Science and the Secrets of Nature : : Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture / / William Eamon.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Eamon, William,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©1994
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (512 p.) :; 12 halftones. 3 tables
• Other title: Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES --; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --; NOTES ON CONVENTIONS AND USAGE --; INTRODUCTION Printing, Popular Culture, and the Scientific Revolution --; PART ONE: THE LITERATURE OF SECRETS --; ONE The Literature of Secrets in the Middle Ages --; TWO Knowledge and Power --; PART TWO: THE SECRETS OF NATURE IN THE AGE OF PRINTING --; THREE Arcana Disclosed --; FOUR The Professors of Secrets and Their Books --; FIVE Leonardo Fioravanti, Vendor of Secrets --; SIX Natural Magic and the Secrets of Nature --; SEVEN The Secrets of Nature in Popular Culture --; PART THREE: THE "NEW PHILOSOPHY" --; EIGHT Science as a Venatio --; NINE The Virtuosi and the Secrets of Nature --; TEN From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge --; Conclusion --; Appendix Secreti Italiani: Italian Booklets of Secrets, ca. 1520-1643 --; ABBREVIATIONS --; NOTES --; BIBLIOGRAPHY --; INDEX
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780691214610; 9783110442496
• DOI: 10.1515/9780691214610?locatt=mode:legacy
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: William Eamon.

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.