Ye Magick Mirrour of Old JapanThompson, Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips)
History
Ye Magick Mirrour of Old Japan
Thompson, Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips)
Magic mirrors -- Japan
ANDERSON, WILLIAM, F.R.C.S. Description and Historical Catalogue of
a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum
(London, 1886). (On P. 398, § 1905, is a description of a picture
representing the myth of the sun-goddess.)
AYRTON, WILLIAM E., and PERRY, JOHN. On the expansion produced by
Amalgamation. _Proc. Physical Society of London_, vol. viii., p.
88-9, 1886.
PART II. ALLEGED REFERENCES TO MAGIC MIRRORS.
(_i._) THE MIRROR OF PYTHAGORAS. The passage in question is in the
_Physica Curiosa_ of Gaspard Schottus (4to Edition, Herbipolis, 1667),
p. 538, referring to his own book on magic, and runs as follows:
“Ibidem mentionem fecimus speculi Pythagorae, in quo sanguine
dicitur scripsisse quae volebat significare, et eo ad Lunam obverso
commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae.”
The reference is to another passage on page 553 of Schottus’ _Magia
Divinatoria_ (Herbip., 1657-59, par. iv.), in the chapter De
Catoptromantia:
“Huc referunt aliqui speculum Pythagorae cujus meminit Agrippa in
_Retractat. de Magia_, cap. _de Prestigiis_, qui sanguine perscripsisse
dicitur, quae collibuisset, in speculo et eo ad Lunam obverso,
commonstrasse res exaratas stanti a tergo in disco Lunae. Hoc si verum
est, utique non naturaliter contingit sed ope Daemonis.”
In the same work, par. i., p. 438-440, is a discussion of the
proposition: “Utrum in lunari disco aliquid legendum exhiberi potest
arte catoptrographica.” He says that Baptista Porta maintained this
in his Natural Magic (cap. xvii., lib. 17). He also quotes from the
_Philosophia Occulta_ of Cornelius Agrippa (lib. i., cap. 6) as follows:
“Si litteras parabolico speculo inscripseris idque tempori plenilunii
Lunae exposueris eae litterae ceu in vasto quodam speculo impressae
reflexaeque ubilibet locorum legi poterunt. Ita Pythagoram aiunt, dum
Hydrunti moraretur, litteras Lunae inscriptas Constantinopoli amicis
legendas dedisse.”
There is also a passage in Dr. Thomas Browne’s _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_
(Vulgar Errours), p. 60 (Edition of 1650), in reference to this myth:
“Which is a way of intelligence very strange; and would requite the Art
of Pythagoras; who could read a reverse in the Moon.”
Other references in occult literature to the alleged mirror of
Pythagoras are as follows:
ATHANASIUS KIRCHER. _Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae_ (Cryptologia, cap.
i.) (Romae, 1646, fol.), p. 908. (Quotes from Cornelius Agrippa and
Porta, and denounces the account as absurd, and against natural
possibility.)
BUBALUS. _Commentationem de Angelis_ (Lugduni, 1622, fol.), 9-50,
art. 1, quaesito 2, difficult. 2, § 3, pp. 64-66. (Combats views of
Paracelsus.)
PARACELSUS. _Magia_, lib. 5, de Speculi constitutione. (Distinguishes
five kinds of alleged magic mirrors; none of them, however, having
any optical significance.)
BOISSARDUS. _Tractatus de Divinatione_ (Oppenheim, 1616, folio), p.
297.
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