Gibecière
The emblem of Bartolomeo Bosco
G ··· i b e c i è r e Journal of The Conjuring Arts Research Center > ?
GH
V T CVM QVE NEW YORK MMVIII
The Conjuring Arts Research Center Board of Directors William Kalush Dr. David Singmaster Steve Cuiffo Philip Varricchio David Blaine
This issue sponsored by Bella Mondo Gourmet Food available from Wholefoods and fine grocers nation-wide. www.bellamondo.biz
Š 2008 Printed in China. ISSN 1558-8149 Gibecière is published semi-annually by The Conjuring Arts Research Center 11 West 30th, 5th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10001 212-594-1033 www.gibeciere.com
Contents Pocket Notes—Stephen Minch 7 An Investigation into Magic in Japan After the Opening of the Country, Part III—Mitsunobu Matsuyama 11 The Pendulum “Knows”—William E. Spooner 49 Max Beckmann and His Magic Mirror— Volker Huber 77 Introduction to The Adventures of Barolomeo Bosco— Ricky Jay 95 The Adventures of Bartolomeo Bosco — F. A. Rosental 99 Contributors 159
Winter 2008 \ Gibecière
| |
Pocket Notes
~@%
As you tour the pages of this issue, you will be transported without need of packing, time machine or currency exchange to decades and centuries past in Japan, the United States, Holland, France and Italy. Our guide for the first leg of the journey is Mitsunobu Matsuyama, who provides the third installment of his research into the history of Japanese magic following Japan’s decision to allow its conjurers to journey outside the country. In this outing, Mr. Matsuyama solves the long-standing mystery of Soto Sunetaro’s arrival in the U.S.A., several years before Japan permitted travel abroad. The answer is surprising, as are the facts behind the life of this performer, including the part he played in the history of de Kolta’s “Expanding Die” illusion. Next, William Spooner traces the dubious and fascinating history of the ideomechanic pendulum commonly known as The Sex Detector. This device was familiar to the ancient Greeks. William Kalush’s research provides this insight: “The underlying concept, known as coscinomancy, dates from at least the third century BCE, at which time it was mentioned by Theocritus. From then through the Middle Ages, and into Renaissance Europe and Elizabethan England, a number of objects were used to implement the principle. A sieve and a pair of shears were among the most common items. The apparatus was used primarily to determine the guilt of those accused of various crimes. The shears were stuck into a wooden sieve, which acted as a counterweight, and the apparatus was balanced on the fingers of a suspect. If the makeshift device moved in a preWinter 2008 \ Gibecière
| |
Gibecière
scribed way, the person on trial was found either innocent or guilty. Reginald Scot, in his Discoverie of witchcraft, mentions a version using a large key fixed within a Bible. Assuming the thief was aware of his guilt, it’s not hard to imagine that this method might indeed work.” Mr. Spooner picks up the trail in eighteenth-century Europe and follows it through a series of incarnations in the United States, three of which seem almost certain to have been engendered by Alexander (Claude Conlin) and caused Dr. A. M. Wilson, editor of The Sphinx, more than a year of published embarrassment. Volker Huber makes a welcome return to these pages, this time with a tale of historical sleuthing that provides a solution to the source of German artist Max Beckmann’s well-known and delightfully puzzling lithograph, Magic Mirror. Mr. Huber draws from the archives of conjuring the answer to the artist’s inspiration, for which Beckmann provided a clear hint in his title. The result is a captivating insight into how magic provided a concealed model for the artist, and how its discovery ironically robs the work of some of its mystery. Our journey in this issue is concluded by Gibecière staple Lori Pieper, who contributes the first English translation of Satana raccolta Europea: passatempo dell’intermezzo nelle sedute: di magia egiziana: del cavaliere Bartolomeo Bosco, a rare and early biography of the renowned sleight-of-hand performer Bartolomeo Bosco. This work is noted in Christian Fetchner’s excellent bibliography to have first appeared in Paris in 1839, as Aventures de B. Bosco: Satanas. Recueil universel. Passe-temps de l’entr’acte aux séances de magie égyptienne. Eleven years later an Italian version was published in Milan. Despite several editions in both French and Italian, this booklet is today a rare item. Little is known Gibecière / Vol. 3, No. 1
Gibecière
about its Italian editor, Dr. F. A. Rosental (sometimes appearing as Rosenthal), aside from his having translated another work on Bosco, this purportedly dealing with his tricks and methods, although there is reason to doubt the claim. This small “biography” is a shameless piece of nineteenthcentury puffery, a feature that, oddly enough, gives it a certain naïve charm. The anecdotes it recounts contain, for the historian of magic, some familiar tales and others less so. Extracting the mythologizing and excessive panegyric from those anecdotes having the semblance of truth is a delightful exercise we leave to each reader. Some are surely embroideries with little or no factual yarn in their weave (self-decapitation in the private room of an inn; a stubble that restores itself under a barber’s razor); others reflect a sense of humor typical of the times, which today seems cruel (scaring a reverend father from the room of an inn, which he had charitably shared with Bosco; teasing a peasant with the pretended gift of a gold and then a silver coin). This sense of humor was evidenced in Bosco’s formal performances as well, and by the mid-1800s was falling out of favor, as can be sensed in negative comments made by Robert-Houdin on this aspect of Bosco’s work. Despite the conspicuous fictionalizing at points, many of the tales told make clear the very real accomplishments, audacity and success of the great conjurer, including his skill at picking pockets. Two anecdotes in particular prove intriguing. In the tale of Bosco in the Harem we find a variation of the performance of Dedi (or Djedi) before the Pharaoh Khufu (Kheops), recorded in the Westcar Papyrus. Bosco’s version of the tale adapts the story from Dedi’s decapitation and restoration of various animals to fit Bosco’s decapitation and restorative transference of the Winter 2008 \ Gibecière
| |
Gibecière
heads of a black and a white dove. Both feats include an identical complication, incurred at royal performances. The puzzle the close correspondence of these stories presents is how or if Bosco knew of Dedi’s performance and the Pharaoh’s problematic request. Although the Westcar Papyrus was in the hands of British collector Henry Westcar no later than 1825, and eventually was given to an early Egyptologist in 1838/9, a translation of it was not managed until 1890. Had the tale of Dedi, or one like it, then been transmitted in some form through folklore to Bosco’s ears; or are the conspicuous correspondences a product of mere coincidence? A second Bosco anecdote, found in a newspaper report of an 1831 performance in Paris, contains an intriguing description of Bosco performing the Mutilated Parasol (or Sunshade) Trick. This was roughly a decade before John Henry Anderson is said to have introduced this effect in London. These are just two threads teased from the puffy fabric of this imaginative biography. Ricky Jay, always a welcome contributor to these pages, has generously provided an introduction to Rosental’s biography of Bosco. A final note: Our thanks go out to Mike Caveney, who uncovered for us some wonderful Sunetaro materials in his Egyptian Hall archives; to Volker Huber, who generously supplied many of the images that enhance the Bosco article; and to Andrew Pinard, who once more applied his practiced eye to the text. Stephen Minch editor
Gibecière / Vol. 3, No. 1
GH
An Investigation into Magic in Japan After the Opening of the Country GH
Courtesy of Mike Caveney’s Egyptian Hall Museum
Soto Sunetaro poster with discrepant Kanji spelling 1
AN INVESTIGATION OF MAGIC IN JAPAN AFTER THE OPENING OF THE COUNTRY Part III: Unraveling the Ultimate Deception of Soto Sunetaro
~@%
Mitsunobu Matsuyama In previous installments we have examined the histories of several of the earliest native magicians to travel from Japan to the west: Namigoro, Asakichi and Chonosuke. However, in western literature, another name is recorded as the first Japanese magician to perform in foreign lands during the chaotic years of Japan’s opening to the rest of the world: Soto Sunetaro. This brave pioneering work and the sustained success of his performances abroad would be enough to assure Sunetaro’s place in magic’s history and in the present series of articles. But there is yet another fact about Soto Sunetaro that makes him a subject demanding further investigation. His name appears in no Japanese book on the history of magic in Japan!
Before Foreign Travel was Permitted, Did Soto Sunetaro Leave Japan? Bart Whaley’s Who’s Who in Magic states that Sunetaro was born in Japan in 1858, and was brought to the United States in 1860. There he became a professional conjurer, performing Japanesestyle magic in the west for the rest of his life. He died in New York City on February 10, 1910. His name also appears in Le Livre d’Or (The Golden Book), an historic Who’s Who of magic published in France in 1949. He is the only Japanese magician Winter 2008 \ Gibecière
| 13 |