The Early Modern Camera Obscura – The Public Domain Review

For Giambattista della Porta, polymath author of Natural magic (1558), a book on natural philosophy and alchemy full of magic tricks and scientific experiments, the camera obscura was a space for ‘seeing[ing] all things in the dark, which are done outwardly in the sun, with its colors”. This evocative wording suggests the metaphysical events that the experience of being and peering into a camera obscura offers. Della Porta’s instructions for designing this “very pleasant and admirable” experience – one of the “great secrets of nature” – include managing light sources and creating the conditions through which it can be strategically channeled: “you must close all the room windows, and that will be done It is also a good idea to close all holes, except one that is as wide and long as your hand. By covering the walls with paper or white cloth to create a viewing screen, the outside world will appear indoors, both familiar and alienated: “so you will see all that is done outside in the sun, and those who walk in the streets, like the antipodes, and what is good will be to the left, and all things will change.”