Jacob Philadelphia

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Jacob Philadelphia, engraving from 1778

Jacob Philadelphia (actually Jacob Meyer , also: Philadelphus Philadelphia and Jakob Meyer-Philadelphia ; allegedly born August 14, 1735 in Philadelphia ; died after 1795 ) was an American magician . Jacob Meyer took over as artist name the name of his native city of Philadelphia. An engraving with the portrait of Jacob Philadelphia dated August 14, 1735 was found in Pennsylvania around 1900, but it is unclear when and in what context the picture was created.

Life

Philadelphia is said to have been a student of the Germantown , Pennsylvania- based doctor and Rosicrucian Christopher Witt (1675-1765) before he left for England in the early 1750s .

In Europe, Philadelphia developed a magical show from lectures on mathematics , mechanics, and metaphysics since 1757 . His appearance was noted by Schubart , Friedrich Schiller and Goethe , among others . Philadelphia stayed first with the Duke of Cumberland in England, then in Portugal, in 1771 he was in Saint Petersburg with Catherine II , then with Sultan Mustafa III. in Constantinople , 1773 at the imperial court in Vienna , then with Friedrich II. in Berlin, in the same year in Dresden, according to Schubart's German Chronicle , he and the naval hero Alexei Grigoryevich Orlow were in Saxony in 1775 . Philadelphia had charged exorbitantly high admission prices for attending his performances, but had not exaggerated the announced effects.

Lichtenberg's Avertissement

On January 7, 1777, during a guest performance by the magician in Göttingen , Georg Christoph Lichtenberg had an "Avertissement" printed, advertising Philadelphia's program in excessive satirical exaggeration. Among the seven "simple" everyday tricks it was announced that Philadelphia would swap the weathercock of the Jacobi Church with the flag on the St. John's Church at lightning speed , and back again: Nota bene. Everything without a magnet through sheer speed. Philadelphia, exposed in this way, left Göttingen without having given an introduction. Lichtenberg may also have regretted his "witty blow" a little, since Philadelphia's screaming marketing of physical and chemical phenomena did not completely contradict its own efforts to arouse interest in scientific (and social) enlightenment . Lichtenberg did not publicly admit to what he called his "nefarious satire", but was epigrammatically reprimanded by his colleague Abraham Gotthelf Kästner for duplicity :

Jack Philadelphens Game / Did you scare Augusta away ? / And did you watch the / Hollmann games for forty years ?

On February 17, 1777 a tower of the Nicolai Church in Göttingen collapsed , which made Lichtenberg thoughtful.

Goethe noted Philadelphia's stay in Weimar on April 22 and 23, 1777 . In a letter dated May 27, 1783 - the only surviving handwritten testimony - Philadelphia offered the King of Prussia the establishment of a maritime trade company between Prussia and the USA, the receipt of which the Minister von der Schulenburg diplomatically acknowledged. Most recently, he stayed with the mathematics teacher Johann Gottlieb Schmidt, who worked in Schulpforta , who boasted that he had seen through a few of the tricks, after which there are no more records from contemporaries, and the biography is absorbed in folk legends , in which it is for you Black artist and archmage belongs to staging a spectacular departure from the stage.

"Terra incognita: an epilogue"

The literary scholar and writer Marion Philadelphia sees herself as a German descendant and had the scientific and literary ambition to fathom the history of Jacob Philadelphia. Their research has resulted in the material for a novel, a person provided with biographically precisely ascertainable data could not be identified despite a search of a Pennsylvania population register (death, birth, immigration), which is still preserved in a genealogical archive of the Mormons in Los Angeles. So she sums up and resigns in her epilogue: "At the time it seemed far more important to have arrived on the new continent than to reflect on your old home."

Fonts

It is unclear which of the writings that were printed during Philadelphia's lifetime actually appeared under his (artist) name or with his consent:

  • Jacob Philadelphia, Small treatise strange and approved feats Vienna 1774.
  • Jacob Philadelphia, All Approved Tricks for Enjoyment and Pastime. 1778.
  • Jacob Philadelphia, Dedicated to the famous American Jacob Philadelphia's all approved tricks, for pleasure and pastime. Gera: Rothen, 1783. 3rd ed
  • Jacob Philadelphia, arts and secrets for everyone's amusement. Amsterdam, 1785. also: Wienbrack: Leipzig 1795.

Published posthumously:

  • Theodor Ferdinand Kajetan Arnold; Jacob Philadelphia; Giuseppe Pinetti: Pinetti, Philadelphia and Enslin or the revealed magic powers: a collection of exquisite, easy to perform magic, chemical and card tricks, together with the most interesting heart and pawn games for amusement and entertainment for happy parties. Hamburg, 1808.
  • Jacob Philadelphia; Carl von Eckartshausen; Giuseppe Pinetti; Johann Heinrich Moritz von Poppe ; Johann Christian Wiegleb : New marvelous scene of the arts and interesting phenomena in the field of magic, alchemy, chemistry, physics, secrets and forces of nature, magnetism, sympathy and related sciences / Based on the information of the most famous researchers ... edited by Johann Heinrich Moritz von Poppe ..., Part 5 , Stuttgart: Scheible, 1839.
  • Various strange and approved art pieces from the back. Papers of the famous American Jacob Philadelphia , 1830 SWB
  • Karl Ferdinand Leischner, The natural magic of all times and nations ... tricks from physics, chemistry, optics, mechanics ... to Philadelphia, Bosco, Petorelli and others , Weimar Voigt 1861

Complete directory of German-language literature :

  • Carl Ferdinand Fiedler, Little Philadelphia. a collection of the most selected works of art from magic , Helmstedt 1826
  • The great magician Philadelphia. Scenes from his life . Joachim: Leipzig 1815
  • Philadelphia's Master Magic Cabinet reissued by Philadelphia the Younger. 23rd edition Wenger: Kempten 1886
  • Theodor Philadelphus, phantasmagoria. Or the art of making ghosts appear. For amusing entertainment . Basse: Quedlinburg 1833
  • The Archimagus, or collection of extraordinarily surprising feats that can be for the most part carried out at no cost . Clearly described and published by Philadelphia II. Müller: Nordhausen 1835
  • The Archimagus or the Magicians of the Fire Rock. A ghost novel . Vienna 1819

literature

  • Fritz Heymann , The Chevalier of Geldern. Stories of Jewish adventurers. Jew. Publication at Athenaeum, Königstein / Ts. 1985 (first Querido 1937). Therein: The Archmage Philadelphia , pp. 360–383.
  • Ludwig Geiger : Jacob Philadelphia and Frederick the Great. In: Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. 1907, pp. 85-94.
  • Erich Ebstein: Jacob Philadelphia in his relationships with Goethe, Lichtenberg and Schiller. In: magazine for book lovers. 1911, pp. 22-28.
  • W. Speiser: The Philadelphia's Announcements. A contribution to the history of advertising. In: History sheets for technology and industry. Volume 5 (1918), pp. 303-312.
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: "Avertissement" against Jacob Philadelphia 1777 . Introduction and comments Ulrich Joost . Darmstadt, 2004 (annual edition of the Lichtenberg Society eV; not available in stores)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philadelphus Philadelphia in the Lichtenberg Avertissement, which takes the name from the artist's self-promotion. Philo-Lexicon. Handbook of Jewish Knowledge , 3rd edition Berlin 1936, col. 821: Keyword: "Zauberkünstler, j.": In the 18th century Philadelphus Philadelphia (born as Jakob Meyer)
  2. ↑ According to Wolfgang Promies (1974) and Marion Philadelphia (1999), the year and place of death are unknown
  3. ↑ He is listed as "Meyer, Jakob" at the DNB . There is also a second entry: “Philadelphia, Jacob. American. Juggler, medicus and others Mystic “ DNB
  4. ↑ a b c d Fritz Heymann, Der Chevalier von Geldern , Königstein 1985, pp. 360–383
  5. ↑ Illustration in Marion Philadelphia, Der Gaukler der Könige , Munich 1999, p. 3
  6. ^ Julius Friedrich Sachse: Jacob Philadelphia, Mystic and Physicist . In: Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, XVI (1908), pp. 80 ff.
  7. ^ Julius F. Sachse: The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, 1708-1742 . 2 volumes, Philadelphia 1899-1900.
  8. ↑ Helen Hirsch: Philadelphus Philadelphia, Scientist and Magician . In: The American-German review, XXIV (1957), pp. 34-36.
  9. ↑ Dresden City Archives: 2.1.3-C.XVII.49 Regarding Gottlieb Rüdigern and Jacob Philadelphia, who at the same time showed their tricks and differed from one another., 1773- (archive unit)
  10. ↑ a b Stephan Oettermann [SO], Explanation on the Avertissement, exhibit # 660, in: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742–1799, Risk of Enlightenment. Exhibition catalog, Darmstadt 1992 DNB , p. 314f
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Promies (ed.), Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Writings and letters. Hanser, Munich 1974, pp. 253 ff., And Writings and Letters: Commentary on Volume III. Hanser, Munich 1974, pp. 101-107.
  12. ↑ Lichtenbergs Avertissement on the Lichtenberg Society's website (PDF; 181 kB).
  13. ↑ Marion Philadelphia, The Juggler of the Kings , Munich 1999, p. 379
  14. ↑ on Giuseppe Pinetti see also en: Joseph Pinetti
personal data
SURNAME Philadelphia, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Philadelphia, Philadelphus; Meyer, Jacob (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American magician
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH 1795