Giambattista della Porta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Giambattista della Porta2 |
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| Born | late 1535 Vico Equense, Italy |
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| Died | 4 February 1615 Naples, Italy |
| Residence | Naples |
| Nationality | Italy |
| Field | Occult philosophy, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, meteorology, and natural philosophy |
| Alma mater | Self educated |
Giambattista della Porta (1535?1-1615) was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation. Born in that city to Italian nobility, Giambattista della Porta spent the majority of his life on scientific endeavors. He benefited from an informal education of tutors and visits from renowned scholars. His most famous work, first published in 1558, was entitled Magiae Naturalis (Natural Magic). In this book he covered a variety of the subjects he had investigated, including the study of: occult philosophy, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, meteorology, and natural philosophy.
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[edit] Scientific disciplines
In 1563, Della Porta published De Furtivis Literarum Notis, a work about cryptography. In it he described the first known digraphic substitution cipher[1], and foreshadowed the concept of polyalphabetic substitution. Charles J. Mendelsohn commented:
"He was, in my opinion, the outstanding cryptographer of the Renaissance. Some unknown who worked in a hidden room behind closed doors may possibly have surpassed him in general grasp of the subject, but among those whose work can be studied he towers like a giant."'
In 1586 Della Porta published a work on Physiognomy. This influenced the Swiss Pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801). Della Porta wrote extensively on a wide spectrum of subjects throughout his life -- for instance, an agricultural encyclopædia entitled Villa, as well as works on meteorology, optics, and astronomy.
In later life, Della Porta collected rare specimens and grew exotic plants. His work Phytognomica lists plants according to their geographical location.
His private museum was visited by travellers and was one the earliest examples of Natural History museums. It inspired the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher to begin a similar, even more renowned, collection in Rome.
[edit] Pioneering scientific society
Della Porta was the founder of a scientific society called the Academia Secretorum Naturae (Accademia dei Segreti). This group was more commonly knows as the Otiosi, or the Men of Leisure. Founded sometime before 1580, the Otiosi were one of the first scientific societies in Europe and their aim was to study the "secrets of nature." Any person applying for membership had to demonstrate they had made a new discovery in the natural sciences.
The Academia Secretorum Naturae was compelled to disband when its members were suspected of dealing with the Occult. Della Porta was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul V. Though he personally emerged from the meeting unscathed, the Academia Secretorum Naturae disbanded. Despite this incident, Della Porta remained religiously devout and became a lay Jesuit brother.
Della Porta afterwards established another society devoted to scientific study. This one, The Academy of the Lynxes, was concerned with discovering the truths behind the natural sciences. The founders chose the lynx as a symbol of the academy because cats had long been believed to have particularly sharp eyesight. A generation later, Galileo Galilei became a member.
[edit] Technological contributions
His interest in a variety of disciplines resulted in the technological advances of the following: Agriculture, Hydraulics, Military Engineering, Instruments, Pharmacology. He published a book in 1606 on raising water by the force of the air. In 1608 he published a book on military engineering.
Additionally, della Porta perfected the camera obscura. In a later edition of his Natural Magic, Della Porta described this device as having a convex lens. Though he was not the inventor, the popularity of this work helped spread knowledge of it. He compared the shape of the human eye to the lens in his camera obscura, and provided an easily understandable example for how images lay outside the eye.
Della Porta also claimed to have invented the first telescope, however, he died while preparing the treatise ("De telescopiis")in support of his claim (his efforts were also overshadowed by Galileo Galilei's invention of the "telescopium" in 1609).
[edit] Religious complications
A Catholic, della Porta was examined by the Inquisition in the years prior to 1578. He was forced to disband his Academia Secretorum Naturae, and in 1592 his philosophical works were prohibited from further publication by the Church; the ban was lifted in 1598. Porta's involvement with the inquisition puzzles historians due his active participation in charitable Jesuit works by 1585. A possible explanation for this lies in Porta's personal relations with Fra Paolo Sarpi after 1579.
[edit] Playwright
Della Porta also wrote fourteen prose comedies and two dramatic tragedies which became source material for several 17th century dramatists. Della Porta's works are well-represented in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne by no fewer than six titles. Though he is now widely remembered for his contributions to science, his plays were more popular among his peers than his scientific treatises.
[edit] Works
- Natural Magic 1558 expanded to 20 books 1589. English translation 1658. Available online at [1]
- De furtivis Literarum Notis (1563) On secret codes and Cryptography
- Villa (1583-92) An agricultural encyclopaedia
- De humana physiognomonia libri IIII (1586) On Physiognomy
- De refractione optices (1589) On Optics
- Elementorum curvilineorum libri duo (1601)
- De aeris transmutanionbus (1609) On Meteorology
- De distillatione (1610) Della Porta's chemical experiments and observations.
[edit] Notes
1 The date of Della Porta's birth is ambiguous due to mis-statements by Della Porta himself, in which he claimed to have written Maiae naturalis at an incorrectly young age. 2 Portrait of Della Porta: from Jo. Bapt. Portae Neapolitani Magiae naturalis libri XX...., Naples, 1589
[edit] References
- ^ David Kahn, The Codebreakers, 1967, p. 139
[edit] Further reading
- Clubb, Louise George (1965) Giambattista Della Porta, Dramatist. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[edit] External links
- O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Giambattista della Porta". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Giambattista della Porta: De humana physiognomonia libri IIII (Vico Equense, Italy, 1586). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
