Thursday July 23, 2009 11:25
Ciarlatani performing on the Piazza San Marco in Venice as portrayed by Giacomo Franco in his Habiti d’huomini e donne published in 1609. The source of the English word “charlatan,” the ciarlatani were street performers and sellers of secret remedies with a reputation, particularly among travelers, for being cheats and thieves.
William Eamon uses them as an example of one of the vectors by which “secrets” were diffused to the mainstream public in the early modern period in his Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture which, in short, explores the role books of secrets and recipes played in the early modern Scientific Revolution.
