The term 'Secret' was used throughout the Renaissance to describe a recipe or formula. Thousands of 'books of secrets' - compilations of recipes claiming to reveal trade secrets and occult knowledge - were printed. From recipes for plague amulets to aphrodisiacs, and formulas for everything from lip balm to paint pigments, this book takes you into the clandestine world of Renaissance trades and explains why certain recipes were jealously guarded while others were printed for a new general readership. New research offers intriguing insights into the use of obscure, exotic and toxic ingredients and explains now unfamiliar or arcane techniques. Each recipe is linked to real objects from the V and A's outstanding collections. Renaissance Secrets tells the compelling stories behind the original recipes.

Amina “Mimi” Washington was born in poverty and raised on the south side of New Orleans to parents who were not capable of raising a child. From a very young age, she has had to fend for herself. Young Mimi wants more out of life, and she wants a way out of the ghetto. Fate intervenes on her behalf when she meets one of New Orleans’ biggest dope boys. When she falls in love with the mysterious stranger, everything in her life changes for the better and her future seems brighter. She will soon learn however, that being a hustler’s wife comes with serious consequences. Mimi decides to move to Atlanta, where she has it all: a beautiful family, fast cars, the finest clothes, and everything that she’s ever dreamed about. How can a woman who has so much going for herself be so unhappy? With a man who’s constantly cheating and her past rapidly catching up to her, she must figure out a way to get all those secrets out in the open—without taking a loss. Take a ride on this roller coaster with Amina Washington and uncover the Secrets of a Kept Chick.

Magnificently illustrated throughout, and with a six-color gold-foil cover, this remarkable book provides an all-encompassing survey of the literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts of the Renaissance.

In this intriguing book, best-selling author Alf Mapp, Jr. explores three periods in Western history that exploded with creativity: Elizabethan England, Renaissance Florence, and America's founding. What enabled these societies to make staggering jumps in scientific knowledge, develop new political structures, or create timeless works of art?

Ioanna Iordanou traces the remarkable development of Venetian intelligence in the city-state system of Northern Italy, contesting that early-modern Venice was home of the world's first centrally-organized state intelligence service, setting a framework that has been instrumental in the creation of modern intelligence.

A sweeping saga of intrigue and romance set during the Italian Renaissance and told through the eyes of Grazia dei Rossi, a young Jewish woman torn between duty and forbidden romance, who wins our hearts with her recorded secrets of love. Grazia dei Rossi, private secretary to the world-renowned Isabella d’Este, is the daughter of an eminent Jewish banker, the wife of the pope’s Jewish physician, and the lover of a Christian prince. In a “secret book,” written as a legacy for her son, she records her struggles to choose between the seductions of the Christian world and a return to the family, traditions, and duties to her Jewish roots. As she re-creates Renaissance Italy in captivating detail, Jacqueline Park gives us a timeless portrait of a brave and brilliant woman trapped in an unforgiving, inflexible society.

In the tradition of Galileo's Daughter and Brunelleschi's Dome, this exciting story illuminates the captivating world of the late Renaissance—in this case its plagues, remedies, and alchemy—through the life of Leonardo Fioravanti, a brilliant, remarkably forward-thinking, and utterly unconventional doctor. Fioravanti's marvelous cures and talent for self-aggrandizement earned him the adoration of the people, the scorn of the medical establishment, and a reputation as one of the age's most colorful, combative figures. Written by Pulitzer-prize nominated historian William Eamon, The Professor of Secrets entices readers into a dangerous scientific underworld of sorcerers and surgeons. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, this gripping narrative will appeal to those interested in Renaissance history, the development of science, and the historical thrillers so popular today.