Fisiognomica dell'uomo, Venezia, coll. A.B.5.6, 1644

Accademia di Belle Arti, Firenze

The Neapolitan philosopher, physician, mathematician, chemist and astrologist Giambattista Della Porta had a keen interest in the occult. Two of his works, Magia naturalis (1558) and De humana physiognomonia (1586), were hugely successful, translated into several languages and reprinted up until the end of the Eighteenth Century. This works is on the subject of physiognomy, a scientific practice derived from some of Aristotle’s theories, which attempted to classify an individual’s personality by comparing his or her facial features with those of animals. The originality of Della Porta’s work – which largely contributed to its success – was that for the first time there were illustrations that attempted to systematically compare human and animal heads.