GIAMBATTISTA DELLA PORTA. – Comic playwright and polymath, born in Naples in 1535, died there on 4 February 1615. He devoted himself to magic, chemistry, mathematics, and physics; he traveled extensively in Italy, France, and Spain. An accusation of witchcraft against him was dismissed as unfounded by the Inquisition, but the Accademia dei Segreti, which he had founded in Naples, was suppressed. In 1590 he engaged in a public debate with Tommaso Campanella.
Among his numerous works, the following are noteworthy: *Magiae naturalis sive de miraculis rerum naturalium libri IV* (Naples, 1585), which gained wide renown; *De futuris literarum notis, vulgo de ziferis* (ibid., 1563); *De humana physiognomonia* (Vico Equense, 1586); *De refractione, optices parte* (Naples, 1593); and the posthumous *Della chiro-fisonomia* (ibid., 1677). He also wrote for the theater, composing 14 comedies in the Latin style and the sacred tragedy *Giorgio* (1611).