Kircher and the Lanterna Magica — A Reexamination

Metadata

Publisher: SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
Doc Type: Journal Article
Content Type: Original Research
Abbreviated Title: J SMPTE
Volume: 90, No. 10, pp. 972–978
Abstract: Athanasius Kircher has been identified with the magic lantern for centuries - often being called the device's inventor. Although Kircher did develop a projection lantern late in his career, the apparatus was developed and introduced before him by inventors such as Christiaen Huyghens, Thomas Walgensten, Richard Reeves, Pierre Petit, and Francesco Eschinardi. Whatever plaudits are deserved by the inventor of the lantern, a device that after all was the progenitor of the film projector, they rather appear to belong to Huyghens, who had a lantern ready by 1659.
Publication Date: 1981-10-01
DOI: 10.5594/J01365
ISSN: Print: 0036-1682
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/J01365
Author(s): H. Mark GosserTV Guide , National Programming Department, Radnor, Pa.
Copyright: © 1981 Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Inc.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

Contributions of Dutchmen in the Beginnings of Film Technology [Active]
1. Porta J. , Natural Magick , London , Young & Speed , 1658; reprinted, Price D. J. , ed., New York, Basic Books, 1957 . The author used the reprint of the anonymous 1658 English translation. EXTERNAL
10. Ars magna , 1st ed., fig. 2 of pl. 34. EXTERNAL
11. Ars magna , 1st ed., fig. 4, opposite folio 900. EXTERNAL
12. Ars magna , 1st ed., folio 887. EXTERNAL
13. Schotti G. , Magia universalis naturae et artis , Herbipoli , J. G. Schonwetteri , 1657 ; 2nd ed. , Bamberg, J. A. Cholini, 1677. The author used the second edition during his research. EXTERNAL
14. Thorndike L. , A History of Magic and Experimental Science , vols. 7 and 8 , New York , Columbia U. Press , 1958 , p. 591 . EXTERNAL
15. Needham J. , Science and Civilization in China , vol. 4 , Cambridge U. Press , 1965 , p. 123 . EXTERNAL
16. Letter, Christiaen Huyghens to his brother , Constantijn Huyghens, #240 , October 22, 1655 , from: Christiaen Huyghens, Oeuvres Complètes, La Haye, M. Nijhoff; Société Hollandaise des Sciences, 1888–91, vol. 1, p. 357. EXTERNAL
17. Reproduced from Huyghens ms. A, p. 152, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 22 , p. 197 . EXTERNAL
18. See letter, Christiaen Huyghens to his brother, L. Huyghens, #1005, April 19, 1662, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 4 , p. 111 . EXTERNAL
19. Letter, P. Petit to Christiaen Huyghens, #1078, November 28, 1664, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 4 , pp. 267 – 270 . Note that this letter is incorrectly placed among correspondence for the year 1662. See Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 22, p. 552, fn. 142, and vol. 5, pp. 161, 162 for the date correction. EXTERNAL
2. Ibid., p. 363 . EXTERNAL
20. Letter, Christiaen Huyghens to P. Petit, #1283, December 11, 1664, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 5 , pp. 161 , 162 . EXTERNAL
21. Oeuvres Complétes , vol. 22 , p. 522 . EXTERNAL
22. Reproduced from Huyghens ms. 1, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 13 , p. 786 , Appendix 2. EXTERNAL
23. Letter, P. Petit to Christiaen Huyghens, #1078, November 28, 1664, in Oeuvres Complètes , vol. 4 , p. 269 . Measurements were given in pouces, the French measurement of the time. One pouce equals 1.006 inches. EXTERNAL
24. Also spelled Walgenstein and Walgensteinius. EXTERNAL
25. See ref. 3, Van Nooten, p. 120 . EXTERNAL
26. de Chales C. , Cursus seu mundus mathematicus , 1st ed. , Lugduni , 1674 ; 2nd ed. , Lugduni, Anissonios, Posuel, et Rigaud, 1690, vol. 2 , pp. 696 , 697 . The account is from the second edition. EXTERNAL
27. Kircheri A. , Ars magna lucis et umbrae , 2nd. rev. ed. , Amstelodami , J. Janssonium , 1671 , pp. 768 , 769 . EXTERNAL
28. Jaocaeo O. , (Copenhagen, Royal Museum), Museum Regium , Hafniae , J. Schmetgen , 1696 , pt. 2, sect. 4, p. 67 . EXTERNAL
29. Chales De , Cursus seu mundus mathematicus , 2nd. ed. , p. 680 . EXTERNAL
30. Ibid., p. 696 . EXTERNAL
31. Ars magna , 2nd rev. ed., pp. 768 , 769 . EXTERNAL
32. de Monconys B. , Journal des Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys , Lyons , Boissat et Remeus , 1665–6 , vol. 2 , pp. 17 , 18 . Monconys misspells Reeves' name as Rives. EXTERNAL
33. Ibid. EXTERNAL
34. Pepys S. , The Diary of Samuel Pepys , Wheatley H. B. , ed., 1st edition , London 1895 ; reprint, New York , Heritage Press , 1942 . EXTERNAL
35. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 219; entry for August 22, 1866 . EXTERNAL
36. Eschinardi F. , Centuriae opticae , Roma N. A. Tinafsij , 1664 , probl. 91, p. 221 . EXTERNAL
38. Ars magna , 2nd rev. ed., pp. 769 , 770 . EXTERNAL
39. Ars magna , 2nd rev. ed., p. 769 . EXTERNAL
4. Letter of Cornelis Drebbel to Y. van Rietwijk, ca. 1608/9. Reproduced and translated in ref. 3, p. 117 . EXTERNAL
40. Ibid. “Listlessness” would be a more literal translation than “matter-of-factness.” But Kircher surely means that the audience has become accustomed to his shows, rather than the negative connotations implicit in the word “listlessness.”. EXTERNAL
41. Ars magna , 2nd rev. ed., p. 770 . EXTERNAL
44. de Sepibus Valesius G. , Romanii collegiis societatus jesu musaeum , Amstelodami , Janssonio-Waesbergiana , 1678 , pp. 38 – 40 . EXTERNAL
45. Alsata Kestlerus J. S. , Physiologia Kircheriana experimentalis , Amstelodami , Janssonio-Waesbergiana , 1680 , pp. 124 – 128 . EXTERNAL
5. Wheelock A. K. Jr. , “Constantijn Huyghens and Early Attitudes toward the Camera Obscura,” History of Photography , 1 : p. 93 , Apr. 1977 . EXTERNAL
6. See for example: Brewster D. , A Treatise on Optics , Bache A. D. , ed., Philadelphia , Carey, Lea & Blanchard , 1833 , p. 276 . EXTERNAL
7. Fletcher J. E. , “Astronomy in the Life and Work of Athanasius Kircher,” Isis , 61 : p. 52 , fn. 3, 1970 . EXTERNAL
8. Kircheri A. , Ars magna lucis et umbrae , 1st ed., Roma H. Scheus , 1644 . Although completed in 1644, the book was not published until about 1646. The edition I studied, made from an original in the Vatican, was dated 1644. EXTERNAL
9. Ars magna , 1st ed., pl. 34, folio 912. EXTERNAL

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H. Mark Gosser; Kircher and the Lanterna Magica — A Reexamination, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 90, Issue: 10, October 1981); SMPTE, 1981
doi: 10.5594/J01365
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H. Mark Gosser; <cite id="bib-10-5594-j01365">Kircher and the Lanterna Magica — A Reexamination</cite>, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 90, Issue: 10, October 1981); SMPTE, 1981
<span class="doi">10.5594/J01365</span>
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