Binding: Hardcover
Description: The fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries were truly an Age of Secrecy in Europe when arcane knowledge was widely believed to be positive knowledge that extended into all areas of daily life from the economic scientific and political spheres to the general activities of ordinary people. So asserts Daniel J tte in this engrossing vivid and award - winning work. He maintains that the widespread acceptance and even reverence for this economy of secrets in premodern Europe created a highly complex and sometimes perilous space for mutual contact between Jews and Christians. Surveying the interactions between the two religious groups in a wide array of secret sciences and practices including alchemy cryptography medical arcana technological and military secrets and intelligence the author relates true stories of colorful professors of secrets and clandestine encounters. In the process J tte examines how our current notion of secrecy is radically different in this era of Wiki Leaks Snowden et al. as opposed to centuries earlier when the truest most important knowledge was generally considered to be secret by definition.
Title: The Age Of Secrecy Jews Christians And The Economy Of Secrets 1400 1800
Author(s): Jutte Daniel
Publisher: Yale University Press
Barcode: 9780300190984
Pages: 448 Pages
Publication Date: 5/26/2015
Category: Judaism