ABSTRACT
Secrets and Knowledge in early modern Europe gathers together some of the most exciting current research on early modern secrets, but it is neither comprehensive nor definitive. It focuses on medicine, alchemy and domestic science, the subjects represented in the printed books of secrets and analogous manuscripts. As a consequence of this large array of diverse scholarship, there is no longer any question of the importance of secrets to early modern medicine and science. Technical, craft-based secrets were the key to transmitting knowledge about medicine and science, as they provided directions for completing specific processes. While self-promotion might have been the driving force in the relationship between medicine, secrets and commerce, some endeavors also made new practical and technological knowledge available to readers for public and common good. Literacy, politics, the structure and organization of households, the provision of materials objects within the home and the institutions regulating knowledge production all had an impact on their function.
