In Denmark up until the present publication the process and knowledge of making colours and colouring in general had been passed on orally and the individual shops keeps their recipes and techniques a secret hoping to have a competitive advantage. This also explains why the first work on coloring in Danish is a translation of an Italian work and not the work of Dane – no one wanted to spill their secrets! Books on coloring by Danes did not
appear until the second part of the 18^th century.

Pedemontano’s ‘Secreti’ “is one of the earliest printed publications containing art technological recipes. Book five describes how to prepare pigments, dyestuffs and printing inks, black, coloured and metallic writing inks, and explains the colouring of bone, leather and wood. Its recipe for intaglio printing ink is in fact the first ever published.” (Stijnman, A short-title bibliography of the Secreti by Alessio Piemontese).

Alessio Pedemontano is presumably a synonym for Ruscelli: “nothing is actually known about Alessio other than his name and what he tells about himself in the introduction to the ‘Secreti’, and occasionally in his wanderings in the main text – if indeed this is reliable information at all. Twelve years after the publication of the original ‘Secreti’, Francesco Sansovino wrote the preface to a different volume of secrets compiled by one Girolamo Ruscelli (1500?–1566?), a contemporary alchemist who is known through other publications. Sansovino stated that Alessio was a pseudonym of Ruscelli.” (Stijnman, A short-title bibliography of the Secreti by Alessio Piemontese).

The present publication was printed as part 2 of Holst’s “Oeconomia nova” (1647-1649) but with separate title-page and pagination.

Thesaurus 492
Bibliotheca Danica II 249.