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Health and Beauty in Della Porta’s Natural Magic

  • Romana Sammern
  • Sabrina Jocher

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.

  • Keywords:
  • Beauty,
  • Health,
  • Medicine,
  • Magic,
  • Gender,
  • Secrets,
+ Show More

Romana Sammern

University of Salzburg, Austria - ORCID: 0000-0003-3190-075X

Sabrina Jocher

University of Salzburg, Austria - ORCID: 0009-0003-1445-8944

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  • Publication Year: 2025
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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2025
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Chapter Information

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

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

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

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

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