Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Karlovits Károly – Beke László: The beginnings of Photography in Hungary. p. 249–267. t. LXXXIII–CIV.

dependent on various things. The optical principles of the camera obscura ("dark room") or ("dark box"), the predecessor of modern cameras, was described by Aristotle in the fourth century В. C. Referring to ancient India he wrote : "... if there is a hole on the wall of a small, dark hut, on the opposite wall the reversed picture of the outside world appears. We may convince ourselves of this, if there is a small hole on the closed door of our house: the stronger the sunshine is outside and the darker the room itself is, the better picture we may see on the wall opposite to the hole". After Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass and the first eyeglasses were constructed by Alessandro del Spina, the next step was to combine camera obscura with the lens. Thus, the clarity of the picture was improved. (Daniel Barbaro 1568. — The wide range distribution of camera obscura is due to the book of Giovanni Battista della Porta: "Magia naturalis" published in 1553. At this time the equipment was used in the making of perspective drawings.) Central perspective, the geometric construction of sight, was the greatest innovation of Renaissance painting. Leonardo however, did not make use of the possibility of optical copying offered by the camera obscura. In spite of this he published its picture in the book titled "Codex Atlanticus" (in the same volume the "laterna" with a condensor lens, predecessor of the projector is shown). Camera obscura was first used in the drawing of sun spots by Christoph Schneider, a Jesuit astronomer. As is written in his book "Rosa ursina sive sol ..." (1626) he already used a teleobjective (telescope) in his studies as well. The incredibly versatile Athanasius Kircher, one of his followers presents the optical relationships between camera obscura and lucerna magica ("magic wick") in his book "Ars magna lucis et umbrae" (1646). The works of Kircher were later published as schoolbooks in Nagyszombat (1729) and Kassa (1735). Camera obscura and laterna magica were first introduced in Hungary by Szentiványi Márton (1635—1705), a Jesuit from Nagyszombat. Köleséry Sámuel (1683—1732) summarized the 17

th century optical knowledge (beginning with the light theory of Descartes) in his doctoral thesis (1681). The first laterna magica show, a projection of colored hand painted slides, was organized by Professor Simándi István for the sovereign Rákóczi Ferenc the second. It took place in the College of Sárospatak on the 29

th of July in 1709. The projector, purchased in the Netherlands with its 18 pictures, is one of the prides of the College's collection. Another laterna magica has survived in the collection of the Calvinist College in Debrecen. Among the representation of other optical devices, a picture of a projector may also be seen on a fresco in the Eger Lyceum (Franz Sigrist: The Allegory of Natural Sciences, 1781). A particularly beautiful collection of 18

th and early 19

th century laterna magica pictures is kept in the National Technical Museum in Budapest. Some of these are even movable so that laterna magica may be considered not only the forerunner of photography, but also that of cinema. Aside from the technical analogy, its social function was similar as well. As is shown by the target owned by the Baja Museum, laterna magica had become a popular entertainment in companies by the first half of the 19

th century in addition to other shows combined with projected pictures. A good example for such work were the so-called transparent pictures, which provided different spectacles in various illuminations. Some pictures of this kind were also made by Caspar David Friedrich, the German romantic painter in the beginning of the 19

th century. This sort of show was often accompanied by music. Dioramas, like the beautiful piece in the Sárospatak collection, provided the illusion of space and motion. "Fogveil-picture shows", dark room, laterna magica pictures projected on steam or smoke, were organized in both theaters and fairs in the Reform Period in Hungary during the 1820's and 1830's. "Panoramas" sometimes using optical tricks played a similar role as may be seen in Pecci's "Theatrum Mundi" descriptions (1837) kept in the Xántus Jánus Múzeum collection in Győr. Special equipment, the so-called solar microscope, was invented by J, N. Lieberkühn, a Berlin physician. The device projected sunshine into a dark room, resulting in much stronger light than that of the candle or wick used in the laterna magica. This principle was utilized even after the invention of photography for enlarging pictures and in education as well. There was a radical change in teaching physics in Hungary during the 18

th century. The teaching of experimental physics began using various equipment for demonstration. A manuscript with lecture notes from 1721 dealing with the simple camera obscura ("hole camera") has survived in Debrecen College. Tőke István, professor of physics in Nagyenyed published his book "Institutiones Philosophiae Naturalis ..." in 1736. In this volume figures are given to demonstrate the principle of camera obscura as well as that of laterna magica. In Physics schoolbooks written by Reviczky Antal (1757), Pankl Máté (1797) and others one may follow all the important stages in the development of optics which led to the invention of photography. Two large (room size) examples of camera obscura were also built in 18

th century Hungary for demonstrations in school. One of them was created in the Buda observatory (1777) following the plans of the Hungarian astronomer Hell Miksa. The other was connected to the "Spaecula" in Eger. The first was pulled down in 1830, and today only its description and drawings are known (Sajnovics János: Idea Astronomiae. Buda, 1778). The Eger camera obscura is still functioning. As a result of a misunderstanding, local people often call it "panorama periscope". This camera obscura is located on the tenth floor of the astronomic observatory tower built following plans of Fellner Jakab (1773). An inventory made in 1802 describes five objects in it: "Camera obscura: a small table with a cover, a stool, a double ladder and a mirror". The heights of both the table and mirror are adjustable in order to achieve optimal clearness of the picture. It is also interesting to note that a view of the Eger Lyceum with the observatory tower was photographed by one of the first Hungarian landscape photographers Varsányi János around 1854. His picture was made popular by the etching of Rohn. Among the optical devices the telescope of John Dollond, the English optician (1706—1761) is also shown on the previously noted fresco of Sigrist in Eger. The telescope has survived. The objective of a telescope exhibited here comes from the workshop of Dollond's successor. The invention of the chromatic objective (free of color distortion) may be credited to Dollond. This improved objective permitted the development of more powerful optical equipment. Simple, traditional lenses condense the various color spectra at different points which decreases the clarity of the picture. Earlier therefore, less powerful lenses with a long focal point were used. Dollond successfully solved this problem by using a combination of lenses, each made of glass with differing refraction properties. Josef Fraunhofer (1787—1826) discovered the spectra of the Sun. He also created a numeric system for the optical properties of various glass available as raw material. Both efforts largely contributed to the later development of photographic lenses. (Prisms and astronomic telescopes of Fraunhofer are presented in this exhibition as well.) We may draw favorable conclusions in our attempt to reconstruct the nature of Hungarian scientific school demonstration in the first half of the 19

th century. All the optical devices belonging to the direct antecedents of photography from all of Europe, and those used in mechanical creation of pictures, might be found in the stores of schools. Aside from many types of laterna magica and solar microscopes some interesting pieces are worth mentioning: a camera obscura from the 1830's (from the Eger Lyceum) combined with an achromatic lens and a mirror set at 45 degrees (the predecessor of the mirrorreflex camera?). Another curiosity (from the Győr Benedictin Secondary School), an eye model, uses the principle of camera obscura. The picture is projected on a piece of dim glass inserted into the place of the retina. The device was made by Prokesch, an optician in Vienna in 1834. Later, the same optician constructed the camera of Jedlik Ányos, the Hungarian physicist. All the equipment utilizing the optical principles of camera obscura and laterna magica were useful for making drawings. The Chevalier system convex prism (around 1830; owned by the Technical Museum) for example could be converted into a "drawing tent" by the use of a black sheet. Similarly, a drawing device could be attached to PlössPs microscope (around 1835). In both cases the picture was projected on a piece of paper and the contours simply traced with a pencil. This method was often used in making "shadow pictures", extremely popular 250