Ars Magna Collection

Sciathericon for determining time
Sciathericon. Illustration entitled Sciathericon stellarum fixarum situm qualibet hora demonstrans, a device for showing time by reference to the fixed stars

Magic lantern display, 17th century C016 / 8932
Magic lantern display. 17th-century artwork showing an image of a skeleton being projected from a magic lantern. The magic lantern was the ancestor of the modern slide projector

Kirchers book on optics, 1671 edition
Kirchers book on optics. Title page of the 1671 edition of Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (The Great Art of Light and Darkness) by the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (circa 1601-1680)

Kirchers disc viewer, 17th century
Kirchers disc viewer. 17th-century artwork of the parastatic microscope constructed by German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (circa 1601-1680) for his museum in Rome

Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician
Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576), Italian mathematician and physician, coloured historical artwork. Gerolamo Cardano, also known as Jerome Cardan

17th century solar clock
Middle Temple 002

Illustration of a camera obscura
Camera obscura. Woodcut illustration showing the principle whereby an image of an object may be formed by a small aperture in a wall, and that the image will appear inverted

Girolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician
Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), Italian mathematician. Cardano was born the illegitimate son of a lawyer in Pavia. In 1520 he entered the University of Pavia, then moved to Padua to study medicine

Early form of magic lantern, 17th century
Early magic lantern. Illustration depicting a very early form of magic lantern. Light enters the window at left and reflects from a framed mirror to illuminate designs on an octagonal drum

Water clock, design from 1646
Water clock. Design for a water clock taken from Kirchers Ars magna lucis et umbrae, printed at Rome in 1646

Concentrating sunlight, 17th century
Concentrating sunlight. Illustration showing various methods of concentrating sunlight in order to ignite some material. The main illustration depicts a lens mounted on a castle turret being used to

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