Kai Knobelsdorff StEx

October 2025–present: research assistant in the project “Burchard's Decree Digital”, funded by the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz

April 2025–present: dissertation project at the University of Kassel (medieval history – PD Dr. Melanie Panse-Buchwalter)

2024-2025: combined bachelor's degree, with major in philosophy and minor in Catholic theology

2019-2024: tutor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Kassel, specializing in medieval history

2018-2024: student assistant in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Kassel, specializing in medieval history

2016–2024: studied to become a secondary school teacher (L3) of history/chemistry, University of Kassel, graduated with a thesis entitled “Des Himmels Tugend und der Menschen Kunst – Zur Quintessenz bei Johannes von Rupescissa (um 1311-1365/66)”

• History of knowledge and ideas
• History of natural sciences and natural philosophy
• Digital humanities
• Codicology and paleography

Altern, Lebensverlängerung und Unsterblichkeit in der Alchemie des 13.-14. Jahrhunderts (Aging, longevity, and immortality in 13th-14th century alchemy)

Primary supervisor: PD Dr. Melanie Panse-Buchwalter

Secondary supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ingrid Baumgärtner

A look back at history shows that the dream of longevity or the desire for a youthful appearance is nothing new, nor are medical promises of a cure for the signs of aging: today in the form of anti-aging products, in the Middle Ages in the form of rejuvenating elixirs. This dissertation project will systematically examine knowledge of aging, longevity, and immortality in alchemy in the 13th and 14th centuries. To this end, writings by three authors, Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and John of Rupescissa, will be consulted. Due to their reception among their contemporaries and their strong influence on late medieval and early modern iatrochemistry and medicine, these authors were important pioneers and mediators of alchemical knowledge. A genealogical examination of the genesis and transformation of this knowledge shows that alchemy can be understood as a complex system of interpreting and influencing the world, rather than merely as an ‘irrational’ precursor to modern chemistry.