NATS 1760 Lecture Notes - Giambattista Della Porta, Natural Magic, Three Books Of Occult Philosophy
Document Summary
Recipe for concrete is known in ancient rome but recipe is lost in the middle age. Comes idea that there are secrets out there (secrets of nature) Project of rediscovering the ancients is rediscovering the marvels of nature. Practice and utility needs to be rediscovered. Practical concern because renaissance culture commercial culture. Ideas of how to discover secrets of earth that need to be recovered. Fables are taken for sources of potential knowledge. Knowledge relies on trial and error experiments. People who contribute to them are generally artisans, people who make things for a living. End up revealing knowledge that are produce through body of literature called the books of secret. Books of secrets deal with things such as how to dye textile, cloths, Two crucial functions: they transmit knowledge that would otherwise remain only in the hands of the artisans, responsible for new concept of experimentation. People who read these books see how experimentation can create knowledge.