Magic in History - Part 1
BC
c.1700 Westcar Payrus(now in the State Museun, east Berlin) records the earliest known performance of conjuring as an entertainment.
AD
1584 Jean Preevost published the first French book on practical magic, La Premiere Partie des Subtiles et Plaisantes Inventions(The First Part of Subtle and Pleasant Trick).
1584 Publication of The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, the first English book to explain the methods of conjuring.
1734 Jacob Mayer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Meyer, using the name ‘ Philadelphia’, was the first American magician to win fame in Europe.
1769 Baron Wolfgang von Kemplen, a Hungarian noble, invent the ‘The Automatic Chess Player’. Although not designed as a magical illusion, it baffled many people and introduced new methods of concealment and misdirection that have been used by illusionist ever since.
1814 Birth of John Henry Anderson, ‘The Greta Wizard of the North’, who performedwith ’solid silver’ apparatus.
1845 Robert-Houdin, ‘the father of modern magic’, presents his first Soiree Fantastique in Paris.
1853 Adelaide Herrmann, possibly the world’s greatest female magician, is born in London. She took over from her husband, Alexander Herrmann, when he died in 1896.
1856 Rober=Houdin uses his magic to quell a threatened uprising in Algeria.
