By explaining how to sire multicoloured horses, produce nuts without shells, and create an egg the size of a human head, Giambattista Della Porta's "Natural Magic" (1559) conveyed a fascination with tricks and illusions that made 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 parlour tricks through medical remedies to wool-dyeing fascinated medieval intellectuals because they promised access to esoteric "secrets of nature". In closely examining this little-known source of literature, the author of this study 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. Medieval interest in the secrets of nature was spurred in part by ancient works such as "Pliny's Natural History". The crude experimental methodology advanced by the "professors of secrets" became for the "new philosophers" of the 17th century a potent ideological weapon in the challenge of natural philosophy.
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In this extraordinary interpretation of medieval European culture, William Eamon draws on history, theories of the sociology of communication, and literature to show how science derives from magic: the sequence of events that a magical or alchemical experiment involves unfolds in the same way as a scientific test, or even a recipe. The transmission of such knowledge through books, letters, and speech allowed science to grow and to transform the world, drawing Europe from the Dark Ages to the modern era. William Eamon's look at arcane and even forbidden texts will be of special interest to fans of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum.
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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
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Eric D. Albright, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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WILLIAM EAMON is Regents Professor of History and dean of the Honors College at New Mexico State University. A specialist in the history of science and medicine in Renaissance Italy and Spain, he is the author of "Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture," which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was the winner of the History Book Award from the American Association of Publishers. He is also co-editor of "Beyond the Black Legend: Spain and the Scienti!c Revolution". His most recent book, "The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy, has just been published. In addition, he has written more than 50 scholarly articles, essays, and book chapters.
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This review is from: Science and the Secrets of Nature (Paperback)
For those who are interested in Medieval Science, here you can find a serious work of a widespread medieval genre.
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First Sentence:
IT has long been unfashionable to use the term "Dark Ages" to describe European culture in the early Middle Ages. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
libri secretorum, capricci medicinali, regimento della peste, secreti naturali, secreti nuovi, secreti universali, dem herten, secreti rationali, secreti medicinali, tesoro della vita humana, scientia universale, secretum secretorum, popular healers, technical recipes, scholastic science, marvelous virtues, occult qualities, demonic magic, quenching baths, emerald table, natural magic, alchemical secrets, medical recipes, medical secrets, magical recipes Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Della Porta, Royal Society, Middle Ages, Solomon's House, Accademia Segreta, Latin West, Leonardo Fioravanti, Roger Bacon, Girolamo Ruscelli, New Atlantis, Albertus Magnus, Rechter Gebrauch, Van Etten, Secreta Alberti, Office of Address, Artliche Kunst, Isabella Cortese, Nicholas of Poland, Giovanni Battista Zapata, Holy Office, Scientific Revolution, Sir Francis Bacon, William of Auvergne, Alexis of Piedmont, Carlo Ginzburg New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
IT has long been unfashionable to use the term "Dark Ages" to describe European culture in the early Middle Ages. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
libri secretorum, capricci medicinali, regimento della peste, secreti naturali, secreti nuovi, secreti universali, dem herten, secreti rationali, secreti medicinali, tesoro della vita humana, scientia universale, secretum secretorum, popular healers, technical recipes, scholastic science, marvelous virtues, occult qualities, demonic magic, quenching baths, emerald table, natural magic, alchemical secrets, medical recipes, medical secrets, magical recipes Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Della Porta, Royal Society, Middle Ages, Solomon's House, Accademia Segreta, Latin West, Leonardo Fioravanti, Roger Bacon, Girolamo Ruscelli, New Atlantis, Albertus Magnus, Rechter Gebrauch, Van Etten, Secreta Alberti, Office of Address, Artliche Kunst, Isabella Cortese, Nicholas of Poland, Giovanni Battista Zapata, Holy Office, Scientific Revolution, Sir Francis Bacon, William of Auvergne, Alexis of Piedmont, Carlo Ginzburg New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 115
books:
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books
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- Science, Folklore and Ideology: Studies in the Life Sciences in Ancient Greece by G. E. R. Lloyd on 4 pages
- History of the Royal Society by Thomas Sprat on page 348, Back Matter, and Index
- The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts by Hans Dieter Betz in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Literary Underground of the Old Regime by Robert Darnton in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education, 1500-1800 by R. A. Houston in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 115 books this book cites
- Green Desire: Imagining Early Modern English Gardens by Rebecca Bushnell on 10 pages
- A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and Low Mechanicks (Nation Books) by Clifford D. Conner on 8 pages
- Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century by Suzannah Clark on 7 pages
- How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians by Rudolph M. Bell on 7 pages
- Covert Operations: The Medieval Uses of Secrecy (The Middle Ages Series) by Karma Lochrie on 6 pages
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