Chapter III: Part II: Alleged References to Magic Mirrors

(_i._) THE MIRROR OF PYTHAGORAS. The passage in question is in the _Physica Curiosa_ of Gaspard Schottus (4to Edition, Herbipolis, 1667), p. 538, referring to his own book on magic, and runs as follows:

“Ibidem mentionem fecimus speculi Pythagorae, in quo sanguine dicitur scripsisse quae volebat significare, et eo ad Lunam obverso commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae.”

The reference is to another passage on page 553 of Schottus’ _Magia Divinatoria_ (Herbip., 1657-59, par. iv.), in the chapter De Catoptromantia:

“Huc referunt aliqui speculum Pythagorae cujus meminit Agrippa in _Retractat. de Magia_, cap. _de Prestigiis_, qui sanguine perscripsisse dicitur, quae collibuisset, in speculo et eo ad Lunam obverso, commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae. Hoc si verum est, utique non naturaliter contingit sed ope Daemonis.”

In the same work, par. i., p. 438-440, is a discussion of the proposition: “Utrum in lunari disco aliquid legendum exhiberi potest arte catoptrographica.” He says that Baptista Porta maintained this in his Natural Magic (cap. xvii., lib. 17). He also quotes from the _Philosophia Occulta_ of Cornelius Agrippa (lib. i., cap. 6) as follows:

“Si litteras parabolico speculo inscripseris idque tempori plenilunii Lunae exposueris eae litterae ceu in vasto quodam speculo impressae reflexaeque ubilibet locorum legi poterunt. Ita Pythagoram aiunt, dum Hydrunti moraretur, litteras Lunae inscriptas Constantinopoli amicis legendas dedisse.”

There is also a passage in Dr. Thomas Browne’s _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_ (Vulgar Errours), p. 60 (Edition of 1650), in reference to this myth: “Which is a way of intelligence very strange; and would requite the Art of Pythagoras; who could read a reverse in the Moon.”

Other references in occult literature to the alleged mirror of Pythagoras are as follows:

ATHANASIUS KIRCHER. _Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae_ (Cryptologia, cap.
i.) (Romae, 1646, fol.), p. 908. (Quotes from Cornelius Agrippa and
Porta, and denounces the account as absurd, and against natural
possibility.)

BUBALUS. _Commentationem de Angelis_ (Lugduni, 1622, fol.), 9-50,
art. 1, quaesito 2, difficult. 2, § 3, pp. 64-66. (Combats views of
Paracelsus.)

PARACELSUS. _Magia_, lib. 5, de Speculi constitutione. (Distinguishes
five kinds of alleged magic mirrors; none of them, however, having
any optical significance.)

BOISSARDUS. _Tractatus de Divinatione_ (Oppenheim, 1616, folio), p.
297.

(_ii._) AULUS GELLIUS. Carus Sterne (_Gartenlaube_, 1877) and Ayrton (_Journal Royal Institution_, 1879) refer to Aulus Gellius as having written of mirrors which “sometimes reflected their backs and sometimes did not.” The reference appears to be a mistaken one; for all I have been able to find in Aulus Gellius is the following passage in the _Noctes Atticæ_, bk. xvi., ch. xviii. (which is upon that branch of Geometry called [Greek: optikê]):

[Greek: Optikê] facit multa demiranda id genus; (1) ut in speculo uno
imagines unius rei plures appareant; (2) _item, ut speculum, in loco
certo positum, nihil imaginet, aliorsum translatum, faciat imagines_;
(3) item, si rectus speculum spectes, imago fiat tua hujusmodi, ut
caput deorsum videatur pedes sursum.

The passage which I have put into italics appears to have been mistaken in meaning. In Beloe’s translation, vol. iii., p. 249, this clause is rendered as follows: “A glass placed in a certain position shows nothing. Turn it, and it shows many things.” This is hardly adequate. More accurately it should run: “A mirror set in a certain place shows no image, but when transferred to another position produces images.” There is nothing in this at all suggestive of the mirror reflecting from its face the pattern on its back.

(_iii._) MURATORI. Sterne (_op. cit._) and Ayrton (_op. cit._) refer vaguely to the Italian historian Muratori as the authority for accounts of a “magic mirror found under the pillow of the Bishop of Verona, who was afterwards condemned to death by Martin (_sic_) della Scala, as well as of the one discovered in the house of Colla da Rienzi (_sic_) on the back of which was the word ‘Fiorone.’” The bishop in question was Bartolomeo dalla Scala, who was put to death in 1338 by Mastino della Scala, as narrated by Muratori (_Annali d’Italia_, vol. viii., p. 212, of the folio edition of 1744-49). Cola di Rienzo (or Rienzi) is mentioned many times in the same volume viii. I have not, however, been able to find in this work the mention of the mirror in either case. Neither have I found any as yet in Lessmann’s life of Mastino della Scala (Berlin, 1829); nor in Du Cerceau’s _Life and Times of Rienzi_ (Lond. 1836). Muratori was, however, a prolific writer. Amongst his works were: _Delle forze dell’ Intendimento Umano_; _Riflessioni sopra il Buon Gusto nelle Scienze e nelle Arte_; _La Filosofia Morale_. It is possible that the reference may be to some passage in these. Muratori also refers to a _Vita di Cola di Rienzo_, the authorship of which is unknown to me.

(_iv._) VON HUMBOLDT. In 1830 Von Humboldt brought a supposed magic mirror from Berlin to Paris to exhibit it to members of the _Académie des Sciences_. It was indeed shown to some of them at the apartments of M. Arago at the Observatoire. No reference to the occurrence is to be found in the journals of the Académie, published or private, or in any contemporary journal. Perhaps the reason is that, as is known, the experiments proved a total failure. My information on the subject is derived from Bertin (_Ann. Chim. Phys._, xxii., 1881, p. 478).

(_v._) BABINET. The name of Babinet is sometimes given along with that of Arago in connection with this subject; but I am unable to find that he did anything.

(_vi._) HARTING (PIETER). In their 1878 paper Ayrton and Perry refer to a short paper by Professor Harting in the _Album der Natuur_ some years before. It appears that this was a short-lived periodical, edited by Harting and Logeman, which was issued at Haarlem (A. C. Kruseman, publisher) in 1872. There is a single part (No. 3 of vol. i.) in the British Museum. No copy containing the article in question is known in England.

(_vii._) TENNANT, PROF. JAMES. The well-known mineralogist Tennant is believed to have issued, about the year 1869, a small pamphlet of about four pages on the subject of Japanese mirrors. No copy has yet been found.

, 1784.)]

From a netzuké in the possession of Charles Holme, Esq. (_Pilgrim_).]