History of Conjuring and Magic - Henry Ridgely Evans - Stevens Estate

With the passing of so-called genuine magic or sorcery we see the rise of natural magic and conjuring. In the Middle Ages conjurers were mere strolling mountebanks who exhibited their feats at fairs, in barns, and at the castles of the nobility. Things were little better in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but with the dawn of the eighteenth century we behold magic rising to the dignity of a stage performance, shorn for the most part of charlatanism, Pinetti, Torrini, Breslaw, Fawkes, Comus, Gyngell, Flockton and Lane were the particular exponents of conjuring during this period. The nineteenth century produced a brilliant array of modern magi; such men, for example, as Bosco, Philippe, Robert-Houdin, Comte, Robin, Anderson, Frikell, Compars Herrmann, Alexander Herrmann, Döbler, Robert Heller, Bautier de Kolta, J. N. Maskelyne, Cazeneuve, Félicien Trewey, and Harry Kellar. With the opening of Houdin’s bijou theatre in Paris, on July 3, 1845, a veritable renaissance of conjuring was inaugurated. Robert-Houdin undoubtedly was the Father of Modern Conjuring, for he was the first performer to enunciate the psychology of magic and lay down the fundamental principles of the art. Others have taken up the subject since his day, and given us some really brilliant dissertations; such authors, for example, as Angelo Lewis (our beloved Professor Hoffmann), Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, Prof. Brander Matthews, and last, but not least, Dr. Harlan Tarbell, whose Course in Magic goes to the very bed-rock of conjuring.

PROEM
Part I. Genesis of Magic
CHAPTER I Thaumaturgy of the Temples
Part II Magic in the Middle Ages and in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
CHAPTER II Superstition and Escamotage
Part III Magic in the Eighteenth Century
CHAPTER III Fantaisistes of the Fairs and Theatres
CHAPTER IV A Rosicrucian and Sorcerer of the Old Regime
Part IV Magic in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER V Prestidigitators of the British Isles and Dominions
CHAPTER VI Conjurers of France, Belgium, and Italy
CHAPTER VII Escamoteurs of Central Europe, Etc.
CHAPTER VIII Magicians of America
Part V Oriental Magic
CHAPTER IX Conjurers of India, China and Japan
Part VI Behind the Scenes with the Illusionists
CHAPTER X The Riddle of the Sphinx and the Ghost Illusion
CHAPTER XI The Secrets of Second-Sight
CHAPTER XII Laboratories of Legerdemain
CHAPTER XIII Psychology of Prestidigitation
EPILOGUE
APPENDIX
Cagliostro's Seal
Egyptian Hall
HANDS OF FAMOUS MAGICIANS

1928 HC 1stEd(?) - No DJ - Dampstaining on covers, chipping along front cover joint - Price written on front flyleaf, toning on edges of pages - Very Good Cond