisons for murderous purposes will be considered, but only if related to art, botany, or cosmetics.

The organizers of this workshop (Maddalena Bellavitis and Anil Paralkar) invite papers that shed new light and provide new interdisciplinary research trajectories on any topic that can be connected with poison. For this reason, we encourage submission for presentation proposals from any discipline, within both Humanities and Science.

To be considered for participation, please provide a one-page-document (pdf), consisting of a proposal for a 20-minute presentation of unpublished work, and a short bio. Presentations will be in English. Applications may be sent maddalena.bellavitisgmail.com by January 15, 2025 (participants will be notified by the end of January 2025).