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GIPHANTIA: OR A VIEW OF WHAT HAS PASSED WHAT IS NOW PASSING AND DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY WHAT WILL PASS IN THE WORLD
176113462London: Printed for Robert Horsfield 1761. First English edition. 16mo. Part I 130 pp. dated 1761; Part II 126 pp. dated 1760 1 p. advert. Contemporary full calf with the spine expertly repaired; board edges are rubbed. Previous owner's name on endpaper few light pencil notations light foxing and offsetting to endpapers and tile page from the binder's glue. See PHOTOGRAPHY: ESSAYS & IMAGES 1980 edited by Beaumont Newhall p. 13-14 "In 1760 the French writer Charles François Tiphaigne de la Roche wrote a novel that today would be considered science fiction. Titled Giphantie an anagram of his name it describes his imaginary travels. He was lifted into the air and transported half unconscious to a beautiful garden in a strange land. There he met a Spirit who said 'I am the Prefect of this island which is called Giphantie.' With the Prefect as guide Tiphaigne explored the wonders of 'the island.'" In GIPHANTIA Chapter XVII Part I The author prophecies the fixing of transient images of nature by the action of light. "Thou knowest that the rays of light reflected from different bodies make a picture and paint the bodies upon all polished surfaces on the retina of the eye for instance on water on glass. The elementary spirits have studied to fix these transient images: they have composed a most subtle matter very viscous and proper to harden and dry by the help of which a picture is made in the twinkle of an eye. They do over this matter a piece of canvas and hold it before the objects they have in mind to paint. The first effect of the canvas is that of a mirror; there are seen upon it all the bodies far and near whose image the light can transmit. But what the glass cannot do the canvas by means of the viscous matter retains the images. The mirror shows the objects exactly; but keeps none; our canvases show them with the same exactness and retains them all. This impression of the images is made the first instant they are received on the canvas which is immediately carried away into some dark place; an hour after the subtle matter dries and you have a picture so much the more the valuable as it cannot be imitated by art nor damaged by time." This is considered a cornerstone book in any collection of photographic literature and photography's first fictional work.<br/><br/>Roosens and Salu No. 10421. <br/><br/> Printed for Robert Horsfield unknown books
