The oldest written book on magic

The year was 1584. That year, a book with a surprising name appeared in Lyon: La première partie des subtiles et plaisantes inventions.

Virtually nothing is known of its mysterious author, I. Prevost. Prevost, who nevertheless brought together for the first time in a single book the many magical effects that were being performed at the time. Although there is no mention of the goblet game (surprisingly), we can assume that it must have had a prominent place in the "second part", which seems never to have appeared, as no copies are known to exist.

The book details many of the experiments that would come to be known as "fun physics" a few centuries later, such as balancing several knives together.

We should also mention the forerunner of the coloring book, a trick in which a book initially presented as entirely white has figures magically appear on its pages. The principle of slightly bevelled pages already existed in the 16th century, proving that nothing is ever invented!

This book is exceedingly rare, and no more than a dozen copies are known to exist worldwide, making it absolutely mythical.

A few small booklets were probably published around the same time or a little earlier, but none surpassed the completeness of the one written by I. Prevost.

A similar book, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, appeared in English the same year, 1584. Written by Reginald Scot, however, it was published only a few months after I. Prevost's work, making the French book the first of its kind published on magic! Cock-a-doodle-doo!

If you like these kinds of anecdotes too, feel free to browse this blog or take a look at our books on the history of magic!