The Secrets of Alessio Piemontese, a Sixteenth-Century Bestseller

In 1555 a book destined for extraordinary success appeared in Venice: De' secreti del reverendo donno Alessio Piemontese. It was neither a treatise of ritual magic nor a philosophical work, but a vast collection of recipes and procedures for the home, the workshop and the care of the body. Within a few decades it was reprinted dozens of times and translated into the main European languages, launching a genre that historians call books of secrets.

An author who may never have existed

In the preface the author presents himself as a gentleman born in Piedmont, who had travelled for a long time gathering secrets from physicians, artisans and women of every condition. According to his account, one day he refused to reveal a remedy to a surgeon, and the patient died. Tormented by remorse, he is said to have withdrawn to a solitary life and decided to publish everything he knew, so that no secret would ever again be hidden from those who needed it.

The story has the flavour of a literary fiction, and most scholars believe that behind the name of Alessio hides the polygraph Girolamo Ruscelli, active in Venice as an editor. In the Secreti nuovi, published in 1567 after his death, Ruscelli recounted that he had belonged in Naples to a secret academy devoted to experimentation, a claim that remains difficult to verify.

What the book contained

The Secreti were organised by subject. There were traditional remedies for many ailments, perfumes and cosmetics, methods for dyeing cloth and leather, for working metals, preparing colours, preserving food and removing stains from fabrics. Some procedures came from the world of the alchemists, others from the everyday practice of workshops. Many recipes, seen today, are ineffective or dangerous, and should be read only as historical documents.

What struck readers was the very idea of revealing secrets. For centuries artisans and physicians had jealously guarded their techniques, passing them on only to a few pupils. Alessio's book promised to place that knowledge at the disposal of anyone who could buy a volume, and in this sense it was a typical product of the new print culture of Venice.

A European success

Translations arrived quickly. As early as 1558 an English version appeared in London, The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount, followed by editions in French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Latin. The book went on being reprinted until the eighteenth century, often enlarged with new sections. Numerous similar collections were born on its model, signed by real or imaginary authors.

The format contributed to its success. The Secreti were handy volumes, often in octavo, with indexes that made it possible to find quickly the remedy or procedure sought. Many surviving copies bear marginal notes, marks of trial and handwritten additions by their owners, showing that the book was really used, consulted in the kitchen or the workshop rather than read from cover to cover.

The fortune of Alessio Piemontese shows that in the sixteenth century the boundary between science, craft and natural magic was still very uncertain. The secret, which in grimoires had a mysterious aura, became in books of secrets a practical knowledge to be shared. This transformation played an important part in the birth of the experimental culture of the modern age, which would make the public verification of results its own method.