This chapter explores Giovan Battista Della Porta’s Magia naturalis as a pivotal site for the development of experimental approaches to natural philosophy in Renaissance Naples. Focusing on the expanded twenty-book edition (Magiae naturalis libri XX), it examines how Della Porta combined a Peripatetic framework with empirical inquiry to investigate medicine, alchemy, optics, and mechanics, positioning the magus as both coordinator and guarantor of collective knowledge. The study highlights the collaborative dimension of his work, exemplified by the Academia Secretorum Naturae, and situates it within broader Neapolitan intellectual networks that fostered shared experimentation and practical innovation. It also emphasizes Della Porta’s commitment to disseminating knowledge, including through vernacular publications, as part of a moral and ethical vision that linked empirical research to public benefit. By analyzing the interplay of openness, secrecy, collaboration, and guiding authority in Della Porta’s methodology, the paper argues that Magia naturalis illuminates the transitional epistemology of early modern science, revealing the complex processes through which natural magic engaged with empirical and experimental practices.
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-3625-1181
Titolo del capitolo
Giovan Battista Della Porta and the Invention of Experimental Magic: Collaborative Empiricism and the Dialectic of Disclosure and Secrecy
Autori
Donato Verardi
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0836-9.03
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Hunting Secrets
Sottotitolo del libro
Giovan Battista Della Porta and the Invention of Experimental Magic
Curatori
Donato Verardi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
168
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0836-9
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0835-2
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0836-9
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0837-6
Collana
Knowledge and its Histories
ISSN della collana
3035-5974
e-ISSN della collana
3035-5923