From its inception in Greek antiquity, the science of optics was aimed primarily at explaining sight and accounting for why things look as they do. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the analytic focus of optics had shifted to light: its fundamental properties and such physical behaviors as reflection, refraction, and diffraction. This dramatic shift—which A. Mark Smith characterizes as the "Keplerian turn"—lies at the heart of this fascinating and pioneering study.Bre...

Begins with a brief account of Giambattista Della Porta’s life, a review of the genesis of De Refractione, and an examination of the textual sources on which Della Porta drew in composing the book and its analytic narrative. Explains the why and how of this edition and translation of the original Latin text. Examines Della Porta’s physical account of refraction, his overall account of vision, his account of visual illusions and their environmental or pathological causes, and his analysis o...