Introduction: A Sixteenth-Century Publishing Phenomenon
From the mid-sixteenth century on, the early modern European book market was inundated with cheaply printed compilations of recipes and experiments known as “books of secrets,” which were printed continuously into the eighteenth century. These popular works contained hundreds of medical prescriptions along with technical recipes relating to metallurgy, alchemy, dyeing, perfumery, cosmetics, and other arts. From the books of secrets readers could learn about new chemical technologies such as distillation, secret remedies for common ailments, and natural magical “experiments” for wonder and delight. The books of secrets communicated much practical information to new and upwardly mobile middle-class readership, leading some historians to link them with the secularistic values emerging in the early modern period and to see them as expressive of a new “age of how-to” (Eamon 1994a).
However, the books of secrets were not in all...
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Eamon, W. (2020). Books of Secrets and Vernacular Knowledge. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_240-1
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