Making Della Porta a Baconian Philosopher: Magia naturalis in the Context of the English Experimental Philosophy

This chapter deals with a curious phenomenon of cultural appropriation and assimilation of Giovan Battista Della Porta’s Magia naturalis in the new context of English experimental philosophy. In the second part of the seventeenth century, Della Porta’s book was widely read in England as a sourcebook of recipes and secrets open for trial and improvement, from which the virtuosi could assemble materials for the building of Baconian natural and experimental histories. This placing of Della Porta in a Baconian context is quite visible in commonplace books, experimental notes, correspondence, and published texts. In the first part of the paper, I look at a handful of such examples. Then, I discuss the way in which this Baconian context of Della Porta’s manifests itself in the English translation of the Magia naturalis, published in 1658. I show that through consistent and organized editorial interventions, the anonymous translator made Della Porta speak the language of experimental philosophy. Secrets and recipes are often presented as tests and trials, and sometimes they are updated by changing ingredients, or by spelling out some of their tacit details. In line with Bacon’s precepts of getting rid of “antiquities, citations and differing opinions of authorities”(OFB XI 457) the translator eliminates most of the ancient and modern verses that are so prominent in the Latin edition; often abridging them to a brief set of instructions and suggestions for testing or trying a particular recipe. The edited preface and para-texts also stress the Baconian values of collaboration in collecting, testing and trying experiments. As I show in the last part of the paper, these editorial interventions are consistent with a way of enlisting Della Porta among the many practical, experimental Baconians of the Interregnum.