Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # The Official Website of Author William Eamon Author of The Professor of Secrets ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://williameamon.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Blog](https://williameamon.com/blog/) - [Coming Soon: "The Professor of Secrets"](https://williameamon.com/coming-soon-the-professor-of-secrets/) - I am pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my new book, The Professor of Secrets. Set in sixteenth-century Italy, the book tells the story of Leonaro Fioravanti, who rose from obscurity to become the first "celebrity" doctor of the early modern age. A brilliant, forward-thinking, and utterly unconventional doctor, Fioravanti had a talent for - [Labyrinth of Nature](https://williameamon.com/labyrinth-of-nature/) - Albert Einstein famously told a story about how, when he was a child, his father showed him a compass. Looking at the strange instrument, the boy trembled and grew cold. At that moment, Einstein realized something that would propel him in all of his scientific endeavors: it was the realization that nature held secrets. In - [“With the Rules of Life and an Enema”: Alternative Medicine and the Way of Nature](https://williameamon.com/with-the-rules-of-life-and-an-enema-alternative-medicine-and-the-way-of-nature/) - Not so long ago, “alternative medicine”—a heterogeneous mélange of healing practices that includes everything from herbalism to acupuncture—was regarded as nothing more than a relic of medicine’s prescientific past or, worse, a cultish fad. That is hardly the case any longer. Each year, millions of Americans use some form of alternative medicine. In fact, according - [Advance Notices of "The Professor of Secrets"](https://williameamon.com/advance-notices-of-the-professor-of-secrets/) - It's fun to read reviews of your books--provided they are favorable. Here's the first advance review of The Professor of Secrets that I have seen. It's by Nick Owchar of the Los Angeles Times: William Eamon also brings a distant world up close in "The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine, and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy" - [The Renaissance Nose Job](https://williameamon.com/the-renaissance-nose-job/) - THE RAVAGES OF WARFARE, PUBLIC VIOLENCE, AND DISFIGURING NEW DISEASES made the Renaissance an age of surgical innovation, and professor of secrets Leonardo Fioravanti was a witness to one of the most amazing innovations of all: Surgical reconstruction of the nose, known in medical terms as rhinoplasty . It’s a pretty amazing story in itself. - [The Disease Called Curiosity](https://williameamon.com/the-disease-called-curiosity/) - Nowadays we think of curiosity as an emotion necessary for the advancement of knowledge, indeed as the well-spring of scientific discovery. It was not always so. Saint Augustine, in the fourth century, stated the traditional medieval view of curiosity, and it wasn’t favorable. In the Confessions, the Bishop of Hippo made inquisitiveness in general the - [The University of War](https://williameamon.com/the-university-of-war/) - In Physician, one of the writings collected under the name of Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C., the aspiring surgeon is instructed to follow the armies in order to learn the art of surgery. In times of peace, writes Hippocrates, rarely if ever, “even in a whole lifetime,” does one encounter the kinds of severe - [Book Signing at Barnes & Noble](https://williameamon.com/book-signing-at-barnes-noble/) - I will be signing my new book, The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine, and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy on Tuesday September 7, 2010, from 12pm to 2pm at the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore in Corbett Center at New Mexico State University. Please stop by and say hello if you're in town! - [The Renaissance Snake Handler](https://williameamon.com/the-renaissance-snake-handler/) - One of my previous posts, “The Disease of Curiosity,” generated a lot of comment in the blogosphere [Daily Dig; Morbid Anatomy]; so I’ve decided to follow that post with a piece about what was surely one of the strangest curiosities of the Renaissance: The appearance in the town square of the snake handler. Here is - [The Renaissance Curioso](https://williameamon.com/the-renaissance-curioso-2/) - Continuing the theme of curiosity in the Renaissance that I began a couple of weeks ago with my post, “The Disease of Curiosity,” it makes sense to ask: What did it mean to be a curious person in the Renaissance? Which brings us to a quintessential but perhaps little known Renaissance figure: The Renaissance ‘curioso’. - [The Mysterious Malady of Marulla Greco](https://williameamon.com/the-mysterious-malady-of-marulla-greco/) - Surgery is no art for the squeamish. A simple slice through the skin – the practiced surgeon’s daily experience – may be enough to give an ordinary person nausea. The history of surgery is replete with instances of daring surgical interventions, harrowing battles against blood-gushing wounds, amputations accomplished at lightning speed and without anesthesia, - [The World’s First Mail Order Doctor](https://williameamon.com/the-worlds-first-mail-order-doctor/) - I have in my collection a book published in 1908 titled The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser, by “Dr. R. V. Pierce.” It’s a modest little volume that I purchased in a used book store in Madison, Wisconsin some years ago. First published in 1875, the book was tremendously popular in its day, going through - [The Legend of Ambroise Paré and the “Liberation” of Surgery](https://williameamon.com/the-legend-of-ambroise-pare-and-the-liberation-of-surgery/) - One of the most enduring myths in the history of medicine is the legend of the French surgeon Ambroise Paré as the “liberator” of surgery from the dangerous practice of cauterizing gunshot wounds with a red-hot iron. Paré himself was the originator of the legend, having published an account of it in his book, Method - [Thessalos and the Magic Bowl](https://williameamon.com/thessalos-and-the-magic-bowl/) - How do charlatans operate? What is the source of their fascination—and their power? Charisma, of course. But what is the source of that charisma? I think that two things are important: First, the claim to possess “secret knowledge”; and second, the claim to have discovered the single cause (or causes) of all diseases. Two examples - [Of Puppies and Toads: Marvelous Cures for the Plague](https://williameamon.com/puppies-and-toads-marvelous-cures-for-the-plague/) - [Note: In my seminar on "The Scientific Revolution" this semester, I assigned graduate students to write a blog post that, once revised by the class during a workshop, I would publish on my "Labyrinth of Nature" blog. It was an exceptionally useful writing assignment because it helped the students identify an interesting problem or topic and - [Water for Renaissance Madrid: Rediscovering the Iberian Qanāts](https://williameamon.com/water-for-renaissance-madrid-rediscovering-the-iberian-qanats/) - [Note: In my seminar on "The Scientific Revolution" this semester, I assigned graduate students to write a blog post that, once revised by the class during a workshop, I would publish on my "Labyrinth of Nature" blog. This is the second piece from that seminar, by Master's anthropology student Enrique Reyes.] When King Philip II of Spain - [Gravity: Manifest or Mechanical? Revisiting the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence](https://williameamon.com/gravity-manifest-or-mechanical-revisiting-the-leibniz-clarke-correspondence/) - [Note: In my seminar on "The Scientific Revolution" this semester, I assigned graduate students to write a blog post that, once revised by the class during a workshop, I would publish on my "Labyrinth of Nature" blog. This is the third piece from that seminar, by Master's history student J.D. Wolflick.] In 1687, Isaac Newton published - [The Marvelous Virtues of Precipitato](https://williameamon.com/the-marvelous-virtues-of-precipitato/) - In the Renaissance, diseases frequently took on terrifying aspects. They were dangerous enemies, never to be taken lightly. Even familiar diseases such as leprosy and plague were feared adversaries that had to be combated with every means at hand. Besides such familiar sicknesses, early modern Europe was besieged by a host of new and mysterious - [The Tale of Monsieur Gout](https://williameamon.com/the-tale-of-monsieur-gout/) - “Gout,” wrote the eminent 17th century physician Thomas Sydenham, “destroys more rich than poor persons, and more wise men than fools, which seems to demonstrate the justice and strict impartiality of Providence, who abundantly supplies those that want some of the conveniences of life with other advantages, and tempers its profusion to others with equal - [The Iconography of Scientific Discovery in the Renaissance (Part I)](https://williameamon.com/the-iconography-of-scientific-discovery-in-the-renaissance-part-i/) - The Renaissance has long been regarded as the great age of scientific discovery, the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. The repudiation of the received wisdom of the ancients, the rejection of book learning in favor of observation and experiment, and the receptivity to novelty: These were the hallmarks of the origins of modern science. All - [The Monk Who Loved to Eat Toads](https://williameamon.com/the-monk-who-loved-to-eat-toads/) - Alternative medicine is in. Each year, millions of Americans—38% of U.S. adults according to a 2007 National Institutes of Health survey—use some form of alternative medicine. Even the medical establishment has embraced alternative medicine, albeit somewhat begrudgingly, allowing that unconventional therapies may be used when conventional options fail. A 2008 survey of U.S. hospitals found - [A Balm To Heal All Wounds](https://williameamon.com/a-balm-to-heal-all-wounds/) - “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” (Jeremiah 8:22) Jeremiah’s plaintive words express the fundamental lament of the human heart: In times of tragedy and sadness, where is God in this moment? Has He abandoned us? While in the passage from Jeremiah the Balm of Gilead is used as a metaphor about - [The Aquavitae Brothers](https://williameamon.com/the-aquavitae-brothers/) - The Renaissance was an era of new diseases. Between 1347 and 1600, Western Europe was struck by a succession of new and baffling epidemics. Not only did Europe experience its most devastating demographic upheaval as a result of the rapid, epidemic spread of the Black Death (presumably bubonic plague), it was struck by a succession - [The ‘Professors of Secrets’ and Their Books](https://williameamon.com/the-professors-of-secrets-and-their-books/) - Last weekend, “This American Life” host Ira Glass revealed what he claimed was the original formula for Coca-Cola. He found it buried in an article in the archives of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The recipe spread across the Internet, republished everywhere from CNN to Al Jazeera. The revelation of the secret—more valued than KFC’s famous “11 - [The Canker Friar](https://williameamon.com/the-canker-friar/) - [Note: In the course of doing research, historians sometimes come across stories that seem to cry out to be told. Here’s one that I encountered in the Inquisition file in the Venetian State Archive a few years ago. It's from Archivio di Stato, Venice, Sant’Uffizio, b. 23, containing the trial testimony of Antonio Vulpino, 9 - [Practical Alchemy in the Renaissance](https://williameamon.com/practical-alchemy-in-the-renaissance/) - In 1535, the German printer Christian Egenolff, who had recently set up shop in Frankfurt, published a 45-page booklet titled Kunstbüchlein (Little Book of Skills). This rough little pamphlet, cheaply printed on coarse paper just in time to be offered for sale at the Frankfurt Book Fair that year, would hardly seem a likely candidate - [The Lure of the Charlatan](https://williameamon.com/the-lure-of-the-charlatan/) - In an earlier post, I discussed the source of the Renaissance charlatan’s power and suggested that charisma—that difficult to pin down, divinely endowed quality that inspires devotion and awe in others—was the secret of the charlatan’s ability to manipulate an audience and attract buyers for his nostrums. The sociologist Max Weber defined charisma as “a - [Science as a Hunt](https://williameamon.com/science-as-a-hunt/) - Do myths tell profound truths about the world? The 17th century English philosopher and Lord Chancellor Sir Francis Bacon thought so. Bacon, who is widely regarded as having first developed a philosophy of experimental science, was a diligent student of ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Convinced that the ancient myths concealed deep mysteries, he wrote - [The Monster of Ravenna](https://williameamon.com/the-monster-of-ravenna/) - “From the highest to the lowest, the people seem fond of sights and monsters.”— Oliver Goldsmith, 1762. In March, 1512, two decades after Christopher Columbus set sail on the momentous voyage that would open up the New World to the European consciousness and seven years before Martin Luther pinned his ninety-five theses to Wittenberg’s cathedral - [The Age of How-To](https://williameamon.com/the-age-of-how-to/) - What made us modern? The list of the attributes of modernity keeps growing and changing. Once modernity meant “progress”; but that one took a huge shellacking in the last century, when some of the most “modern” nation-states behaved worse than the worst barbarian states of the Dark Ages. Then it was science—until anthropologists forced us - [Renaissance Astrology and the Vagaries of Markets](https://williameamon.com/renaissance-astrology-and-the-vagaries-of-markets/) - J. P. Morgan is supposed to have said, “Millionaires don’t use astrology; billionaires do.” Morgan would have known. He hired the best astrologer money could buy, the famous Evangeline Adams, whose clients also included Enrico Caruso, J. Paul Getty, Wallis Simpson, and Mary Pickford. Operating out of a suite in the Carnegie Hall Building, Adams - [“Two hundred thousand hardships, privations, and dangers”: A Spanish Naturalist in the New World](https://williameamon.com/two-hundred-thousand-hardships-privations-and-dangers-a-spanish-naturalist-in-the-new-world/) - Fourteen hundred ninety-two has gone down in history as Spain’s annus mirabilis—and the year the modern world began. The year commenced, appropriately enough, with great fanfare in a field outside the fabled city of Granada. Its main characters were King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, who by marriage had united Spain’s two - [Astrology and Prophecy in the Renaissance](https://williameamon.com/astrology-and-prophecy-in-the-renaissance/) - The biggest media event of the sixteenth century occurred in 1523-24, when scores of astrologers jumped onto a bandwagon of collective hysteria by proclaiming the imminent end of the world. The final days, the astrologers announced, would occur as a result of a second Deluge brought on by a conjunction of the three upper planets, - [Kepler and the Star of Bethlehem](https://williameamon.com/kepler-and-the-star-of-bethlehem/) - On the evening of the 17th of October 1604, as the clouds finally lifted over the city of Prague to reveal a clear night sky, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed a new star in the feet of the Constellation of Serpens. The supernova (now known as SN 1604) burned brightly through the night and - [The Invention of Discovery
Part 1: Travel and Discovery in Antiquity](https://williameamon.com/the-invention-of-discoverypart-1-travel-and-discovery-in-antiquity/) - [Note: This post is dedicated to my friend Jack Wright, Regents Professor of Geography at New Mexico State University, like Herodotus an inveterate traveler, like Pytheas a curious wanderer.] Humans are by nature discoverers. Anthropologists tell us that our earliest discoveries, the ones that have been taken to define human nature—the invention of tools, for ## Pages - [The Professor of Secrets](https://williameamon.com/) - Learn about William Eamon, Regents Professor of History and dean of the Honors College at New Mexico State University, and his writings, including his latest book, Professor of Secrets. - [Contact](https://williameamon.com/contact/) - Honors College New Mexico State University Box 30001 / MSC 3HON Las Cruces, NM 88005 Tel. 575-646-2005 Representation Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency PMB 515 1155 Camino del Mar, PMB 515 Del Mar, CA 92014 To contact me by email, please use the form below: [contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"] - [Speaking Services](https://williameamon.com/speaking-services/) - I am available to speak about subjects related to my books or about the history of Renaissance science and medicine. To arrange a speaking engagement, please contact me directly through the website or by calling my office at the telephone number on the Contacts page. Here are a few examples of lectures and invited seminars - [Other Publications](https://williameamon.com/other-publications/) - In addition to writing books for a general readership, I continue to be an active research scholar. I publish scholarly articles relating to various aspects of the history of Renaissance science and medicine. I have a particular interest in the history of science in the Mediterranean region and the Atlantic world. Occasionally, I will be - [Reviews & Testimonials](https://williameamon.com/reviews-testimonials/) - Listen to my interview with Boyd Matson, host of National Geographic Weekend radio show: NGweekend radio interview. Recent Reviews: William Eamon also brings a distant world up close in "The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine, and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy" (National Geographic: 320 pp., $26). Eamon traces the life of Leonardo Fioravanti, a 16th century - [Upcoming Events](https://williameamon.com/web-exclusives/) - Booksigning: Barnes & Noble at New Mexico State University. Tuesday September 7, 2010, 12pm-2pm. University Bookstore, Corbett Center, New Mexico State University. Please join me on my Twitter Book Tour, August 4, 5, and 6. Everyone who visits will be eligible to win a free copy of The Professor of Secrets to be given away - [Table of Contents](https://williameamon.com/table-of-contents/) - Introduction Printing, Popular Culture, and the Scientific Revolution Chapter 1 The Literature of Secrets in the Middle Ages Chapter 2 Knowledge and Power Chapter 3 Arcana Disclosed Chapter 4 The 'Professors of Secrets' and Their Books Chapter 5 Leonardo Fioravanti, Vendor of Secrets Chapter 6 Natural Magic and the Secrets of Nature Chapter 7 The - [Books](https://williameamon.com/other-works/) - Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize Winner of the History Book Award, American Publishers Association This book offers a new interpretation of the origins of experimental science. In the book, argue that the 'new science' of - [About "The Professor of Secrets"](https://williameamon.com/about-the-professor-of-secrets/) - When the Bolognese surgeon Leonardo Fioravanti went “out into the world” in 1548 in search of the Magna Medicina (Great Medicine), he hoped to discover the ancient panacea that would cure all illnesses. Thirty years old, a medical school dropout, and an undistinguished local healer, Leonardo was naively curious and passionate about discovering the secrets - ["Science and the Secrets of Nature" Reviews](https://williameamon.com/science-and-the-secrets-of-nature-reviews/) - “One of the virtues of Eamon’s book is its judicious attitude to these puzzles [of the origins of modern science]. He picks out a crucial feature of knowledge’s place in culture: experts can gain authority of they can convince their society that they have access to esoteric matters only to be reached through their specialized - ["Beyond the Black Legend" Reviews](https://williameamon.com/beyond-the-black-legend-reviews/) - “The goal [of this book] was to rethink dated interpretations of the Scientific Revolution in Spain. . . . The book also explores how science related to the Spanish Empire and focuses on very significant comparisons between the Iberian and other cases considered marginal to the Scientific Revolution, such as the Chinese. . . . - [About the Author](https://williameamon.com/about-the-author/) - 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. 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