The Armour Archive

Okay, so I am running out of places to look for this sort of thing. I want illuminations, carvings, drawings, or text descriptions of performing magicians/conjurers/jongleurs from prior to 1700 and I am finding very little.

Here's what I do have:
Bosch's painting of the Conjurer
Hocus Pocus Jr. (early how-to magic book)
Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft
a little picture from the corner of a drawing by Breugel

That's about it. I finally thought to consult the experts here on the Archive because y'all seem to find just about anything anyone could ask for, often very obscure stuff, too.

I'm not looking for astrology or healing or charlatanism. I want whatever I can get that shows or describes performance art of what we would now call magic.

Anyone happen to have a trove of old illuminations?

-Patrick

In the mittelalterliches hausbuch from schloss Wolfegg is a depiction of performers who firebreathe, balance daggers and handle snakes.

Or click here for a high res version: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Hausbuch_Wolfegg_03r.jpg

Also keep in mind that the conjurer by Bosch is a satirical painting, and not so much of a real magician at work.

A performer friend of me does perform as a stage magician in various periods and he's very knowledgeable on the subject. This is his website: http://www.jannesdegoochelaar.nl
Maybe he can answer some of your questions.

http://www.langtoninfo.com/showitem.asp ... 3836514265

You might look in this book.

Taschen publishes a lot of really good books.

In addition to a few of the linkspages (like acrobats and jugglers and so on), definitely check out The Art of Iugling or Legerdemaine.

I have a book at home (currently at the office) called "Magic in the Middle Ages" - decent work, a good look at the changes in magical thinking and had a number of images, black & whites that could be looked up online.

Sorry, don't recall the author.

Thanks, all! Gives me a good start, anyhow.

Kaos, while I am aware of the nature of the Bosch painting, I also trust that much or all of the equipment depicted would be recognized as common conjurer's gear. That's mostly what I am looking for: what would the common image of a conjurer be to the average person? Jannes' site is a treasure trove, actually. He appears to have put a huge amount of effort into doing it well.

All of the suggestions have been helpful, actually.

Again, thank you to all!

-Patrick