Ciao! ¡Buenos dias!
Hello, and welcome to my website. I’m William Eamon and I’m pleased to announce my latest book, The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy. You can read about it and my other books and essays by browsing the website.
Here’s a little about me: I am Regents Professor of History and Dean of the Honors College at New Mexico State University, where I have taught history of science and European history for almost 30 years. I’m a specialist in the history of science and medicine in Renaissance Italy and Spain, and most of what I write is about the origins of modern science. I have written and edited 3 books and more than 50 articles, essays, and book chapters. I am pleased to say that my book, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was the winner of the History Book Award from the American Publishers Association. That book introduced the scholarly world to the “books of secrets” tradition and has received a lot of attention and commentary among historians of science and early modern culture.
I have won numerous fellowships for my research, including a Fulbright Fellowship and research grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1994-95, I was a Villa I Tatti Fellow at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. Prior to that, I was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin and an Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow in the History of Science at Harvard University. In 2004-06 I held the S. P. and Margaret Manasse Research Chair at New Mexico State University. In 2007, I received the University Research Council Award for Exceptional Achievement in Creative Scholarly Activity at New Mexico State University.
I have been a visiting professor at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and at the University of Valencia, Spain. I have given dozens of scholarly papers around the world and have given many invited lectures on my research at various venues, including UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Oxford, Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine (London), University of New Mexico, Brown University, University of Notre Dame, University of Valencia (Spain), University of Minnesota-Duluth, Catalan Society of the History of Science (Barcelona), University of Lecce (Italy), Indiana University, University of Michigan, University of Nevada, Villa I Tatti (Florence), Istituto Universitario Europeo (Florence), Institut für Geschichte der Pharmazie (Heidelberg), Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (Florence), University of Syracuse at Florence, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Los Angeles), International School for the History of the Biomedical Sciences (Annecy, France), Oregon Museum of Natural History (Portland). In 2005, I gave the 25th Annual Church Memorial Lecturer at Brown University.
When I’m not writing and teaching, I’m an avid cyclist, swimmer, and world traveler. I live in Las Cruces New Mexico with my wife, neuroscientist Elba Serrano, and our 2 cats and an African Grey parrot named Gebo. I also enjoy spending time with my grandson, Miguelito.
Occasionally I’ll be posting various comments about topics that I’m writing and thinking about on my blog, which I’m calling “The Labyrinth of Nature.” In the meantime, if you have any questions about my books or about the history of Renaissance science and medicine, please contact me and I’ll return your message as soon as I can.
SET AGAINST THE SUMPTUOUS BACKDROP
of Renaissance Italy, this riveting tale explores the era’s medicine and culture through the life of the world’s first "celebrity doctor"—whose miracle cures and outsize personality drew both adoration and scorn.
The Professor of Secrets was Leonardo Fioravanti, a brilliant, forward-thinking, and utterly unconventional doctor... His marvelous remedies and talent for self-aggrandizement earned him the adoration of the people, the derision of the medical establishment, and a reputation as one of his era’s most colorful and combative figures.
