Science and the Secrets of Nature : : Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture / / 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...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999 |
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Place / Publishing House: | Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021] ©1994 |
Year of Publication: | 2021 |
Language: | English |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (512 p.) :; 12 halftones. 3 tables |
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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 |
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Summary: | 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. |
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. |