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286 Reviews The essays will be of primary interest to historians, though 'What do we know about love in twelfth-century France?' and 'On courtly love' should be compulsory reading for any undergraduate student of literature about to embark on an exploration of the courtly romance or lyric. Chretien de Troyes' texts, for example, are more comprehensible with the sort of background provided by Duby in these two excellent articles. An historian with Duby's international prestige can, I suppose, allow himself a relaxed, almost informal manner, when dealing with subjects to which he has devoted a lifetime. Nevertheless, it is sometimes irritating for the less experienced reader when the Great M a n makes an interesting statement for which a reference or some evidence would be useful. For example, in 'Memories without historians', mention is made of the custom of slapping young children at ceremonies in the hope that they would remember the occasion later in life. For someone interested in the education of children in the middle ages, as I am, a reference to a source here would have been most welcome. O n the other hand, Professor Duby often has occasion to point out areas where more research could well be done. Of especial interest for English-speaking historians who may wish to learn about recent developments in historiography in France, the most informative article 'Trends in historical research in France, 1950-1980' is included in the selection. The essays are grouped into three sections: 'Love and marriage', 'Family structures' and 'Cultures, values and society'. A reasonably complete index, including names of m o d e m scholars and medieval authors and works, allows one to consult themes which crop up frequentiy in more than one essay. This is indeed a useful book that should figure in the libraries of universities where medieval studies are part of the curriculum. Maxwell J. Walkley Department of French Studies University of Sydney Eamon, WUliam, Science and the secrets of nature, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1994; cloth; pp. 490; 12 illustrations, 3 tables; R R P US$49.50. William Eamon's Science and the secrets of nature is an intelligent and fascinating study of the role played by the genre of popular scientific writing known as the libri secretorum in the development of science in the Early Reviews 287 M o d e m era. John Ferguson, a chemist at the University of Glasgow, was the first to recognise these books of secrets as a distinct genre, publishing a bibliography of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printed editions. William Eamon takes this rich but little known source of literature written by artisans, alchemists and magicians, and demonstrates their significant influence on the direction which science was to take in seventeenth-century Europe. The books of secrets were compilations of a broad range of informative artisanal recipes from thefieldsof metallurgy, practical alchemy, the dyeing of textiles, and the production of medicines. They also contained information on the occult properties of plants, stones and animals, along with stain removal instructions, cooking recipes, technical formulae for magical feats, parlour tricks and such practical jokes as how to make someone fall asleep at the dinner table, or h o w to make dogs urinate on someone's shoe. These collections claimed to hold the secrets of nature within their covers. During the medieval period the libri secretorum were widely circulated in Latin manuscript, becoming highly fashionable among Europe's emerging class of university graduates. They offered a practical, 'hands-on' approach to the investigation and manipulation of nature which made the scholastic science of the universities appear abstract and unproductive. Despite its popularity, this literature of scientific 'secrets' was never to find a place among the official sciences of the academy, but it did raise uncomfortable questions about the limits of the knowable and the scope of traditional scientia. Science and the secrets of nature begins by exploring the medieval context, but its main focus is on the influence of the printed books of secrets on scientific thought in Italy and England during the sixteenth century when the tradition reached its height Eamon argues that the advent of printing and the publication of...

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