Ars Magna Lucis et umbrae

Synopsis

Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae ("The Great Art of Light and Shadow") is a 1645 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. It was dedicated to Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans and published in Rome by Lodovico Grignani. A second edition was published in Amsterdam in 1671 by Johann Jansson. Ars Magna was the first description published in Europe of the illumination and projection of images. The book contains the first printed illustration of Saturn and the 1671 edition also contained a description of the magic lantern. Ars magna lucis et umbrae followed soon after Kircher's work on magnetism, Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica (1641) and the title was a play on words. In his introduction Kircher notes that the word 'magna' alluded to the powers of the magnet, so that the title could also be read "The Magnetic Art of Light and Shadow". The work was well known for several decades.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Book

Created by

Athanasius Kircher

Cover: Wikimedia Commons · Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · Source