Gerrit Bos – Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Martin-Buber-Institut at Cologne University – will give a lecture on a 16th century recipe book composed by the physician and Kabbalist Hayyim Vital from Safed who lived from 1542-1620. The book “Practical Kabbalah and Alchemy” (“Kabbalah Ma‘asit we-Alkhimiyah”) covers a wide variety of subjects, mostly in the form of practical recipes, in the fields of magic, medicine, technology, metallurgy and chemistry.
From October to November 2014 Gerrit Bos is senior fellow of the Topoi research group (D-2) Mapping Body and Soul.