Notes on Contributors
Miriam Blanco Cesteros
is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). With a solid background in papyrology and classical philology, she received her PhD with a dissertation on Greco-Egyptian magical papyri in 2017. In 2018–2020 she was a postdoctoral fellow in the ERC project AlchemEast on the history of Alchemy (Bologna, Italy), where she developed a research focused on the two Greco-Egyptian alchemical recipe books usually referred to as the Leiden and Stockholm papyri (3rd–4th century AD), to be published as a monograph. Her research revolves around the ritual and cultural formation of the Greco-Egyptian magic practitioners, and her publications touch upon a variety of fields such as magic and religion, literature, alchemy and papyrology in an interdisciplinary perspective.
Michele Cammarosano
(post-doc, Philipps-Universität Marburg) was awarded a PhD in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” in 2012. His research focuses on Hittite religion and administration as well as on the investigation of writing techniques, with a strong interest in the exploration of interdisciplinary approaches involving the combination of archaeology, philology, and informatics. His last book is Hittite Local Cults (Atlanta 2018).
Claudia Colini
is a researcher at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and a member of the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding written artefacts,” University of Hamburg. Her current project is about the coexistence of different writing supports and inks in Egypt in the early centuries of Islam. In 2018 she completed her doctorate at the CSMC, University of Hamburg, Germany, with a dissertation entitled “From recipes to material analysis: the Arabic tradition of black inks and paper coatings (9th–20th century),” which she is currently revising for publication as a monograph. Her dissertation and a number of related publications focus on the identification and history of materials and techniques used in the production of Islamic manuscripts.
Vincenzo Damiani
received his PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg with a Dissertation on didactic compendia in Epicureanism (2019), which is in publication. Formerly a research associate at the Institute of Classics of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, he is currently working as an assistant lecturer at the Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University. He has published on Herculaneum Papyrology (editio princeps of PHerc. 1026), Epicurean philosophy, and ancient science, with a particular emphasis on ancient medicine.
Sara Fani
is currently post-Doc fellow at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” for the project The European Qur’an. She has previously been Adjunct professor of Arabic Literature and post-doc fellow at the University of Florence (2019) and post-Doc fellow at the University of Copenhagen (2014–2018). In 2017 she collaborated with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz for the project Die Typographia Medicea im Kontext. She has combined her literary interest in Arabic technical texts of codicological subject with a Master’s degree in conservation of book materials and with the study of manuscript collections. Her present research focuses on early-Modern Italian approach to Islam.
Matteo Martelli
(PhD Greek Philology, 2007; PhD History of Science, 2012) is professor of History of Science at the University of Bologna. His research focuses on Graeco-Roman and Byzantine science — with particular attention to alchemy and medicine — and its reception in the Syro-Arabic tradition. His publications include The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus (2014) and Collecting Recipes. Byzantine and Jewish Pharmacology in Dialogue (2017; edited with L. Lehmhaus). He is the principal investigator of the ERC project AlchemEast, and he is currently working on a critical edition of the Syriac alchemical books ascribed to Zosimos of Panopolis.
Ira Rabin
is professor at the Hamburg University and scientist at the Federal Institute of Material Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin. Until 2003 she worked in basic research in cluster physics in the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin. Since 2003 her main research interest has been dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Currently besides conducting research dedicated to re-construction of the history of black writing inks she is working towards including ink composition into codicological studies.
Lucia Raggetti
is an Assistant Professor for the History of Ancient Sciences at the University of Bologna. After receiving her PhD in Arabo-Islamic studies in Naples, she held a DAAD Fellowship in Hamburg and then worked as research assistant at the Freie Unversität Berlin, in the research group on Wissensgeschichte (History of Knowledge). Her main research interests are Arabic philology and the history of natural sciences and medicine in the Arabo-Islamic milieu, on which she has published a variety of articles. She is author of ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī’s Book on the Useful Properties of Animal Parts: Edition, Translation and Study of a Fluid Tradition (Berlin 2018).
Katja Weirauch
is lecturer for Chemistry teaching at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Previously she taught Biology and Chemistry in various German regions and high schools (2000–2010) and was the editor for Chemistry at the German governmental institution for educational media (FWU Medieninstitut der Bundesländer, 2004–2007). Her current research interests are emotionally effective and authentic contexts for Chemistry teaching (e.g. historical ones) and the development of and empirical research about settings for inclusive Science teaching. Her latest book Chemie all-inclusive discusses how to design inclusive experiments for heterogenous learning groups (Würzburg 2020).