By explaining how to sire multicolored horses, produce nuts without shells, and create an egg the size of a human head, Giambattista Della Porta's Natural Magic (1559) conveys a fascination with tricks and illusions that makes it a work difficult for historians of science to take seriously. Yet, according to William Eamon, it is in the "how-to" books written by medieval alchemists, magicians, and artisans that modern science has its roots. These compilations of recipes on everything from parlor tricks through medical remedies to wool-dyeing fascinated medieval intellectuals because they promised access to esoteric "secrets of nature." In closely examining this rich but little-known source of literature, Eamon reveals that printing technology and popular culture had as great, if not stronger, an impact on early modern science as did the traditional academic disciplines.

A fresh look at the role of astrology and alchemy in Renaissance thinking and everyday life.

With 900 full-color photographs and illustrations, this book takes the reader on a tour of the natural world, from appreciating the mechanics of a bird's flight to mass migrations of land mammals to explanations of tsunamis and volcanoes.

Describes the complexities of animal behavior, including social interaction, food gathering, defense, mating, communication, and migration, and looks at a variety of species

1906 Lady Elizabeth "Libby" Sinclair, with her love of microscopes and nature, isn't favored in society. She flees to the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer and stumbles into the dangerous secrets left behind by her holiday cottage's former occupant, also named Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished. Oliver Tremayne--gentleman and clergyman--is determined to discover what happened to his sister, and he's happy to accept the help of the girl now living in what should have been Beth's summer cottage . . . especially when he realizes it's the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far more than nature walks, and he can't quite believe all the secrets Beth had been keeping from him. As Libby and Oliver work together, they find ancient legends, pirate wrecks, betrayal, and the most mysterious phenomenon of all: love.

Walking one day in the woods behind her cottage in Devon, nature illustrator and blogger Jo Brown became captivated by the sight of a Green Dock Beetle on a leaf and took a photograph of it in order to be able to draw it. That first tiny emerald bug was followed by more insects, and then birds, fungi, plants and flowers. The result is Secrets of a Devon Wood, a rich illustrated memory of her discoveries in the order in which she encountered them, so that the book flows smoothly with the seasons and the emergence of different wildlife. In enchanting, minute detail she zooms in on a bog beacon mushroom, a buff-tailed bumblebee, or a native bluebell. And she notes facts about their physiology and life history: "The flowers are narrow & darker than H. hispanica & H.x. mossartiana," she writes. "Drooping stem. Almost all flowers are on one side. Sweet scent." This journal is a treat for the senses, both a hymn to the intricate beauty of the natural world and a quiet call to arms for all of us to acknowledge and preserve it. It is a book that will stay with you long after you finally put it down