himself to writing (1551–55). He was recalled by Pope
Paul IV and made Vatican secretary of state a year before
his death. The Petrarchan poems collected in Rime (1558)
were much admired by contemporaries, but he is chiefly
remembered for the influential prose work Il Galateo
(1558), in which an older gentleman advises a younger on
manners and conduct and tells stories to make moral
points. It is indebted both to Boccaccio’s DECAMERONfor
an informal un-Ciceronian style and to Castiglione’s
COURTIERfor its ideals of behavior. Il Galateo was one of
the most frequently translated texts in Europe during the
second half of the 16th century. Robert Peterson translated
it into English in 1576 under the title A Treatise of the
Maners and Behaviours; a facsimile of this edition was pro-
duced at Amsterdam in 1969. For a modern translation
see Galateo, or the Book of Manners by R. S. Pine-Coffin
(Harmondsworth, U.K., 1958).
della Porta, Giacomo (c. 1537–1602) Italian architect
Born in Rome, della Porta trained under MICHELANGELO
and was later influenced by Giacomo da VIGNOLA, devel-
oping a style based upon academic MANNERISM. He is best
known for completing works by Michelangelo, including
the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol and, most no-
tably, the dome of St. Peter’s basilica (1586–90), to the de-
signs for which he and Domenico FONTANA made a
number of alterations. Sometime after 1572 della Porta
completed the facade for Vignola’s Gesù, the mother
church of the Jesuit order, and then incorporated features
of Vignola’s design into several of his own churches in
Rome, including Sta. Maria dei Monti (1580–81), Sant’
Atanasio (1580–83), and Sant’ Andrea della Valle (1591).
della Porta, Giambattista (c. 1535–1615) Italian
natural philosopher, cryptographer, and dramatist
After a period of study and travel throughout Europe,
della Porta returned to his native Naples where he pub-
lished his Magia naturalis (1558; translated as Natural
Magick, 1658). An immensely successful work (some 27
editions are known), it distinguished between the magic
of sorcery, which della Porta rejected, and natural magic.
Under this latter term he included familiar yet mysterious
phenomena taken from such fields as magnetism, hy-
draulics, optics, and chemistry, and sought to explain
them in terms of attractions, sympathies, fascinations, and
antipathies. The book also contains one of the earliest de-
scriptions of the camera obscura. More original, although
less well known, is his De furtivis literarum (On secret
writing; 1563), a work of CRYPTOGRAPHYin which he pro-
vided solutions to a number of simple polyalphabetic ci-
phers. His Phytognomonica (1589) expounds the doctrine
of SIGNATURES. Della Porta was also a leading figure in two
early scientific societies. He helped to establish in Naples
in 1560 the ACADEMIA SECRETORUM NATURAE, the first such
modern society, and in 1610 he became a member of Fed-
erico Cesi’s ACCADEMIA DEI LINCEIin Rome. In addition,
from 1589 onwards, della Porta also published some 20
plays in prose and verse, some of which were translated in
England and France.della Porta, Guglielmo (c. 1500–1577) Italian sculptor
Born in Milan, Guglielmo is first recorded working with
other, older members of his sculptor family at Genoa in- In 1537 he went to Rome, where he became the
principal sculptor to Pope PAUL III. He was appointed to
the office of the papal seal (piombatore) upon the death of
its holder, the painter SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO(1547), and
executed busts of the pope in bronze and marble. He was
an admirer of MICHELANGELO, until their dispute over the
nature and location of a monument to Paul III in St.
Peter’s, of which Michelangelo was architect: this was
Guglielmo’s major work and now stands to the left of the
high altar, though he had initially hoped that it would
stand free under the dome. The bronze seated portrait
statue of the deceased pope was a major contribution to a
series in St. Peter’s ranging from St. Peter himself, through
POLLAIUOLO’s Pope Innocent VIII, to the baroque figures by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Alessandri Algardi. The reclin-
ing Virtues below recall Michelangelo’s Times of Day in the
Medici chapel. Della Porta was a prolific draftsman and
also produced many smaller statuettes and reliefs of reli-
gious subjects in gold, silver, or bronze.
della Robbia, Luca (1399/1400–1482) Italian sculptor
Luca della Robbia’s significance as a sculptor in marble
and bronze has been overshadowed by the popularity of
his and his family’s works in terracotta. The complex steps
and secret formulas which Luca invented employed the
lead-based glazes already in use by ceramicists to create
enameled terracotta sculpture; they became the basis for a
family industry in his native Florence, which was contin-
ued by his nephew Andrea (1434–1525) and other rela-
tives into the 16th century. Luca was trained as a marble
carver, however, and his first important commission was
for 10 marble reliefs for an organ loft (known as the Can-
toria) for the cathedral of Florence (1431–38; Museo dell’
Opera del Duomo), the classical design of which was
probably suggested by BRUNELLESCHI. Luca’s figures of
singing, dancing, and music-making angels combine nat-
uralism, as seen in the ease of movement and well-
observed detail, with idealism, evident in the beauty of the
figures and the classically balanced compositions. Luca’s
reliefs offer a refined degree of surface finish which is im-
pressive but not, as VASARIwas the first to point out, com-
pletely appropriate for works to be seen from a distance in
the relatively dark interior of the cathedral.
More satisfying are Luca’s first large colored terracotta
reliefs, the Resurrection and the Assumption of Christ
(1442–45, 1446–51), in lunettes above the sacristy doors
and near the location of Luca’s and DONATELLO’s pendantddeellllaa RRoobbbbiiaa,, LLuuccaa 1 13377