Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550-1600 - Allison Kavey

The rise of print culture in early modern England is a significant and frequently studied change of the period. It is often considered a marker of modernity and provides the starting point for "Books of Secrets." This book sheds light on how sixteenth-century English culture was influenced by a specific type of print matter known as "books of secrets," which covered topics ranging from alchemy to necromancy, offering medieval readers an affordable and accessible collection of knowledge about the natural world.

Author Allison Kavey not only explores the content of these books but also delves into how readers digested and reacted to them. The book examines various aspects of book production and consumption in early modern England, including publishing concerns such as promotion, pricing, audience identification, and manipulation of structure and content. It demonstrates how books of secrets were part of a broad cultural effort to popularize elite knowledge, thereby making it legitimate and acceptable.

Kavey cites the importance of printers in choosing and structuring the books' contents and investigates how print materials record and store prevailing cultural myths and ideas about manipulating nature, while also generating new ones. She highlights that books of secrets legitimized this process, expanding cultural categories to include the willful command of the natural world, such as masculinity, femininity, gentleman, lady, and midwife.

• Author: Kavey, Allison
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Illustration: N
• Language: ENG
• Title: Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550-1600
• Pages: 00216 (Encrypted)
• On Sale: 2007-09-07
• SKU-13/ISBN: 9780252032097