Magic Metamorphosis: The Secrets of a Rare Italian Picture Album Revealed
Language: English
Published by LIBRUM Publishers & Editors LLC, 2025
- Hardcover
- New
Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, IrelandKennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd.
AbeBooks seller since February 27, 2001
Condition: New
£ 356.08
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
2025. hardcover. . . . . .
Seller Inventory # V9783906897967
- Title
- Magic Metamorphosis: The Secrets of a Rare Italian Picture Album Revealed
- Author
- Stauss, Thomas
- Publisher
- LIBRUM Publishers & Editors LLC
- Publication year
- 2025
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 3906897966
- ISBN 13
- 9783906897967
- a fascinating work on conjuring history, a unique relic of baroque entertainment culture
- the new standard work; 300 previously unknown illustrations
- a facsimile of a unique blow book from the seventeenth century
Thomas Stauss discovered a unique picture album (Disegni Antichi Bizzarri, produced in Italy at around 1650) in Paris at the end of the 1990s. Magic Metamorphosis – a new monograph on picture transformation books (‘blow books’) – consists of two large-format volumes in a slipcase: a high-quality facsimile reproduction of the 17th-century picture album, and a richly illustrated explanatory volume. The facsimile volume includes the notched ‘indexing’ necessary to demonstrate its original function as a blow book.
The album’s drawings are fascinating―a bizarre mixture of the most diverse motifs: animals, flowers, soldiers, fire-breathing devils and dragons. The seemingly illogical sequence of the individual images also appears bizarre. What purpose should the volume serve?
The blow book (also: picture transformation book, flick book, and 'magic colouring book' in its modern variations) is a classic centuries-old magic trick. As early as the 17th century, it was customary for the magician to get a spectator to blow on the book during the performance--a kind of magical gesture, and the origin of the term 'blow book'. Blow books were used in performances in all social circles: in royal houses, at fairs, in taverns and on the street.
A blow book contains repeated sequences of pictures that allow an optical illusion facilitating the performance of an amazing magic trick. Leafing through the book, the performer can manipulate it, showing the audience a desired picture motif to magical effect.
Facsimile volume: 336pp, faithfully reproduced from the original complete with notched 'indexing', printed on heavy art paper in full colour throughout
Explanatory volume: 248pp, printed on heavy art paper, profusely illustrated in colour throughout; the monograph is fully referenced and annotated, complete with an Index of proper names and Bibliography
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd.
Galway, GY, Ireland
AbeBooks seller since February 27, 2001
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| Item | 12 to 22 business days | 10 to 20 business days |
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Kennys.ie is the largest exporter of books from Ireland currently exporting to approximately 100 countries around the world. Kennys Bookshop houses hundreds of thousands of books and specialises in collection development and library services, supplying booksellers and state and university libraries on a global scale including the U.S.A.,Japan and Europe. Kennys.ie is Ireland's Largest Online Bookshop.
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Asia, All Aspects of the Irish Experience, Irish Literature, Irish History, Human Rights, International Espionage, History of Ideas and Human Thought, Labour History, Jewish Studies and the Holocaust. Gureilla Movements., Russian and Soviet History and Literature. Womens Studies and Feminism.Seller's business information
Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries (Holdings) Limited
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Galway, Ireland H91 N5P8
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