In the first book, chapter 3, of Magia naturalis, Giambattista della Porta states that: “Quoniam ipsam Magiam activam; & naturalis Philosophiae portionem describimus…”, i.e., “Seeing Magick, as seen before, is a practical part of Natural Philosophy…”. By this Della Porta referred to knowledge of a particular set of phenomena which would enable him to operate nature from within. Actually Magia naturalis covers a broad spectrum of issues which include topics related to the art of distillation, perfumes, fireworks, cookery, fishing and hunting etc. The purpose of all these subjects was to survey whole natural and artificial things in order to reproduce them. One could infer that each phenomenon described in Magia naturalis was singular and could only be known through empirical bias of investigation. That is why all reports in his Magia naturalis are reduced to the formula: “how to make, how to do etc”. In this sense, one could say that natural magic is a kind of art (techne) in the Aristotelian sense because it implies the sort of knowledge which depends on the ability of those who will manipulate phenomena. That is why the conception of natural magic is usually closely associated in meaning to “skill”. Although natural magic approaches in meaning to art (techne), it somehow does not address a skilled craftsman because a magician should consider theoretical background as well as practical knowledge. It was expected from the magician to have an acute knowledge of natural philosophy in order to articulate such theoretical part with that of practical counterpart. Therefore, a magician was not a mere craftsman for he should take into consideration not only the material but also how to manipulate nature using the necessary tools. In other words, since a magician had to deal with singular and rare phenomena, he had to consider all materials and know how to prepare and organize them. The aim of this paper is to point out that natural magic was a science closer in meaning to techne because it had a concrete sense of craftsmanship with the connotation of the ability to devise stratagems. However, once it had not been limited to the intellectual or manual activity, it could not be considered a mere technical art, or technical science, meaning technology or technique. (Supported by Fapesp Processo No. 11/14040-9)