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Liber III · Black & White Magic

Liber III · Black & White Magic · Chapter IV: Natural Magic

Della Porta's Magia Naturalis: Natural Magic as Experiment

Giambattista della Porta's Magia naturalis (1558, enlarged 1589): its contents, natural magic as practical natural philosophy, and its place in science.

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Magia naturalis ("Natural Magic") is a book of experiments, recipes and wonders by the Neapolitan scholar Giambattista della Porta (c. 1535–1615), first published in four books in 1558 and greatly enlarged to twenty books in 1589. Porta defined magic as the practical part of natural philosophy: the art of producing marvellous effects by understanding the hidden sympathies and antipathies of natural things, without any help from spirits. Covering everything from plant breeding and magnetism to optics, perfumes and invisible ink, it was one of the most popular scientific books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Giambattista della Porta: A Neapolitan Natural Philosopher§

Giambattista della Porta was born in or near Naples, probably in 1535, into a family of the minor nobility. Educated privately at home with his brothers, he grew up among scholars, musicians and collectors; his brother Gian Vincenzo assembled a celebrated collection of antiquities and natural curiosities. Porta never held a university post. He lived as an independent scholar, supported by family wealth and by patrons such as Cardinal Luigi d'Este, and he travelled in Italy, France and Spain.

He was astonishingly versatile. Besides Magia naturalis he wrote on cryptography (De furtivis literarum notis, 1563), on the art of memory, on physiognomy (De humana physiognomonia, 1586), on the "signatures" of plants (Phytognomonica, 1588), on optics and refraction, on distillation and on pneumatics. He was also a successful playwright, author of more than a dozen comedies and several tragedies and tragicomedies. In 1610 he was admitted to the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the scientific society to which Galileo also belonged.

The 1558 Magia Naturalis and Its Enlargement in 1589§

The first edition appeared in Naples in 1558 under the title Magiae naturalis, sive de miraculis rerum naturalium libri IIII ("Four Books of Natural Magic, or On the Miracles of Natural Things"). In his later preface Porta said he had written it when he was about fifteen, a claim that is usually treated with some caution but shows how he wished to be seen: as a prodigy. The book was quickly reprinted and soon translated into Italian and French.

Over the next thirty years Porta experimented, corresponded and collected, and in 1589 he published a new version in twenty books, almost a different work. He removed some material from the first edition, including a passage on the ointments allegedly used by witches, which he had explained as drugs producing dreams rather than real flights, and he greatly expanded the practical and technical sections. An English translation of the 1589 version, Natural Magick, appeared in London in 1658 and kept the work in circulation among English readers.

What Porta Meant by Natural Magic§

In his first book Porta distinguishes two kinds of magic. One is infamous and unlawful, dealing with foul spirits and enchantments; he rejects it entirely. The other is natural magic, which he calls the consummation of natural philosophy and the highest part of knowledge. Natural magic does not break the laws of nature but uses them; it seems marvellous only because its causes are hidden from ordinary people.

The principle behind it is the old doctrine of sympathy and antipathy. All things in the cosmos are linked by hidden affinities and hostilities, which Porta, like his predecessors, attributed to their forms and to the influence of the heavens. The lodestone attracts iron; the vine is said to shun the cabbage; certain animals fear others. By learning these relations through reading and experiment, the magus can join things that love each other and separate things that hate each other, producing effects that astonish the uninformed. This view, inherited from ancient authors, from medieval works such as the Secrets literature, and from the Neoplatonism of Ficino's Three Books on Life, is discussed more broadly under natural magic.

Porta also stressed what he called the magician's qualifications: he must be learned in philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astrology, metals and plants, wealthy enough to pay for experiments, and diligent in testing what he reads. This emphasis on practice gave natural magic its distinctive experimental character.

Contents of the Twenty Books§

The 1589 edition is arranged by subject, each book gathering procedures, observations and curiosities. Its range shows how broad "magic" could be in the sixteenth century.

Nature, Generation and Household Arts§

After an introductory book on the causes of wonderful things, Porta discusses the generation of animals and the production of new plants by grafting and crossing, followed by advice for increasing household goods. Later books cover cosmetics and perfumes for women, cookery and the preservation of food, and hunting and fishing techniques. Much of this material belongs to the genre of "books of secrets", popular compilations of recipes and techniques studied by historian William Eamon.

Metals, Stones, Fire and Distillation§

Books on the transmutation of metals and on counterfeiting gems treat alchemical operations, though Porta's attitude to the making of gold is practical and somewhat sceptical. Other books concern distillation, artificial fires including gunpowder mixtures, and the tempering of steel. These sections reflect the craft knowledge of workshops and laboratories rather than speculative alchemy.

Magnetism, Optics and Secret Writing§

The seventh book, on the lodestone, gathers many observations on magnetism; William Gilbert's De magnete (1600) criticised Porta's credulity on some points but used his work. The seventeenth book, on "strange glasses", treats mirrors and lenses and gives a celebrated description of the camera obscura, a darkened room in which an image of the outside world is projected through a small opening, improved by a lens. Porta proposed it as an aid to drawing and as a means of entertaining spectators. A passage on combining lenses later led him to claim a share in the invention of the telescope, a claim historians do not accept. Another book describes ways of writing invisibly and sending secret messages, related to his work on cryptography.

Statics, Pneumatics and the Chaos§

The final books treat weights and balances, devices driven by air and water drawn from the ancient engineer Hero of Alexandria, and a miscellany Porta called "Chaos", a collection of experiments that fitted nowhere else.

The Academy of Secrets and the Inquisition§

Around 1560 Porta founded in Naples a society called the Academy of Secrets (Accademia dei Segreti), whose members had to contribute a previously unknown secret of nature to be admitted. It appears to be one of the earliest scientific societies of its kind. Its interest in occult secrets, however, attracted suspicion. In the 1570s Porta was investigated by the Roman Inquisition; he was required to close the academy and to abstain from illicit arts, but he was not condemned. In 1592, partly because of his work on physiognomy, the Inquisition forbade him to publish without its prior approval.

Porta's case illustrates the uncertain status of natural magic in Counter-Reformation Italy. The Church accepted the existence of natural occult properties, but it suspected that the line between natural and demonic magic could be crossed, and it was especially wary of anything touching divination or astrology. Porta remained a Catholic in good standing, and his later works were written in a more cautious and technical register.

Legacy: From Wonder to Experiment§

Magia naturalis went through dozens of editions in Latin and in translation, including the English version of 1658. It was read by natural philosophers, physicians, craftsmen and curious gentlemen, and it shaped the image of the magus as an investigator of nature. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy had placed natural magic at the base of a ladder leading to celestial and ceremonial magic; Porta, by contrast, confined magic to the natural realm and gave it an experimental, practical character.

Historians of science have debated how far natural magic contributed to the Scientific Revolution. Writers of the seventeenth century, including Francis Bacon, criticised the credulity of the books of secrets while adopting their programme of practical knowledge of nature; Bacon himself kept the term "natural magic" for a reformed, operative science of nature. Porta's work shows both sides of the transition: a mixture of tested observation and repeated folklore, of genuine instruments and fanciful marvels. Within the history of esotericism it marks the moment when the theory of sympathies and correspondences began to be turned into experiments.

Frequently asked questions§

What is Magia naturalis?§

It is a book by Giambattista della Porta, first published in 1558 and expanded in 1589, that collects experiments, recipes and observations about the hidden powers of nature. Porta presented natural magic as the practical application of natural philosophy, free of any involvement with spirits.

Who was Giambattista della Porta?§

He was a Neapolitan scholar, playwright and experimenter (c. 1535–1615) who wrote on natural magic, optics, cryptography, physiognomy and distillation. He founded the Academy of Secrets in Naples and later joined the Accademia dei Lincei.

Did della Porta invent the camera obscura?§

No. The principle of light passing through a small opening to form an image was known in antiquity and to medieval scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham. Porta's description in Magia naturalis popularised the device and suggested improving it with a lens and using it for drawing.

Was Magia naturalis condemned?§

The book was not formally condemned, but Porta was investigated by the Inquisition in the 1570s and his academy was closed. Later his works required approval before publication.

Sources and further reading§