Claire Litt

Claire Litt is a historian of early modern science and medicine, with a focus on the history of gemology and jewelry. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Science History Institute, Claire will research the alchemical production of medicinal stones and the rationale behind their perceived efficacy between the 15th and early 18th centuries. This work will contribute to scholars’ understanding of the epistemological shift in early modern scientific culture from Renaissance natural philosophy and magic to the emergence of the scientific method, which privileged inductive reasoning and experimentation. Claire has been the Section Editor for history at the Synapsis Health Humanities online journal since 2021. She earned her PhD in history from Queen’s University, in Canada, in 2022. Her doctoral research examined the ornamental, medicinal, and cosmetic uses of gemstones by women in the Medici family, rulers of the Florentine Grand Duchy, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Follow Claire on Instagram at @gemmologiafiorentina