| Books of secrets, inexpensive printed compendia of knowledge about the natural world that included recipes for everything from marzipan to the philosopher's stone proliferated in the popular print market of England between 1550 and 1600. These small books sold from between four and sixpence, and were usually translations of editions already extant in Europe or represented reassembled collections of natural knowledge gleaned from classical and contemporary sources. These books are unique because they represent the first exposure for the majority of the English reading public to knowledge previously considered secret, or reserved for scholars and aristocrats.; This dissertation examines books of secrets in order to consider the images they present of the natural world, the systems governing change in nature, the ways in which they position readers in relationship to nature, their depictions of desired readers, and their perceptions of readers' desires from and expectations for the natural world. It considers books of secrets as part of the popular print market and examines them in relationship to the printers who produced them and the other books, plays, and broadsheets that came off of London presses during this period. It concentrates as well upon the ways in which readers from a broad variety of backgrounds could have experienced these books in the context of the other information they had about the natural world and the other inexpensive books to which they had access.; The dissertation also considers these small books in relation to changing ideas in the sixteenth-century natural philosophical community regarding the definition of "natural", the relationship between art and nature, the appropriate uses of natural knowledge, whether personal, moral, or national, and the characterization of appropriate readers and practitioners of nature's secrets, particularly in regards to biological sex, gender, and social class. Finally, it considers the meaning of "secrets" as they appear in these books, arguing that the packaging of often well known knowledge about the natural world into coherent systems that were available for and responsive to human manipulation guaranteed the secrecy, and thus the value, of these books. |
