Porta, Giovanni Battista della (l53B?-1615) 
Porta died Feb. 4, 1615, but there is uncertainty about the 
date of his birth. Saccardo, 3ot. Ital. 1:132 (1895) and Surg. 
Gen. Cat. both give it as 1536; Cat. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist, gives 
1540; and Theodor Holm, Amer. Nat. 52:455-461 (1918), gives 1545. 
The last two seem too late, if we rm.y trust the evidence of Porta's 
preface to the reader, in the English version of his "Magiae 
natural!s" (1658). Here he says: "If this work made by me in my 
youth, when I was hardly fifteen years old, was so generally re¬ 
ceived and with so great applause...! hope that now coming forth 
from me that am fifty years old, it shall be more dearly enter¬ 
tained." Altho this is not dated, it must have been translated 
from the first complete edition in twenty books, which was pub¬ 
lished in 1589. If the author was fifteen at the time of the 
original edition in 1558, the date of his birth must have been at 
least as early as 1543, and if he was fifty in or before 1589, it 
sets the date of his birth back to 1539 or earlier. 1538 is the 
date given by Pritzel, and it is also accepted by Eugenio Camerini, 
who discusses Porta as a dramatist in his "I preoursori del Goldoni" 
(Milano, 1872). Both Pritzel and Saccardo mention among their 
sources: Duchesne, Henri Gabriel, "Notice historique sur la vie 
et les ouvrages de J.-B. Porta" (Paris, An IX. 383 p. Bib. Nat. 
Paris); Colangelo, Francesco, "Vita de G. B. Porta" (Napoli, 1818); 
and Meyer, "Geschichte der botanik," v.4, p.438-444 (1857); while 
Saccardo lists many additional references on Porta's life and 
writings• 
Porta is best known for his "Magiae naturalis, sive De mira- 
culis rerum naturalijn libri ITTI" (Neapoli, M. Cancer, 1558, 
163 p., F“), which was long afterwards expanded and issued as 
'’Magiae naturalis libri XX ab ipso authore expurgati et super- 
aucti" (Neapoli, apud H. Salvianiim, 1589, 303 p., F®). This 
consists partly of unusual and marvellous facts, together with a 
quantity of superstitions and misconceptions about natura] phe¬ 
nomena. Book II, oh.1-8 of the original publication, corres¬ 
ponding to Books 3-4 of the complete work, 1589, relate to garden 
plants and receipts for producing "freak" flowers and fruits. It 
is characterized by Gibault, in his "Etude sur la bibliographic 
et la litt^rature horticoles anciennes" (1905), as an extraordi¬ 
nary collection of absurd receipts, and may be sometimes referred 
to as a repositiory of garden superstitions. It seems unneces¬ 
sary, hovrever, to give here a census of its innumerable editions 
and translations into English, French, Italian, Dutch and German, 
as there is an extensive bibliography of the work in Duchesne's 
"Notice historique" (l.c.), and examples of various editions are 
to be found in many libraries. 
