THE PROFESSOR OF SECRETS. Mystery, Medicine And Alchemy In Renaissance Italy.

black hardbound 8vo. 8º dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. very fine cond. mint cond. looks brand new. as new. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. contents free of all markings. dustwrapper in mint cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking , underlining, remainder markings etc ~first edition. first printing (nap). 368p. b&w illustrations. acknowledgments. appendix. notes. bibliography. index. image credits. biography of leonardo fioravanti. renaissance history. history of medicine. philosophy. astronomy. astrology. academia secretorum. accademia segreta. arnald ov villanova. book of the secrets. dermatology. ibn sina. caciques. tobacco. new world plants. girolamo cardano. cosmography. pico della mirnadola. marsilio ficino. galen. black death of 1347. inquisition. ramon lull. natural magic. cosimo de medici. hermetic texts. metallurgy. palatine knighhood. paracelsus. pharmacology. girolamo ruscelli. scholastic philosophy. secreti nuovi. secrets of alessio piemontese. andreas vesalius. ~ TO THE COMMON PEOPLE he was "that glorious man of new miracles" and "an angel of paradise, sent by God to earth for the health and preservation of human life." Yet fellow scientists branded him a charlatan and a dangerous quack~and he served time in prison for poisoning his patients. It was from his cell that Leonardo Fioravanti issued an audacious challenge: "Let there be consigned to me alone twenty or twenty~five sick people . and an equal number with similar infirmities to all the physicians of Milan. If I don't cure my patients quicker and better than they do theirs, I'm willing to be banished forever . " In this impeccably crafted tale, noted historian William Eamon chronicles the stranger~than~fiction life of surgeon Leonardo Fioravanti, the original "celebrity physician"~whose saga opens a captivating window onto the scientific and medical practices of the late Renaissance. Eamon points up the unromanticized realities of the age, chronicling a time when the next devastating plague was just a flea bite away . when corsairs roamed the Mediterranean Sea . when barber surgeons bled their patients along with giving them a shave . when one could buy a ticket to view the dissection of a human body . and when scientists practiced a "chemistry~kit~in~the~basement" style of experimentation. The Professor of Secrets reconstructs a fascinating character lost to history and offers us an alternative version of the Scientific Revolution, through the experiences of a man who lived on the margins of great events and Witnessed them with a penetrating vision. In telling this spellbinding story, Eamon offers up a brilliant entry in the genre of popular history. …