What we can learn from scientific analysis of Renaissance recipes
Summary
Ars Technica reports on a study using multispectral imaging and proteomics to analyze Renaissance medical manuals, uncovering how lay readers experimented with remedies. The researchers recovered faded handwriting, traced protein remnants in marginalia, and inferred historical practices and exotic ingredients, illustrating how modern data techniques illuminate historical culture. The work foreshadows broader cross-disciplinary methods that could inform humanities research and AI-assisted analysis.