Travelling people

Magic is one of the oldest art forms in the world. In the 15th century, Hieronymus Bosch was one of the first artists to depict a conjurer in a painting. The most common sleight of hand trick in the Middle Ages was the so-called cups and balls trick, in which several balls move back and forth between three cups. This trick, which was presented as a harmless game, is regarded as the precursor of the fraudulent shell game that emerged at the end of the 19th century, although the two feats are based on different structures and trickery.

Cornelius Bos took up the motif in a 1550 copperplate engraving. Among the crowd of curious onlookers there is another “trickster”: a man reaching for a spectator’s purse. In past centuries, the reputation of conjurers was rather questionable. In the beginning, they travelled the countryside and performed their tricks at marketplaces and fairs. As with the dentists of the time, people’s enthusiasm was ambivalent. On the one hand, the arrival of these people provided a pleasant diversion, on the other hand, the performances attracted all kinds of riff-raff, who took advantage of the carelessness of the onlookers to carry out their rascally deeds. These acts naturally cast a shadow on the travelling people. The general population was also afraid of the inexplicable. Things disappeared and reappeared, some things were destroyed and then restored. In popular superstition, conjurers were associated with the supernatural, evil forces and witches.

Sleight of hand artists

Magicians who performed baffling tricks with just a few small props were known as sleight of hand artists. They were counted among the travelling people and performed at fairs and court festivals. Unlike today’s illusionists, sleight of hand artists earned their money not so much via their performances, but instead were typically travelling merchants who attracted attention with their tricks and then offered their wares, often miracle elixirs.

Sleight of hand tricks are based on deceiving the spectator, which the artist achieves through dexterity and distraction. In medieval castles, travelling minstrels were often welcome performers of the light-hearted arts (gaya scienza), sometimes they were also singers, musicians, sleight of hand artists and jesters (joculatores). The name has remained in the derivative forms juggler and jongleur. In the past, they could easily acquire the dangerous reputation of being sorcerers. Sleight of hand artists did not belong to any of the established classes; they were largely without rights and frequently outlawed.

Alchemy and witch hysteria

While in ancient times priestly magicians dominated the prevailing image of magic, a new form emerged in the Middle Ages: alchemy. Belief in pagan gods or demons was supposed to have been replaced by the new image of God through the Christianisation of Europe in the early Middle Ages. However, the opposite was the case: belief in miracles and superstition only grew. Everything strange, peculiar and novel became associated with the devil.

The systematic destruction of all elements of “black magic” began in 1233 with a papal bull from Pope George IX, the “Inquisito hereticae pravitas”. Things were to get even worse, however, when in 1487 the so-called Malleus Maleficarum (the Hammer on Witches) formed the basis for an unprecedented hunt on all those who had allied themselves with dark forces. Countless victims died at the stake of the Inquisition. It was not until 1749 that the last “witch” was publicly burnt in Würzburg. These were bad times for the magicians of the Middle Ages, who were searching for the truth of what lies at the bottom of reality. As in ancient times, research was conducted in all areas of scholarship, oftentimes with bizarre test conditions and experiments: the search for the philosopher’s stone had begun. It was believed that it could be used to produce gold from other metals. In addition, an elixir of life could theoretically be made from this philosopher’s stone, which would make people immortal.

The search for the stone was unsuccessful, but the foundations of modern science had nevertheless been laid. For example, porcelain and gunpowder were invented in Europe, and astronomical research even gave rise to an entirely new worldview. According to the latest research of the day, the earth was no longer the centre of the universe. Nikolaus Flamel (ca. 1330-1418), Johann Georg Faust (ca. 1480-1540) and Theophrast von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (ca. 1493-1541), were regarded as important representatives of alchemy. It was this dark phase of history that gave rise to the image of the magician which can still be found in fairy tales and legends today, and which was the model for legendary figures like Merlin, Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore.

The first books on the art of magic were written towards the end of the 16th century, also with the desire to expose the alleged miracles of sleight of hand artists as pure perceptual illusions rather than devilry.