|
Books Of Secrets
Books of secrets were compilations of technical and medicinal recipes and magic formulae that began to be printed in the sixteenth century and were published continuously down to the eighteenth century. They constituted one of the most popular genres in early modern scientific publishing. The books of secrets contained hundreds of medical recipes, household hints, and technical recipes on metallurgy, alchemy, dyeing, making perfume, oil, incense, and cosmetics. The books of secrets supplied a great deal of practical information to an emerging new, middle-class readership, leading some historians to link them with the emerging secularistic values of the early modern period and to see them as contributing to the making of an ‘age of how-to.’ Some books of secrets, such as Alessio Piemontese's famous ''Secreti'' (1555), contained mainly practical and technological information in the form of useful recipes. Others, such as Giambattista Della Porta's ''Magia Naturalis'' (''Natur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alessio Piemontese
Alessio Piemontese, also known under his Latinized name of Alexius Pedemontanus, was the pseudonym of a 16th-century Italian physician, alchemist, and author of the immensely popular book, ''The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont''. His book was published in more than a hundred editions and was still being reprinted in the 1790s. The work was translated into Latin, German, English, Spanish, French, and Polish. The work unleashed a torrent of 'books of secrets' that continued to be published down through the eighteenth century. Piemontese was the prototypical 'professor of secrets'. His description of his hunt for secrets in the preface to the ''Secreti'' helped to give rise to a legend of the wandering empiric who dedicated his life to the search for natural and technological secrets. The book contributed to the emergence of the concept of science as a hunt for the secrets of nature, which pervaded experimental science during the period of the Scientific Revolution. It is generally ass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magia Naturalis
' (in English, ''Natural Magic'') is a work of popular science by Giambattista della Porta first published in Naples in 1558. Its popularity ensured it was republished in five Latin editions within ten years, with translations into Italian (1560), French, (1565) Dutch language, Dutch (1566) and English (1658) printed. ''Natural Magic'' was revised and considerably expanded throughout the author's lifetime; its twenty books (Naples 1589) include observations upon geology, optics, medicines, poisons, cooking, metallurgy, magnetism, cosmetics, perfumes, gunpowder, and invisible writing. ''Natural Magic'' is an example of pre-Francis Bacon, Baconian science. Its sources include the ancient learning of Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus as well as numerous scientific observations made by Della Porta. Author Giambattista della Porta (also known as John Baptist Porta) was born in Vico Equense, Italy, between October 3rd and November 15th, 1535 and was the second of three sons. The Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Magic
' (in English, ''Natural Magic'') is a work of popular science by Giambattista della Porta first published in Naples in 1558. Its popularity ensured it was republished in five Latin editions within ten years, with translations into Italian (1560), French, (1565) Dutch (1566) and English (1658) printed. ''Natural Magic'' was revised and considerably expanded throughout the author's lifetime; its twenty books (Naples 1589) include observations upon geology, optics, medicines, poisons, cooking, metallurgy, magnetism, cosmetics, perfumes, gunpowder, and invisible writing. ''Natural Magic'' is an example of pre- Baconian science. Its sources include the ancient learning of Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus as well as numerous scientific observations made by Della Porta. Author Giambattista della Porta (also known as John Baptist Porta) was born in Vico Equense, Italy, between October 3rd and November 15th, 1535 and was the second of three sons. The Porta family belonged to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabella Cortese
Isabella Cortese (fl. 1561), was an Italian alchemist and writer of the Renaissance. All that is known of her life and work is from her book on alchemy, ''The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese''. Cortese was also well-versed in several fields other than alchemy. She helped develop a variety of facial cosmetic products and made a variety of other contributions to science during the 16th century. 16th-century Italian science culture Throughout the 16th century, scientific culture flourished in many different areas of study, not only in academies and courts but also in a number of books. There was a new excitement for manipulating nature and acquiring secrets for a wide range of uses, including cosmetics, alchemical transformations and medical remedies. In early modern contexts, the word "secret" and "experiment" were synonymous. However, it didn't mean that it was unknown, rather, that the "secret" or the "experiment" had been proven to work. In the 16th century, a secret was a form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books By Type
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mostly of writing and images. Modern books are typically composed of many pages bound together and protected by a cover, what is known as the ''codex'' format; older formats include the scroll and the tablet. As a conceptual object, a ''book'' often refers to a written work of substantial length by one or more authors, which may also be distributed digitally as an electronic book (ebook). These kinds of works can be broadly classified into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content intended as factual truth). But a physical book may not contain a written work: for example, it may contain ''only'' drawings, engravings, photographs, sheet music, puzzles, or removable content like paper dol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
