Editing Magic lantern (section)

==Precursors==
{{further|projector}}
Several types of projection systems existed before the invention of the magic lantern. [[Giovanni Fontana (engineer)|Giovanni Fontana]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Cornelis Drebbel]] described or drew image projectors that had similarities to the magic lantern.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Evolution of Scientific Instruments|date=April 3, 1925|author=<!--no byline-->|magazine=Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal|volume=CXIX|issue=3092|page=407|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4SIjAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA407|via=Google Books}}</ref> In the 17th century, there was an immense interest in optics. The [[telescope]] and [[microscope]] were invented and apart from being useful to some scientists, such instruments were especially popular as entertaining curiosities to people who could afford them.<ref name="rossell2002">{{Cite book |last=Rossell |first=Deac |title=Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst! — Sehmaschinen und Bilderwelten: Die Sammlung Werner Nekes |publisher=Steidl Verlag |year=2002 |isbn=3-88243-856-8 |editor-last=von Dewitz |editor-first=Bodo |location=Göttingen, Germany |trans-title=I Can See What You Cannot See! — Seeing Machines and Worlds of Images: The Collection of Werner Nekes |chapter=The Magic Lantern |oclc=248511845 |editor-last2=Nekes |editor-first2=Werner |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/345943 |via=Academia.edu}}</ref> The magic lantern would prove a natural successor.

===Camera obscura===
The magic lantern can be seen as a further development of [[camera obscura]]. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (for instance a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as an inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. It was known at least since the 5th century BC and experimented with in darkened rooms at least since {{circa|1000&nbsp;AD}}. The use of a lens in the hole has been traced back to {{circa|1550|lk=no}}. The portable camera obscura box with a lens was developed in the 17th century. Dutch inventor [[Cornelis Drebbel]] is thought to have sold one to Dutch poet, composer and diplomat [[Constantijn Huygens]] in 1622,<ref name="Snyder">{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Laura J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJ-BAAAQBAJ&q=friedrich+risner+camera+obscura&pg=PT110 |title=Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-393-07746-9 |location=New York City |oclc=892514232}}</ref> while the oldest known clear description of a box-type camera is in German Jesuit scientist [[Gaspar Schott]]'s 1657 book ''Magia universalis naturæ et artis''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vermeir |first=Koen |date=2005 |title=The Magic of the Magic Lantern (1660–1700): On Analogical Demonstration and the Visualization of the Invisible |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4028694 |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=127–159 |doi=10.1017/S0007087405006709 |issn=0007-0874 |jstor=4028694|s2cid=143404000 }}</ref>

===Steganographic mirror===
[[File:1645 kircher - steganographia.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Kircher's Steganographic mirror in his 1645 book ''Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae'']]
The 1645 first edition of German Jesuit scholar [[Athanasius Kircher]]'s book ''[[Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae]]'' included a description of his invention, the "Steganographic Mirror": a primitive projection system with a focusing lens and text or pictures painted on a concave mirror reflecting sunlight, mostly intended for long-distance communication. Kircher saw limitations in the increase of size and diminished clarity over a long distance and expressed his hope that someone would find a method to improve on this.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kircher |first=Athanasius |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_zev001199401_01/_zev001199401_01_0033.php |title=Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae |publisher=Sumptibus Hermanni Scheus |year=1645 |location=Rome, Italy |page=912}}</ref>

In ''Magia universalis'', Schott also relates how many were using Kircher's technique to exhibit wondrous things to enthousiastic audiences. For instance, the Belgian Jesuit mathematician [[André Tacquet]] had shown missionary [[Martino Martini]]'s complete journey from China to Belgium (when Martini was in Leuven in 1654).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Golvers |first=Noël |date=1994 |title=De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: Over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J. |trans-title=The Recruitment Journey of M. Martini, S.J. through the Low Countries in 1654: About geomantic compasses, Chinese collections, light images and R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J. |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_zev001199401_01/index.php |journal=De Zeventiende Eeuw |language=nl |volume=10}}</ref> Some reports say that Martini lectured throughout Europe with a magic lantern, which he might have imported from China, but there's no evidence that it used anything other than Kircher's technique. However, Tacquet was a correspondent and friend of [[Christiaan Huygens]] and may thus have been a very early adapter of the magic lantern technique that Huygens developed around this period.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rossell |first=Deac |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/315395149 |title=Laterna Magica = Magic Lantern |publisher=Füsslin Verlag |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-940769-00-8 |volume=1 |location=Stuttgart, Germany |page=19 |oclc=315395149}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Replicating 18th Century Magic Lantern Practice|first1=Wolfgang|last1=Engels|first2=Klaus|last2=Staubermann|journal=Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society|issue=130|date=2016|page=40|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76946022.pdf|via=CORE}}</ref>