Sciences & Curiosities at the Court of Versailles

Sciences & Curiosities at the Court of Versailles is the title of the current exhibition in the chateau de Versailles. It started in October and will close on February 27.

The illustration above is the cover of the catalogue (only available in French, as usual*). If you can't read French, and haven't planned any travel to Versailles, all is not lost. There is a lot to see and to learn from the Chateau de Versailles site which, fortunately, provides an english version.

If you're interested in the history and science, pay a virtual visit to it, you won't be disappointed...

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(*) The reason is that the RMN (Réunion des Musées Nationaux - which rules the national museums and publishes most of the exhibition catalogues in France) have chosen to focus on the creation of catalogues rather than on the translation of them. So, except on rare occurences, the translation is left to foreign publishers willing to buy the translation rights.

If you're a publisher, here is the contact page.

Henri IV's Head

A head reputed to be that of the French King Henri IV was found in a private home in 2008. After two years of investigation, a multidiciplinary team led by Philippe Charlier has just confirmed that the head indeed belonged to the monarch. It was stolen in the basilica of Saint-Denis, in 1793, when the revolutionaries desacrated the French king's grave.
After so many years we are still not done with the ugly side of the Revolution.

Philippe Charlier is forensic medical examiner and osteo-archaeologist who already worked on several historical misteries. He is the one who evidenced that Agnes Sorel, mistress to king Charles VII, died from mercury poisoning. He also identified a little heart kept in Saint-Denis as being the one of Louis XVII, Louis XVI's son who was said to have died from bad treatments and negligence in the prison of the Temple.

More about Henri IV on the BMJ article here.

Magic Lantern

Athanasius Kircher's Magic Lantern

(Ars Magna Lucis Et Umbrae)

A current exhibition at the Cinémathèque Française is dedicated to magic lanterns and painted films. It's a very enriching time travel to the origins of the motion picture.

There is funny anecdote about Christiaan Huygens. He invented his magic lantern as part of his experiments on optics but he was not interested in its entertaining potential. Unlike him, his father Constantin was enthusiastic about it and, in 1662, asked his son to send him a magic lantern to give a show to Louis XIV and his court. Christiaan felt horrified. He thought that having his name associated with that kind of show would ruin his reputation of respectable scientist, and he didn't want his father to condescend to the role of fair entertainer. As he couldn't refuse the lantern, he sent the instrument but asked his brother to take off a lens to make sure it wouldn't work. He was hoping that by the time his father could figure out how to fix the problem he would have changed his mind about the show. And that was what happened. Constantin Huygens never showed the magic lantern to Louis XIV.

A few years later, in 1666, Christiaan Huygens, invited by Colbert, became a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences.

Lanterne magique et film peint - 400 ans de cinéma

Paris, Cinémathèque Française, October 14, 2009 - March 28, 2010

Torino, Venaria Reale, October 12 2010 - January 09, 2011

laternamagica

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Off topic, but Proust is one of my favourite writers...

On the laternamagica site, there is a Lapierre series of slides titled 'Genevieve de Brabant'. I think that it is likely to be the series Proust described in In Search of Lost Time.