A 3rd Century Secret Ink and Its Reception. A Study of the Stable Transmission of a Recipe that Never Worked

0583251 - FLÚ 2024 RIV eng A - Abstract
Coughlin, Sean
A 3rd Century Secret Ink and Its Reception. A Study of the Stable Transmission of a Recipe that Never Worked.
[INK-Quiry. Inks: Between Texts and Materiality. Madrid, 11.12.2023-11.12.2023]
Method of presentation: Zvaná přednáška
Event organizer: Universidad Complutense Madrid
URL events: https://www.ucm.es/doctorado/doctorado-ciencias-religiones/noticias/64779 
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GM21-30494M
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : sensory history * sensory studies * history of smell * philosophy of perception
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

This talk explores a question in the transmission of recipes from antiquity: what happens when the recipe never worked? I focus on a recipe for a magic ink that is able to penetrate through the shell and onto the white of a hardboiled egg without leaving any visible trace. It was transmitted reliably for almost two thousand years but ended up muddled and misattributed at the height of the information age. The story involves Papal Inquisitors and Wikipedia editors, American revolutionaries and puzzled magicians—even a cash prize from an American professor for anyone who can get the ink to work. It also shows in real time how a moment in history can change the way we understand the past.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351632