| List of Illustrations and Tables | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Notes on Conventions and Usage | |
| Introduction: Printing, Popular Culture, and the Scientific Revolution | 3 |
| Pt. 1 | The Literature of Secrets | 13 |
| 1 | The Literature of Secrets in the Middle Ages | 15 |
| 2 | Knowledge and Power | 38 |
| Pt. 2 | The Secrets of Nature in the Age of Printing | 91 |
| 3 | Arcana Disclosed | 93 |
| 4 | The Professors of Secrets and Their Books | 134 |
| 5 | Leonardo Fioravanti, Vendor of Secrets | 168 |
| 6 | Natural Magic and the Secrets of Nature | 194 |
| 7 | The Secrets of Nature in Popular Culture | 234 |
| Pt. 3 | The "New Philosophy" | 267 |
| 8 | Science as a Venatio | 269 |
| 9 | The Virtuosi and the Secrets of Nature | 301 |
| 10 | From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge | 319 |
| Conclusion | 351 |
| Appendix: Secreti Italiani: Italian Booklets of Secrets, ca. 1520-1643 | 361 |
| Abbreviations | 367 |
| Notes | 369 |
| Bibliography | 431 |
| Index | 481 |
