 As in his optics with the model of the camera obscura and the eye, so Porta explains meteorological phenomena by experimental simulation. By showing how water condensates in some of his artfully designed glass-works he demonstrates that rain is caused by condensation of air into water; in similar setups he evidences how rain or winds are generated by the mixture of hot and cold air (Borrelli 2019). Even though this was an undoubtedly an innovative approach, such ‘word machines’—automata that simulated cosmological phenomena—were allegedly constructed by Archimedes. In early modern Europe such artifacts had been a formidable topic in learned natural magic at least since Ficino’s day (Toussaint 2002). From this perspective, Porta’s experimental set-ups point as much in the direction of modern meteorology as exemplary virtuoso artisan’s culture during the seventeenth century, such as Cornelius Drebbel’s artifacts that simulated sea-tides (Dijksterhuis 2017).