000			03472fam a2200409 a 4500
001			1475302
003			ARRUPE
005			20160210103547.0
008			930810s1994 nju b 001 0 eng
010			_a 93031794
020			_a0691034028 : _c$49.50
035			_a(OCoLC)28723126
035			_a(OCoLC)ocm28723126
035			_a(NNC)1475302
040			_aDLC _cDLC _dNNC
050	0	0	_aQ125 _b.E34 1994
082	0	0	_a509/.4/0902 _220
100	1		_aEamon, William. _922199
245	1	0	_aScience and the secrets of nature : _bbooks of secrets in medieval and early modern culture / _cWilliam Eamon.
260			_aPrinceton, N.J. : _bPrinceton University Press, _c1994.
263			_a9404
300			_axv, 490 p. ; _c25 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [431]-479) and index.
505	0		_aIntroduction: 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 -- Appendix: Secreti Italiani: Italian Booklets of Secrets, ca. 1520-1643.
520			_aBy 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.
520	8		_aThese 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." To popular readers of the early modern era, they offered a hands-on, experimental approach to nature that made scholastic natural philosophy seem abstract and sterile.
520	8		_aIn 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.
520	8		_aMedieval interest in the secrets of nature was spurred in part by ancient works such as Pliny's Natural History. As medieval experimenters adapted ancient knowledge to their changing needs, they created their own books of secrets, which expressed the uncritical, empiricist approach of popular culture rather than the subtle argumentation of scholastic science.
520	8		_aThe crude experimental methodology advanced by the "professors of secrets" became for the "new philosophers" of the seventeenth century a potent ideological weapon in the challenge of natural philosophy.
650		0	_aScience _xHistory. _922200
650		0	_aScience, Medieval. _918347
650		0	_aScience _xExperiments _xHistory. _922201
650		0	_aScience _xSocial aspects _xHistory. _917705
650		0	_aScience _xPhilosophy _xHistory. _9867
942			_2lcc _cMONOGRAPH
999			_c124139 _d124139