Giovan Battista Della Porta’s Natural Magic (1589) offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersections between beauty and health. It reflects the period’s beliefs about the healing properties of natural substances and their use in enhancing physical appearance. The article will demonstrate how Natural Magic delineates health and beauty practices along gender lines, explicitly distinguishing between general distillation methods and specific beauty treatments for women. In doing so, it constructs gender-specific roles and applications for otherwise neutral recipes.
University of Salzburg, Austria - ORCID: 0000-0003-3190-075X
University of Salzburg, Austria - ORCID: 0009-0003-1445-8944
Chapter Title
Health and Beauty in Della Porta’s Natural Magic
Authors
Romana Sammern, Sabrina Jocher
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0836-9.07
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Hunting Secrets
Book Subtitle
Giovan Battista Della Porta and the Invention of Experimental Magic
Editors
Donato Verardi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
168
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
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
Series Title
Knowledge and its Histories
Series ISSN
3035-5974
Series E-ISSN
3035-5923