Female knowledge in distillation images and practices

Abstract

One of the recurrent motives in Alchemy iconography is the work of women, appearing in significant treatises from the second half of the 16th century onwards. The images of women were also present in books on distillation devoted to the description of procedures to preparing medicinal waters. This paper, focusing on alchemical treatises Splendor Solis and Liber de arte distillandi by Hieronymus Brunschwig analyzes some of the paths that would lead to the enrichment and modernization of the representation of the work of women.