Della Porta - Villae - 1592

THE ESOTERIC GARDEN OF THE PHILOSOPHER, THE SCIENCE OF LIFE IN THE VILLA OF MAGIC
⁂ First Edition of this encyclopedic treatise by the eclectic Neapolitan scientist and philosopher Della Porta (1535-1615), entirely devoted to agriculture and based on his travels in Europe. The work was published outside Italy, due to the author’s clash with the Inquisition. It is rich in astrological references and many passages recall the “marvelous nature” described in his famous Magia Naturalis of 1558.
In this work Giovan Battista Della Porta, scientist, physician and Neapolitan philosopher, gathers all his experience as observer and traveler of knowledge. The Villae are the mature fruit of a life spent between experiments in agriculture, natural alchemy and practical philosophy: an erudite and poetic manual in which the villa becomes the laboratory of the universe. Printed in Frankfurt in 1592, it represents one of the most ambitious encyclopedic syntheses of the Renaissance, in which nature is seen as an open book for those who know how to read it with a curious eye and an orderly mind.
MARKET VALUE
The Villae of Della Porta, especially in the first edition of 1592 printed in Frankfurt by Andrea Wechel, Claudius Marnius and Ioannes Aubrius, is considered rare and of great importance in the history of botany and Renaissance agriculture. Complete copies in good condition today fetch an average value of €3,000–€5,000, with peaks up to €6,000–€7,000 for examples in handsome antique binding or with cultivated provenance. Bibliographic value rises significantly due to the presence of the treatises Pomarium and Ulivetum, here merged into the organic structure of the work.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Printer’s mark on the frontispiece. Dampstains and red-rot on the paper; a few beetle holes and the margins of the last leaves slightly worn, but overall a good copy. Later binding in rigid parchment, spine with three raised bands and manuscript title. Pp. (1), 8nn; 914; 48nn; (2), collations: )(4 A-Z4 Aa-Zz4 AA-ZZ4 AAa-ZZz4 AAA-ZZZ4 AAAa-CCCc4, decorated xilographic initials. Diagram on the flyleaf. Bb3.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Villae Io. Baptistae Portae, Neapolitani, Libri XII: Domus, sylva caedua, sylva landaria, cultus et insitio, pomarium, olivetum, vinea, arbustum, hortus coronarius, hortus olitorius, seges, pratum.
Adiecto Inventario quam copiossissimo.
Francofurti, apud Andreae Wecheli, Claudium Marnium & Ioannem Aubrium, 1592.
Giovan Battista Della Porta.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Rare work in original edition. It also contains Pomarium and Olivetum, already published. Remarkable the section dedicated to wine and vines in particular for information on grape varieties of the Mediterranean area. Furthermore, in Book X, after the treatise on garden products we find the “De Fungis,” with descriptions particularly important for the history of mycology. It is noted that C. Clusius, in his pamphlet on Hungary’s fungi, urged consulting the works of the ancients and Book X of the Villae by Della Porta, where several species are described and classified. Lazzari, History of Italian Mycology, pp. 56-60.

The Villae represent one of the most complex and fascinating works of Renaissance scientific thought. In twelve books, Della Porta gathers all his experiences and observations on agriculture, botany, viticulture, rustic architecture and natural philosophy. The work integrates two preceding treatises, Pomarium (1583) and Ulivetum (1584), which become respectively the fifth and sixth books, and constitutes a compendium of the art of living according to nature. Della Porta’s vision blends empirical science with Hermetic imagination: the villa is at once a real place and a symbolic microcosm, an ordered microcosm where man can experiment with the harmony of the four elements. The tone alternates technical rigor and poetry, with pages devoted to the vineyard, the olive, gardens, waters and climate, but also moral and cosmic reflections on the measure of living.
The work had a great influence on sixteenth-century agronomic thought, anticipating the idea of agriculture as an experimental science and contributing to the birth of a landscape literature that would culminate with Tuscan and French authors of the late Seicento.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Giovan Battista Della Porta (Naples, 1535 – 1615) was one of the most versatile scholars of the Renaissance: physician, natural philosopher, playwright and alchemist. He founded the Academy of Secrets, among the first modern scientific societies, and was a friend of Galileo. In his works he sought to unite experimentation and hidden knowledge, exploring the relations between the macrocosm and microcosm. The Villae represent the most humanistic and agronomic side of his research, where knowledge of nature becomes an art of living.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in 1592 by the workshop of Andrea Wechel and partners Marnius and Aubrius, the Villae marks the European diffusion of Della Porta’s thought. The edition, prepared in Frankfurt following the success of his Neapolitan works, aims at an international audience of scholars and landowners. The elegant printer’s mark, initials and decorated drop caps, together with the clarity of the typography, reflect the editorial quality of late sixteenth-century German printing. The work circulated widely in the German, French and Dutch areas, but surviving copies are today relatively scarce, often originating from scientific or monastic collections.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Brunet, IV, p. 826 – Adams, P-1942 – Simon, II, 550: “Tout le Livre VII et la plus grande partie du Livre VIII sont consacrés à la vigne et au vin” – Biblioteca Italiana di Gastronomia, I, 708 – Paleari-Henssler, p. 593 – DBI, XXXVII, p. 177.