Chasing the Dopamine
Seeking the bottom of the rabbit hole.
Perfumery & aromatics / Early modern perfumery / natural philosophy
Cyprian Powder
Perfumery by accumulation
A scented powder built up through repeated washing, drying, fumigation, and the addition of aromatic materials.
Perfumery & aromatics / Early modern perfumery / natural philosophy
Cyprian's Balls
Sweet-smelling balls
Made from Cyprian Powder, aromatics, rose-water, and gum tragacanth, then formed, dried, and repeatedly scented with musk.
Perfumery & aromatics / 17th century
Smells Like Bullshit
William Salmon / Polygraphice
Salmon gives us a recipe that sounds suspicious enough that I need to try it.
Alchemy & natural philosophy / Medieval learned medicine
Pick Your Poisons
Pietro d'Abano
Historical medicine has an entertaining habit of putting remedies and poisons uncomfortably close together.
Historical games / Medieval game tradition
Shatranj al-Mustatila
Chess, but make it weird
An elongated form of shatranj that raises the obvious question: what happens to the game when someone stretches the board and decides normal chess was insufficiently complicated?
Historical games / Medieval
Rithmomachia
Medieval math nerds had a board game
Arithmetic, ratios, philosophy, and competitive violence against your opponent's number tokens.
Historical games / Harappan / Indus Valley
Harappan Terracotta Dice
Pennsic field experiment
Gather wild clay on site. Refine it. Shape the dice. Fire them at Pennsic.