Working Fire: Cosmologies, Agencies, and Methods

The introduction to this double special issue lays out our core questions: how was fire understood within premodern cultures of knowledge and practice? What could fire do, and what could humans do with fire? The introduction details our hands-on exploration of these issues through a range of fire technologies at an interdisciplinary workshop on "Fire Arts, Pasts and Futures" at Texas A&M University. It outlines the issues and new questions raised by this practical work, and shows how these are addressed in the contributions to this issue. These case studies explore the practices of premodern artisans, alchemists, metalworkers, natural philosophers, and chemical practitioners, ranging from low-heat technologies such as distillation to high-heat smelting furnaces, and from ancient metallurgy to modern-day jewellery practice. Collectively, we argue, the articles contribute to three main areas of historical scholarship: the place of fire in changing cosmologies and matter theories, debates about the agencies of art vs. nature, and methodological reflections on using performative methods as part of an interdisciplinary exploration of past material worlds.