Gibecière Vol. 1, No. 2

Contents Pocket Notes—Stephen Minch 7 An Investigation into Magic in Japan After the Opening of the Country, Part I—Mitsunobu Matsuyama 9 Récréations Mathématiques: A Study of Its Authorship, Sources and Influence—Albrecht Heeffer 77 Del Adelphia, the Cowboy Magician—Mike Caveney 169 Contributors 197

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Summer 2006 \ Gibecière

Asakichi performing the Japanese Butterfly Trick in London, Illustrated London News, February 23, 1867

AN INVESTIGATION INTO MAGIC IN JAPAN AFTER THE OPENING OF THE COUNTRY Part I: The Butterfly Trick

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Mitsunobu Matsuyama

The number of written works on the history of magic in Japan is small. This has, for many years, caused magicians to rely on the few good books on the topic produced by Toyokichi Hata, Hakufu Hiraiwa and Keiichi Yamamoto. In contrast, a large body of historical research has been published in the western world on the history of magic and its performers. Several of these works include some very limited information on Japanese magic and its history, due in large part to the scarcity of a written history of magic in Japan itself. This has created two negative effects within the magic fraternity.

1. Because research on the history of Japanese magic has not been updated from past decades, researchers outside Japan tend to rely on old and often erroneous information.

2. There are some noteworthy Japanese magicians who were once famous in foreign lands, but who are, ironically, unknown in their own. The reverse is also true.

This lack of communication between countries and cultures has prevented the creation of a common understanding of how magic and its performers traveled between Japan and the west, and has fostered the perpetuation of misinformation.

Summer 2006 \ Gibecière

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M i t s u n o b u M at s u ya m a

Courtesy of Geoff Bird, Lynn’s descendant

Dr. Lynn Gibecière / Vol. 1, No. 2

M ag i c

in

J a pa n A f t e r

the

Opening

of the

C o u n t ry

Courtesy of Geoff Bird

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Dr. Lynn with head attached Summer 2006 \ Gibecière

M i t s u n o b u M at s u ya m a

Courtesy of the Magic Christian collection

Namigoro doing the Butterfly Trick in Paris, Le Monde IllustrÊ, November 23, 1867 Gibecière / Vol. 1, No. 2

Title page of the rare first edition of 1624 in the Bibliothèque Municipal, Bar-le-Duc

Récréations Mathématiques A Study of Its Authorship, Sources and Influence

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Albrecht Heeffer

The popular Récréations mathématiques was first published in the French university town of Pont-à-Mousson. With its appearance came the first reference made to “recreational mathematics” in the title of a book. This work is pivotal in the history of science and mathematics. It brings together two traditions, mercantile arithmetic and natural magic, and creates two new ones: recreational mathematics and popular science. The booklet did not abound in new ideas. Several of the recreational problems treated can be traced back to earlier sources, and the infatuation with mechanical contrivances dates from Hero of Alexandria. But the fact that the book stands on the crossroad of traditions makes it a subject of study for which we must be grateful. In the course of this article, some of the complexities concerning the numerous editions and confusing claims about the authorship of Récréations mathématiques will be clarified.1 Récréations mathématiques was originally published in 1624

by Jean Appier Hanzelet, the master engraver and printer for the university of Pont-à-Mousson, under the title Recreation mathematicqve, composee de plusieurs problemes plaisants et facetievx, En faict d’arithmeticque, geometrie, mechanicque, opticque, et autres parties de ces belles sciences.2 The frontispiece displays no author’s name, but the dedication is signed H. van Etten.3 The Summer 2006 \ Gibecière

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DEL ADELPHIA THE COWBOY MAGICIAN

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MIKE CAVENEY

Despite a promise in the inaugural issue of Gibecière that its pages would dwell on magic news from years less gilded than 1850 through 1950, I have decided to buck that trend. Writers have always been advised to “write what you know” and it is the fool who ignores such sage counsel.

My interest in magic history has usually involved the century that followed the Civil War, and while I have great interest in the performers who made the Golden Age of Magic golden, I have an equal appreciation for the lesser lights. I credit Robert Lund for instilling in me a love for the forty-milers, the tall-grass showmen. These are the men who very often performed impeccable magic but whose names are today completely forgotten. One such man was Del ­Adelphia—The Cowboy Magician.

James W. Brown was one of the thousands of teen-age boys who answered the call to duty and joined an Ohio regiment of the Union army in order to participate in the bloodiest war in American history, the Civil War. With the cessation of hostilities in 1865, young James settled in Fostoria, Ohio, and obtained work as a carpenter. By 1868, the twenty-fouryear-old James had taken a wife (Sophia A. Brown, also born in 1844) and fathered a baby boy who was christened Adelphia J. Brown.1 A second son, Burt Brown, was born in 1870.2 Summer 2006 \ Gibecière

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M i k e C av e n e y

One can only wonder if the live occupant of this cage ever vanished while gripping some of Del’s long-flowing hair in his beak Gibecière / Vol. 1, No. 2

D e l A d e l p h i a—t h e C o w b o y M a g i c i a n

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Spectators fail to locate the missing bird and cage Summer 2006 \ Gibecière