IV
PORTA, FIRST SCREEN SHOWMAN
Porta, a Neapolitan, blends fancy and showmanship for magic shadow entertainments in the 16th century—Barbaro and Benedetti put a lens in the “pin-hole” camera or camera obscura.
The first contact of the new dramatic art, then being developed in Europe and especially in England, with the magic shadow medium was made by a remarkable Neapolitan, Giovanni Battista della Porta.
Porta, a boy wonder, who would have felt at home in the modern Hollywood, put the room camera to theatrical uses. In a way Porta was both the last of the necromancers, who used lens and mirror devices to deceive, and the first legitimate screen writer and producer of light and shadow plays with true entertainment values.
Porta was born in Naples about the year 1538. He and his brother, Vincenzo, were educated by their uncle Adriano Spatafore, a learned man. The uncle had considerable wealth, which enabled young Porta to travel extensively and have the best available instructors. From boyhood Porta’s chief interests were the stage and magic.
At an early age he started writing for the theatre and his comedies are rated with the best produced in Italy in the 16th century. But even before he began his professional writing for the stage, he had developed an interest in magic and anything approaching the magical. This avocation was developed during the rest of his life.
Porta was very fond of secrets and secret societies, founding the Academy of Secrets at Naples. He was also a member of the Roman Academy of the Lynxes, scientific society founded in 1603—named for its trademark. Even magic inks for secret writing were an attraction to him.
For years it was generally believed that Porta invented the camera obscura but, as we have seen, it was known long before he was born. At the time of the discovery of photography Porta’s title to the invention of the camera was discussed and it was definitely established that while he made some refinements and, of course, devised some special uses, he had nothing to do with its invention.
When about 15, Porta began the investigations which led to the writing of Magia Naturalis, sive de Miraculis Rerum Naturalium, “Natural Magic, or the wonders of natural things.” The material was published five years later, at Naples, in four “books”, or large chapters. Through the years he increased his notes on the subject and in 1589 the work was printed in twenty chapters.
Porta’s Natural Magic was a popular book, a best-seller of the day. It was first translated into English and published in London in 1658. It was also translated into many other languages. Natural Magic contains a wide variety of subjects, including developments in the light and shadow art-science. Porta published the first detailed explanation of the construction and use of the camera obscura in the fourth “book”.