Sounding the depths of providence: mineral (re)generation, natural resources, and human-environment interaction in the early modern period
SOUNDEPTH is a research project on early modern conceptions of ore generation within the broader theoretical and practical contexts of natural philosophy, Earth sciences, and human-environment interactions. In carrying out an interdisciplinary study of these subjects, the project aims to disclose new insights into our understanding of geological phenomena and natural resources, thus giving a significant contribution to the history of science, environmental history, and to the ongoing environmental debate.

These goals will be achieved through the acquisition of new scientific knowledge and skills, the strengthening of the existing ones, and the implementation of an interdisciplinary work that will combine 1) an in-depth analysis of the sources that influenced the early modern debate on mineral generation and 2) a confrontation with the existing secondary literature on the subject, with 3) the replication in laboratory of significant alchemical and mineral processes and the comparative exploration of historical mining sites in Europe.

The outgoing phase at Johns Hopkins University (USA, month 1-24) will focus mainly on the analysis of sources and studies, on the acquisition of new scientific knowledge (geochemistry, geobiology, alchemy, experimental history of science), and on laboratory replications. The secondment period at Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands, month 25-27) and the incoming phase at Ca’ Foscari Venice (Italy, month 28-36) will be especially devoted to refining my existing expertise (history and philosophy of early modern science, Earth sciences, environmental history, ecology, digital humanities, textual criticism) and to the exploration of historical mining sites.

Research outputs (conference presentations; open access, peer-reviewed publications; open data repositories; outreach and communication activities; publications aimed to students and the general public) will be produced across the entire duration of the project.