Giambattista della Porta (Italian: [dʒambatˈtista della ˈpɔrta]; 1535–4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, expert in many areas, and playwright who lived in Naples during the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Counter-Reformation.

Giambattista della Porta focused much of his life on scientific studies. He received education through private tutors and visits from well-known scholars. His most famous work, first published in 1558, is called Magia Naturalis (Natural Magic). In this book, he wrote about many subjects he studied, including mystical ideas, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, weather patterns, and natural philosophy. He was also called "professor of secrets."

Childhood

Giambattista della Porta was born in Vico Equense, near Naples, to Nardo Antonio della Porta, a nobleman. He was the third son of four children and the second to survive childhood. His older brother was named Gian Vincenzo, and his younger brother was Gian Ferrante. Della Porta received a good education during his childhood. His father loved learning and shared this interest with all his children. The family home was filled with important people, including philosophers, mathematicians, poets, and musicians. The environment at home was like a school for the children. Scholars and experts in various fields helped the boys learn, always under the careful direction of their father.

All four brothers had talents in science and mathematics. They also had a strong interest in the arts, especially music. However, none of them had natural musical ability. This did not stop them from studying music theory. They were accepted into the Scuola di Pitagora, a special school for musicians.

Nardo Antonio focused more on teaching his sons to be gentlemen than on preparing them for scientific careers. As a result, the boys learned skills considered important for noble men, such as singing, dancing, riding horses, and participating in tournaments. They were also taught how to dress and behave properly. This training gave della Porta an early appreciation for the comforts and traditions of a privileged life.

Scientific disciplines

In 1563, della Porta published De Furtivis Literarum Notis, a book about cryptography. In this work, he described the first known digraphic substitution cipher. Charles J. Mendelsohn wrote:

Della Porta created a method to write secret messages on the inside of eggs. Some of his friends were imprisoned by the Inquisition. At the prison gate, guards checked everything except eggs. Della Porta wrote messages on the eggshell using a mix of plant pigments and alum. The ink seeped into the eggshell, which is partially porous. After the shell dried, he boiled the egg in hot water, washing away the ink on the outside. When the person in prison removed the shell, the message appeared again on the egg white. De Furtivis Literarum Notis also includes one of the earliest examples of music substitution ciphers.

In 1586, della Porta published a book on physiognomy titled De humana physiognomonia libri IIII. This work influenced the 18th-century Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater and the 19th-century criminologist Cesare Lombroso. Della Porta wrote about many subjects throughout his life, including an agricultural encyclopedia called Villa, as well as works on meteorology, optics, and astronomy.

In 1589, near the start of the early modern Scientific Revolution, della Porta became the first person to challenge, using experiments, the old belief that garlic could weaken magnets. This was an early example of experiments replacing the ideas of earlier authors as the basis for scientific claims. Della Porta’s findings were later confirmed by Thomas Browne and others.

Later in life, della Porta collected rare items and grew unusual plants. His book Phytognomonica listed plants based on their geographic locations. In Phytognomonica, the first recorded observation of fungal spores is noted, making him an early pioneer in the study of fungi.

His private museum was visited by travelers and was one of the earliest examples of a natural history museum. This museum inspired the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher to create a similar, more famous collection in Rome.

Pioneering scientific society

Della Porta started a scientific group called the Academia Secretorum Naturae (Accademia dei Segreti). This group was also known as the Otiosi, or "Men of Leisure." Formed before 1580, the Otiosi were among the first scientific societies in Europe. Their goal was to study the "secrets of nature." Anyone who wanted to join had to show they had made a new discovery in the natural sciences.

The Academia Secretorum Naturae was forced to stop meeting when its members were suspected of being involved with the occult. Della Porta was called to Rome by Pope Gregory XIII. Even though he was not in trouble, the Academia Secretorum Naturae ended. Despite this, Della Porta stayed religious and became a member of the Jesuit order who was not a priest.

In 1610, Della Porta joined The Academy of the Lynxes.

Technological contributions

Della Porta had an interest in many areas, which led to technological advances in agriculture, hydraulics, military engineering, instruments, and pharmacology. In 1606, he wrote a book about raising water using air pressure. In 1608, he published a book on military engineering and another about distillation.

He also improved the camera obscura. In a later version of his book Natural Magic, he described the device as using a convex lens. Although he did not invent it, his work helped spread knowledge about the camera obscura. He compared the shape of the human eye to the lens in the camera obscura and explained how light enters the eye to form images.

Della Porta claimed to have invented the first telescope but died before finishing his book (De telescopiis) to support his claim. His work was less well-known because Galileo Galilei improved the telescope in 1609, after it was introduced by Lippershey in the Netherlands in 1608.

In his book, della Porta also described an imaginary device called a sympathetic telegraph. The device had two circular boxes, each with a magnetic needle. Both boxes were labeled with the 26 letters of the alphabet instead of the usual directions. He believed that if both needles were magnetized by the same lodestone, selecting a letter on one box would cause the needle in the other box to point to the same letter, making communication easier.

Religious complications

A Catholic named della Porta was questioned by the Inquisition in the years before 1578. He was required to shut down his group called Academia Secretorum Naturae, and in 1592, the Church stopped allowing his philosophical writings to be published. This ban ended in 1598. Historians are confused about why della Porta was involved with the Inquisition, as he was already helping Jesuit charitable efforts by 1585. One possible reason is his personal connection with Fra Paolo Sarpi after 1579.

Playwright

There are 17 theatrical works that have survived from a total of about 21 or 23 works. These include 14 comedies, one tragicomedy, one tragedy, and one liturgical drama.

• Lo Astrologo;
• La Carbonaria;
• La Chiappinaria;
• La Cintia;
• Gli Duoi fratelli rivali;
• La Fantesca;
• La Furiosa;
• Il Moro;
• L'Olimpia;
• I Simili;
• La Sorella;
• La Tabernaria;
• La Trappolaria;
• La Turca

• La Penelope (tragicomedy);
• L'Ulisse (tragedy);
• Il Giorgio (liturgical drama)

Although these works belong to the less well-known tradition of commedia erudita rather than the commedia dell'arte, they were written as complete scripts instead of being improvised from a scenario. While some characters in della Porta's comedies share similarities with the masks of the commedia dell'arte, it is important to note that the characters in commedia erudita are created specifically for each play. In contrast, the masks of the commedia dell'arte remain the same across different performances. The masks of the improvised theatre developed as stylized versions of recurring character types found in written comedies. One of Della Porta's most notable characters was the parasito or parassita, a person who eats a lot and tricks others. This character often acted without regard for rules, which sometimes seemed to cause problems but ultimately helped resolve them in unexpected ways. The word parasito was translated by John Florio in his Italian to English Dictionary, first published in 1598, as a smell-feast, a flatterer, a parasite, a trencherd, or bellie friend, meaning someone who says and does everything to please another person and agrees with them to avoid paying for food. Morfeo in the comedy La Fantesca is a strong example of this type of character.

Works

• Natural Magic (1558) grew to include 20 books in 1589. An English translation was published in 1658. Available online at [2]
• De furtivis Literarum Notis (1563) – A book about secret codes and cryptography
• Villa (1583–1592) – An agricultural encyclopedia
• De refractione optices (1589) – A book about optics
• Elementorum curvilineorum libri duo (1601)
• Coelestis Physiogranonia (1603) – Published in Naples
• De occultis literarum notis (1606). Available online at [3]
• De aeris transmutanionbus (1609) – A book about meteorology
• De Miracoli & Maravigliosi Effetti dalla Natura prodotti (1665) – Published in Venice
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1586). De humana physiognomonia libri IV – Published by Giuseppe Cacchi in Vico Equense
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1602). De humana physiognomonia libri VI – Published by Tarquinio Longo in Naples
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta, Phytognomonica – Published by Orazio Salviani in Naples in 1588
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1601). Pneumaticorum libri tres – Published by Giovanni Giacomo Carlino in Naples
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1608). De distillatione – Published by Stamperia Camerale in Rome
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1677). Della chirofisonomia – Published by Antonio Bulifon in Naples
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1910). Le commedie. Vol. 1 – Published by Vincenzo Spampanato and Laterza in Bari
• Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1911). Le commedie. Vol. 2 – Published by Vincenzo Spampanato and Laterza in Bari