Learned Medicine and Alchemical Mysteries in the Library of Clare College, Cambridge (c.1570-1620

In this talk, Dr Timothy Chesters will share a newly-discovered secret from the Fellows’ Library at Clare College, Cambridge, and through it tell the story of one of Clare’s most colourful fellows. Piecing together some extraordinarily densely annotated books from the collection, the history of chemical experimentation, Tudor medicine, letters from the college archive, the college silver, a memorial sculpture, and an East London pub, the talk will show how the library at Clare may hold the key to one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of Tudor alchemy.