Gibecière Vol. 1, No. 1

Contents Pocket Notes—Stephen Minch 7 Publisher’s Note—William Kalush 11 The Yawning Mouth—Volker Huber 13 On the Prearrangement and Mnemonic Use of a Deck of Cards—Vanni Bossi 47 Sharpers and Their Tricks in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times—Robert Jütte 73 Davenport Brother & Fay—Ricky Jay 131 Contributors 137

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Winter 2005 \ Gibecière

Bernardino Luini’s Boy with a Puzzle, ca. 1520, oil on wood, 15" × 13", Peterborough, Elton Hall, the Proby Collection

THE YAWNING MOUTH A Principle of a Toplogical Trick in Art and Literature

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Volker Huber In the spring of 1898, an exposition of paintings of the Lombard school was held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London.

Gustav Pauli, a museum director and art historian from Germany,1 visited it and published a report on it in the Zeitschrift für bildende kunst. The exhibition had an especially rich selection of works by the Lombard artist Bernardino Luini (ca. 1470–1533), an artist whom Pauli valued, but not without reservations. He wrote: “His preeminent gift was a sense of beauty, which never forsook him, but he had a fatal touch of bathos, that bathos which is naturally indispensable for wide popularity. And popular Luini has become among those people sentimental about art.” Thus, his remarks on Luini’s paintings are also more of a listing than a description, except for one small picture, to which Pauli enthusiastically devoted his attention: Of the remainder of Luini’s work in the exhibition, may I especially point out an enchanting genre picture: a half-length figure of a naked, brown-eyed little boy, who with a mischievous expression shows the visitor a little conjuring trick. He holds in his hands a pair of those little folding boards, which through a clever interlacing of straps leaves both sides open. At the moment he is showing that on one side a bone is inserted behind the straps, which he will make disappear when it is opened again. The little picture is in the possession of Lady ­Carisfort.2

Winter 2005 \ Gibecière

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ON THE PREARRANGEMENT AND MNEMONIC USE OF A DECK OF CARDS

~@% Vanni Bossi

The publication in 1593 of the Horatio Galasso’s book Giochi di carte bellissimi di regola, e di memoria (Venice),1 containing the explanation of his method of prearrangement for a deck of forty-eight playing cards, marks the earliest description of that technique discovered to date. As in all historical research, all we can say of this and what follows is: to the best of our present knowledge, holding in reserve the obvious possibility of new discoveries and more precise information.

It is interesting to note the terminology used by Galasso in his title, which indicates by the “giuochi di regola” (rule tricks), all those tricks that in one way or another are based on arithmetic rules,2 and in the “giuochi di memoria” (memory tricks), those that require the memorization of one or more rules, and of a mnemonic system that, due to a determined order, allows one to recall to mind the position of a card, or its identity when the position is known.

Tamariz is right when he says, “In the beginning was the key card.” To be more precise, it was the prearrangement of a succession of key cards, each in a position to furnish information. In the old descriptions, until near the end of the nineteenth century the prearrangement of cards was never specifically described as a mnemonic tool; rather, it was always referred to as a method Winter 2005 \ Gibecière

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Gambling scene from J. Damhoudere’s Enchiridion rerum criminalium (Lvanii, 1554)

SHARPERS AND THEIR TRICKS IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY MODERN TIMES

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Robert Jütte

The Sharpers or “Joner” It is a peculiarity of the history of language, made somewhat explicable only by the hopelessly shallow and distorted medieval and later conception of the nature of German magic and sharpers, how this limited view [...] could remain so permanent, when sharping was such a specific, even though wide-reaching practice, and how, too, justice, rousing itself after the appalling material and moral ruin of the Thirty Years War at the beginning of the previous century, suddenly designated all thieving and criminal activities, without any distinction, by the expression “Jauner” [...].

F. Ch. B. Avé-Lallemant Das deutsche Gaunertum, vol. I (1856)

Since the nineteenth century1 Gauner (sharper, shyster) has been used for the thieves and deceivers who pursue their criminal trade either singly or in organized gangs. But the historical roots of sharping reach further back. The history of swindling practiced as a trade can be traced back far into the Middle Ages.2 Very early on, historical criminology drew attention to the existence of organized crime in the late Middle Ages.3 In the municipal police records of the time, there are countless Winter 2005 \ Gibecière

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From the collection of Ricky Jay

DAVENPORT BROTHER & FAY

~@% Ricky Jay

In the 1860s the Davenports became the first performing stars to emerge from the cult of Spiritualism. Ira Erastus Davenport and William Henry Harrison Davenport were brothers from Buffalo who became world famous by producing “manifestations” while securely tied and bound into a wooden cabinet.

They implied that their demonstrations were the result of supernatural agency rather than theatrical techniques. They nonetheless spawned numerous imitators, some of whom attained the highest echelons of the conjuring art. The influence of the Davenports on the subsequent history and performance of magic can hardly be overestimated.

In 1877, while they were on tour performing in Australia, William died, at the age of only thirty-six. According to Houdini, who years later befriended the surviving brother, “Ira...was completely upset. He made one feeble attempt to reinstate himself, but the ‘Spirit’ was lacking and he returned home, a discouraged man, to spend the remainder of his days in peace and quiet at home.” 1 It is not well known that Ira came out of retirement almost two decades later, combining forces with William Fay, a professional conjurer who had earlier been the Davenports’ manager.

The pair announced a tour for the 1894–95 season.

“Phenomenal Announcement,” heralded their flyer.

Winter 2005 \ Gibecière

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