Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

by William Eamon

Overview

By explaining how to sire multicolored horses, produce nuts without shells, and create an egg the size of a human head, Giambattista Della Porta's Natural Magic (1559) conveys a fascination with tricks and illusions that makes it a work difficult for historians of science to take seriously. Yet, according to William Eamon, it is in the "how-to" books written by medieval alchemists, magicians, and artisans that modern science has its roots. These compilations of recipes on everything from parlor tricks through medical remedies to wool-dyeing fascinated medieval intellectuals because they promised access to esoteric "secrets of nature." In closely examining this rich but little-known source of literature, Eamon reveals that printing technology and popular culture had as great, if not stronger, an impact on early modern science as did the traditional academic disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691026022
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	06/02/1996
Series:	Princeton Paperbacks Series
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Eamon is Professor of History at New Mexico State University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables

Acknowledgments

Notes on Conventions and Usage

Introduction: Printing, Popular Culture, and the Scientific Revolution

Pt. 1 The Literature of Secrets

1 The Literature of Secrets in the Middle Ages

2 Knowledge and Power

Pt. 2 The Secrets of Nature in the Age of Printing

3 Arcana Disclosed

4 The Professors of Secrets and Their Books

5 Leonardo Fioravanti, Vendor of Secrets

6 Natural Magic and the Secrets of Nature

7 The Secrets of Nature in Popular Culture

Pt. 3 The "New Philosophy"

8 Science as a Venatio

9 The Virtuosi and the Secrets of Nature

10 From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge

Conclusion

Appendix: Secreti Italiani: Italian Booklets of Secrets, ca. 1520-1643

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

Unusually well crafted. . . . Eamon has many valuable things to say about science as a sacrament.

The Times Literary Supplement - John North

Eamon ... provide[s] plenty of material for thought in this multifaceted volume.

The New York Times Book Review - Charles Burnett

Eamon gives a rich and lively account of authors and writings that were always unacademic, unscrupulous, unprofessional, turbulent, and unsettled: that is to say, an account of the popular or seamy side of medicine and natural knowledge in medieval and early modern times.... A book of many unusual topics.... Eamon is very learned and writes eloquently.

Nature - A. Rupert Hall

Unusually well crafted. . . . Eamon has many valuable things to say about science as a sacrament.
— John North

The Times Literary Supplement

Eamon ... provide[s] plenty of material for thought in this multifaceted volume.
— Charles Burnett

The New York Times Book Review

Eamon gives a rich and lively account of authors and writings that were always unacademic, unscrupulous, unprofessional, turbulent, and unsettled: that is to say, an account of the popular or seamy side of medicine and natural knowledge in medieval and early modern times.... A book of many unusual topics.... Eamon is very learned and writes eloquently.
— A. Rupert Hall

Nature

Eamon (history, New Mexico State Univ.) convincingly argues that the medieval books of secrets were an integral part of popular science and evolved into the new scientific philosophy of the Renaissance. In these books, natural philosophers began to compile and publish their recipes of natural magic. Their secrets ranged from stain removal formulas and iron-tempering techniques to love potions and plague cures. The books, coupled with the rise of printing, created a boom in ``popular'' or nonacademic science. Eamon also chronicles the work of a few magicians to illustrate the evolving nature of what constituted a secret. The philosophy behind the secrets shifted from traditionally believed, divinely revealed, and occult phenomena to experimentally discovered natural effects and causes. This is a significant contributon to the history of science and medicine. However, some background knowledge of 16th - and 17th - century Europe is helpful. Recommended for all history of science collections.-- Eric D. Albright, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Chicago

Library Journal

Winner of the 1994 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in History, Association of American Publishers

"Eamon gives a rich and lively account of authors and writings that were always unacademic, unscrupulous, unprofessional, turbulent, and unsettled: that is to say, an account of the popular or seamy side of medicine and natural knowledge in medieval and early modern times.... A book of many unusual topics.... Eamon is very learned and writes eloquently."—-A. Rupert Hall, Nature

"Eamon ... provide[s] plenty of material for thought in this multifaceted volume."—-Charles Burnett, The New York Times Book Review

"Unusually well crafted. . . . Eamon has many valuable things to say about science as a sacrament."—-John North, The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher