232 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



had more to do with the indictment than any name which 

 the members might have chosen to assume. In fact, 

 scores of such societies mainly literary were organized 

 in Italy before the close of the sixteenth century. 

 Tiraboschi gives a list of one hundred and seventy-one of 

 them, and among their designations were such singular 

 names as "Inflammable," u Pensive,'' "Intrepid," "Un- 

 ripe," "Drowsy," "Rough," "Dispirited," "Solitary," 

 "Fiery," "Sympathetic," "Grieved," "Re-ignited" and 

 "Drunken." 



At all events, Porta, as head and front of the offending, 

 was summoned to Rome, whence he escaped with no worse 

 penalty than the dissolution of his society and some 

 fatherly advice, which indicated the extreme imprudence 

 of ever starting it again. While at Rome he gained the 

 favor of Cardinal Luigi D'Este~ who gave him means of 

 traveling through France and Spain, and who afterwards 

 called him to Venice to build for him a parabolic mirror. 



By this time Porta's attainments had gained him con- 

 siderable celebrity. He had studied optics closely, and, 

 although he did not invent the camera obscura (which was 

 the work of Leon Baptista Alberti nearly a century earlier), 1 

 he first pointed out and taught the analogy between that 

 apparatus and the human eye. He probably originated 

 the magic lantern, however, and had some notion of the 

 telescope, although his reference thereto is by no means 

 unambiguous. 



That the most eminent natural philosopher of Naples 

 should have encountered the most eminent natural philos- 

 opher of Venice, and that the two should find in one 

 another mutual attraction, seems to have inevitably fol- 

 lowed. Porta instantly assumed the role of pupil, as most 

 men did who came in contact with Sarpi, whatever their 

 callings or attainments might be; and Sarpi, who delighted 

 in teaching, found in Porta a congenial and tireless disci- 

 ple. Nor did this relation cease even after great honors 



Tiraboschi: Storia della Lett. Ital. Firenze, 1810, vol. vii., 495. 



