1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: this is the Artifact. A short form series from Stuff 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas, 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: and moments in time. Elizabethan scholar, doctor John d was 6 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:26,640 Speaker 1: one of the most learned men of the sixteenth century, 7 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: applying his intense mathematical intellect to matters scientific, political, alchemical, 8 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: and occult. He advised Queen Elizabeth, sought communion with angelic beings, 9 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 1: advocated British expansion, and plunged the depths of human knowledge 10 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,160 Speaker 1: in an age of great change. While D's most famed 11 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: possession was his expensive library of books, he was also 12 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: known to possess various mirrors and glasses of peculiar power. 13 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: One of these was the magical speculum, or the devil's 14 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:07,759 Speaker 1: looking glass. If you're envisioning an ominous, framed mirror of darkness, 15 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 1: you may be disappointed to see what looks more like 16 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: a slate painting palette, or perhaps part of an ikea 17 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,759 Speaker 1: end table. The mirror itself has a diameter of eighteen 18 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: point four centimeters and a width of three centimeters. It 19 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,760 Speaker 1: is circular with a perforated notch for hanging, handling, or mounting. 20 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: The mirror substance is that of polished obsidian, volcanic in 21 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:31,320 Speaker 1: origin and believed to have been crafted by the Aztecs 22 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. If you've visited the 23 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: British Museum you may have seen it. The mirrors a 24 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: leather case features an inscription informing us that it is 25 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: quote the black stone into which Dr d used to 26 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: call his spirits unquote. These words are attributed to the 27 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 1: eighteenth century art historian Horace Walpole, along with a pair 28 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: of crystal spheres. D used this object in his pursuit 29 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: of angelology and sorcery, possibly brought back from the voyages 30 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: of Sir Francis Drake. The obsidian mirror was likely used 31 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: in scrying rituals by Aztec priests in the worship of 32 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: tez Catlepoca, the god also known as the Lord of 33 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: the Smoking Mirror, due to the black mirrors used by 34 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: his priests and his overall connection to the dark volcanic 35 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: glass of obsidian. But D also possessed another amazing mirror, 36 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: an artifact bequeathed to him by Sir William Pickering in 37 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: sixteen seventy five. It was a noted curio of the time. 38 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: D even demonstrated the properties of this mirror to Queen 39 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:40,360 Speaker 1: Elizabeth herself. As Benjamin Woollowee points out in his book 40 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 1: The Queen's Conjuror, it is unlikely that D ever used 41 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: this mirror in his occult practices. No, the Great Perspective 42 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: Glass had a place in John D's purely logical interests. 43 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: Wooly writes that D kept the mirror proudly displayed in 44 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: a corner of his study. Anyone who lunged at the 45 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: mirror with a dagger or sword found their reflection lunging 46 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: back at them with like hand and weapon. This, of course, 47 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,280 Speaker 1: is not the typical way of mirrors, and the effect 48 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: was said to be quite unsettling, But D explained the 49 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: effect to his guests via the mathematics of perspective, rather 50 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: than the supernatural. A typical mirror doesn't so much as 51 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,239 Speaker 1: flip your image, but turn it inside out. The text 52 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: on your shirt appears backwards in the mirror, just as 53 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: the text also appears backwards if you were to withdraw 54 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,120 Speaker 1: your head into the shirt and read the text from 55 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: within the garment, So the great perspective glass was likely 56 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 1: a nonreversing mirror, which can be accomplished by connecting two 57 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: regular mirrors at their edges at a ninety degree angle, 58 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: among other strategies. Of course, even a typical mirrors reflection 59 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: can feel unsettling, is Argentinean writer Jorge Lewis Borges wrote, quote, 60 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: the crystal spies on us. If with in the four 61 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: walls of a bedroom a mirror stairs, I am no 62 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: longer alone. There is someone there in the dawn reflections 63 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 1: mutely stage a show unquote. As we grow accustomed to 64 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: the inside out stranger, how stranger still is the rarely 65 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: seen non reversed stranger, or the smoky shade of tes 66 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:29,919 Speaker 1: Catli Poca's dark Realm. Tune in for additional editions of 67 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: the Artifact each week, hosted by either Joe or myself. 68 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,479 Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff 69 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:49,279 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. And Stuff to Blow 70 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: Your Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For 71 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:53,920 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart 72 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,720 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 73 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: favorite shows.