Johannes Jacob Wecker DE SECRETIS LIBRI XVII EX VARIIS AUTHORIBUS COLLECTI METHODICEQUE DIGESTI ET TERTIUM IAM AUCTI 1587 Antique Leatherbound Engraved Illustrations Diagrams Tables Books of Secrets Genre Early Modern Scientific Publishing Medical Recipes Household Hints

Title: De Secretis Libri XVII. Ex variis authoribus collecti, methodiceque digesti, and tertium iam aucti per Ioan Iacobum Vveckerum, Basil. Med.olim Colmar. Accessit Index locupletissimus.
Author: Johann Jacob Wecker - Johannes Jacob Wecker was a Swiss physician and philosopher. He worked as a doctor from 1566 and wrote a number of works about medicine, some of which were in both French and Latin. Doubtless fleeing accusations of sorcery, Wecker moved to Basel after having published Les Secrets de Wecker. For a number of years, he worked as a professor of logic at the local university. He published Antidotarum generale, a work about alchemy. His work is known for the elaborate bibliography on chemistry-alchemy. Wecker also reported the first known case of diphallia.

Wecker married the poet and culinary writer Anna Weckerin. Two years after the death of her husband, she arranged for the publication in Basel of Wecker's Antidotarium Speciale, ex. opt. authorum … scriptis fideliter congestum et amplius triente actum.
Publisher: Basileae ex Officina Pernea
City: Basel
Year: 1587
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 902 pages, plus index
Width: 4" Height: 6.5"
Book Details: This antique leatherbound volume bears decorative designs to the boards, with raised spine bands and gilt lettering. Engraved illustrations, tables and diagrams enhance the text. Books I through XVII by Wecker are included in this volume of “Books of Secretsâ€.

Books of secrets were compilations of technical and medicinal recipes and magic formulae that began to be printed in the sixteenth century and were published continuously down to the eighteenth century. They constituted one of the most popular genres in early modern scientific publishing. The books of secrets contained hundreds of medical recipes, household hints, and technical recipes on metallurgy, alchemy, dyeing, making perfume, oil, incense, and cosmetics. The books of secrets supplied a great deal of practical information to an emerging new, middle-class readership, leading some historians to link them with the emerging secularistic values of the early modern period and to see them as contributing to the making of an ‘age of how-to.’

Some books of secrets, such as Alessio Piemontese's famous Secreti (1555), contained mainly practical and technological information in the form of useful recipes. Others, such as Giambattista Della Porta's Magia Naturalis (Natural Magic, 1558) deployed practical recipes in an effort to demonstrate the principles of natural magic. Other books of secrets, such as Isabella Cortese's Secreti (1564), disseminated alchemical information to a wide readership. Recent research has suggested that the books of secrets may have played an important role in the emergence of experimental science by bringing practical technical information to the attention of experimental scientists.
Condition / Notes: This antique volume shows well, with some typical indications of age and wear, including shelfwear and rubbing. The boards are a bit splayed and the rear hinge is cracked. This text has been re-cased and bears modern endpapers. Text and illustrations are clear and crisp through very mild age toning/foxing. There are some moisture markings to the text block and the title page and last two pages exhibit minor loss. There is writing in pencil to the rear free endpaper and older paper with writing is affixed to the rear pastedown.

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