Renaissance Apothecaries and Modern Physicists Classified Soft Matter the Same Way

Historians and physicists at the University of Edinburgh, collaborating on a project called 'Renaissance Goo', found striking parallels between how 16th-century Italian apothecaries categorized medicines and how modern soft matter scientists classify complex fluids. Both groups organized substances primarily by their physical consistency and flow behavior under applied force — a principle the authors term 'hylocentrism'. The researchers reconstructed early modern cosmetic recipes by hand, discovering that apothecary manuals such as the pseudo-Mesue Grabadin ordered preparations by final material state — syrup, electuary, ointment, wax paste — rather than by ingredient or therapeutic effect. They also linked these textual classifications directly to the physical design of apothecary containers, arguing that shelf arrangement and jar shape encoded rheological properties. The authors contend that the independent convergence of two distant eras on similar classifications reflects the material world's own consistent behavior, not historical transmission.