La science des propriétés naturelles

The Science of Natural Properties. Knowledge, Transmission, and Practice (6th-15th century)

International Conference

organized by:
Alessandra Scimone
Amine Xhakoni
Lucia Raggetti

Bologna, 17-19 June 2026
Aula Magna - Biblioteca Universitaria, Via Zamboni 33
Sala delle Armi - Palazzo Malvezzi, Via Zamboni 13
 

Keynote speakers:
Jean-Charles Coulon, Isabelle Draelants
(Institute de Recherche et d’Histoire des Texts – CNRS)

For further information or to join us on MS Teams, please email filo.scienceofnaturalproperties@unibo.it

June 17
Morning
| 10:00-11:00 REGISTRATION AND WELCOME
Sala delle Armi, Palazzo Malvezzi

| 11:00-12:30 NATURAL AND OCCULT PROPERTIES OF MINERALS AND METALS
MARIO LENTANO (Università di Siena), ANNA MARIA URSO (Università di Messina)
Pietre pregne e donne gravide. Una storia culturale dell’aetite
STEFANIA FORTUNA (Università Politecnica delle Marche)
I metalli nella terapia dei medici antichi greci e latini
HUSSIEN SOLIMAN ELZOHARY (Bibliotheca Alexandrina)
Defending Natural Properties of Metals: ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī on the Dispute
between the Chemist and the Theorist

Afternoon
| 14:30-15:30 TECHNICAL HANDBOOKS AND MATERIAL KNOWLEDGE
ALESSIA ZUBANI (École du Louvre – Institut Français d’ Études Anatoliennes)
Natural Properties and Mechanical Knowledge in al-Jazarī’s Compendium of the
Theory and Practice of the Mechanical Arts
LEONIE BÖTTIGER (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte)
Valets, Velvet, and Vultures: The Properties of Animal Parts in a Fifteenth-Century
Arabic Housekeeping Manual

| 15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break

| 16:15-17:15 KEYNOTE SPEECH
Aula Magna, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna
ISABELLE DRAELANTS (Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes - CNRS)
Proprietas, un concetto medievale cardine tra esegesi, fisica, filosofia e magia

 

June 18
Morning

| 9:30-10:30 KEYNOTE SPEECH
Aula Magna, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna
JEAN-CHARLES COULON (Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes - CNRS)
From Nature to Letters: Plato and the History of Arabic Occult Sciences

| 10:45 – 11:30 Coffee Break

| 11:30-13:00 STARS, STONES, AND TALISMANS
Sala delle Armi, Palazzo Malvezzi
BENNET ALBERTH (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
A Lost Greek Work on Occult Properties Hidden in the Arabic Tradition?
NICOLETTA PALMIERI (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne)
Influenze astrali e metereologiche sulla natura umana: la prima res non naturalis
secondo i maestri di medicina nel XII secolo
GIULIA FRENI (Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici)
Tra mineralogia e astrologia: un opuscolo astrologico sulle pietre planetarie nel XV secolo

Afternoon
| 14:30-16:00 MANIPULATION AND INTERPRETATION OF NATURE
ANGELICA GASPARI (Sapienza Università di Roma)
Magnetismo e altri fenomeni fisici nella letteratura pahlavi
EUGENIO VILLA (Università di Udine)
Astanus/Ostanes in the Bologna University Library and beyond
ALMA ELIAZ (Tel Aviv University)
The Properties of Numbers in a Fifteenth-Century Hebrew Geomantic Treatise

| 16:00 – 16:15 Coffee Break

| 16.15-17:15 PROPERTIES AND CRAFTMANSHIP
JAVIER LÓPEZ RIDER (Universidad de Córdoba)
Hojas, raíces y cortezas. El uso de sustancias de origen vegetal en la producción
cosmética de la España bajomedieval
DAVID FERNÁNDEZ SÁNCHEZ (Universidad de Córdoba)
Curtición vegetal y producción de obras de cuero en la Castilla bajomedieval

| 17:15 – 17:30 Coffee Break
 

| 17:30-18:30 PRESENTATION OF THE EDITION OF THE BOOK OF OCCULT
PROPERTIES BY ABŪ AL-ʿALĀ IBN ZUHR

 

June 19
Morning

| 10:00-12:30 NATURAL AND OCCULT PROPERTIES OF PLANTS BETWEEN
LITERATURE AND MEDICINE
Sala delle Armi, Palazzo Malvezzi
ARSENIO FERRACES RODRÍGUEZ (Universidade da Coruña)
El poder hemostático de la morera (arbor mori) en dos pasajes mágico-médicos de
la antigüedad tardía
BEHNAM ATAEI (Freie Universität Berlin)
From the “Expeller of Death” to the “Slayer of the Evil Eye”: The Apotropaic Rebirth
of Haoma/ Hōm in the Iranian World

| 11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
CHLOE NEWMAN (Cambridge University)
Materia Medica as Allegory: Translating the Power of Plants in the Alexander
Romance Tradition
SAMUELE FILIPPI (Università di Palermo)
Che cosa cura davvero? Virtus e farmaco nel Plusquam Commentum di Pietro
Torrigiano

Afternoon
 | 14:00-16:30 NATURAL AND OCCULT PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
IN MEDICINE
GIUSEPPE TROVATO (Università di Messina)
Proprietà occulte nei Physica di Teodoro Prisciano
ABEL DE LORENZO RODRÍGUEZ (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela –
University of Edinburgh)
Pearls, Cinnamon, and Deer Heart Bones. The Emerging Salernitan Recipes and
Medical Properties in Twelfth century Iberia

| 15:00 – 15:30 Coffee Break
MARINA DÍAZ MARCOS (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)
Las propiedades naturales de las plantas en la traducción latina medieval del
galénico De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus VI
LI PARRENT (McGill University)
Agent and Ingredient: Wildness and Domesticity as Mediators of Natural Properties
in Plants and Animals in Courtly Contexts, c.1250-c.1450

| 16:30-17:00 CLOSING REMARKS
For more information or to join us on MS Teams, please email filo.scienceofnaturalproperties@unibo.it