2020 Essays

Sleight of Hand Tricks

Barwich, Ann-Sophie

A set of recipes on fols. 33r–43v in Ms. Fr. 640 is dedicated to sleight of hand. These tricks are part of a larger canon of “secrets” performed at public places, such as markets and taverns, and transmitted over several centuries and across the globe. Traditionally, conjuring tricks were judged to be deceptive and therefore illicit. Prominent sixteenth-century scholars like Reginald Scot and Agrippa von Nettesheim were determined to debunk such performances as fraudulent. Meanwhile, these feats of practical magic also conveyed early forms of specialist knowledge in mathematics (riddles), physics and astronomy (optical effects), chemistry (transmutation), and theatrical display (mechanical props). This essay examines the social life of sleight of hand in its widespread cultural transmission. This study also discovers striking similarities between entries in Ms. Fr. 640 and Jean Prevost’s Clever and Pleasant Inventions (Lyon, 1584), especially on fols. 33r, 33v, 34v, 35r, and 35v.