We all know by heart Pushkin's lines "My light, mirror, tell me, but report the whole truth" from "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs." As we remember, "the mirror had the property: it can speak skillfully." It would seem that it was a fabulous image, inventions, fables, but everything is not so simple - it turns out that in the past there really were real magic mirrors!
Pan Tvardovsky's mirror
In the 20th century in Poland, an old mirror was found in one of the old churches. There was an inscription on it in Latin, stating that it was a mirror of Pan Tvardovsky, who "used it during his magical activities."
Pan Twardowski is a well-known character in Poland who lived in the 16th century and was engaged in spiritualism and astrology, so the find excited the public.
Scientists began to study the mirror. It turned out that on its surface there are masked images that appear only at a certain angle of illumination and can literally be projected onto the walls, and in an enlarged size. This is how the Polish legends came true. They argued that Pan Tvardovsky could summon the devil. And on the mirror there was just an image of a creature with horns and a tail.
Pan Tvardovsky's mirror
Such "magic mirrors" were once created in great numbers in the East. Historians, for example, are well aware of Chinese mirrors. Back in 1086, the Chinese scientist Shen Gua mentioned in the book "Reflections on the Lake of Dreams" about ancient mirrors, the secret of making which was lost in the 8th century AD (note that in the 11th century we are talking about ancient mirrors).
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Gua wrote: “There are light-transmitting mirrors, on the back of which there are about twenty ancient hieroglyphs that cannot be deciphered. These hieroglyphs appear on the front side and are reflected on the wall of the room where the mirror is located. All mirrors are similar to each other, all are very ancient, and they all let light through."
It is possible that Pan Tvardovsky's mirror was one of such ancient Chinese handicrafts, on which an inscription in Latin was later applied.
The mirror amazed scientists with the quality of the images and the subtlety of their details. Researchers said it closely resembles modern holograms. They argued that the master who created the mirror was well acquainted with the laws of geometric optics.
Even if we assume that this is not an ancient Chinese mirror, but that it was created by Pan Tvardovsky himself, the question still arises - where did such knowledge come from in the 16th century?
Magic mirror of Nostradamus
The next mysterious story about a magic mirror is connected with two, perhaps, the most mysterious personalities of the past - fortunetellers Michel Nostradamus and Count Saint-Germain. There are legends that the count had a huge number of magical things. One of the most amazing among them is the mirror. Looking into it, one could see all the events of the future and find out his own fate, which the count successfully did, earning himself the glory of a sorcerer.
Magic mirror of Nostradamus
According to legend, this mirror once belonged to Nostradamus himself, who thanks to him made his famous, amazing predictions. There is an entry in the diary of Catherine de Medici, which claimed that Nostradamus showed her this mysterious object. “There were pictures of some festivities, fires of fires and streams of blood - it was the night of St. Bartholomew … Then the deathbed appeared - a magnificent, royal … The face of a man, but with female earrings and necklaces - it was Henry III. Then a large shadow appeared in the mirror …
It is not known how the mirror got to Saint-Germain, who looked through it into the future and amazed people with his predictions. It is also unclear where it went later - the traces of Saint-Germain's mirror are lost somewhere in the past.
Kiev legends
It is very curious that according to ancient sources, there was such an amazing mirror in Kievan Rus too! In 1584, the Polish priest Martin Gruneveg visited Kiev, about which he left notes in his diary. He visited the Sophia temple, in which he saw a certain magic mirror-stone.
Here is what Gruneveg writes: “Above the large church doors is a large green stone like a mirror. There is a wonderful legend about him among the people, namely, that in this mirror you can see what was considered secret, and different stories are told about it."
St. Sophia Church in Kiev
Austrian diplomat Erich Lasota also visited Kiev 10 years later. He wrote down his impressions in detail in a diary, which is now kept in the city of Budyshin in Saxony. Among other interesting notes, it contains an entry about the Cathedral of St. Sophia, "which has no equal in terms of its vastness."
Liasota writes literally the following: “Upstairs there is a gallery or choir, whose railings from one column to another consist of solid slabs of bluish stone with transparent carvings. In one of the slabs, directly opposite the main altar, there is a circular opening, about half a cubit in diameter, now filled with lime; they say that a mirror was placed in it, in which by means of witchcraft one could see whatever one thought of, even at a distance of several hundred miles."
As we can see, the mirror has already disappeared somewhere over these 10 years. Liasota also tells the legend about the magic property of the mirror: “But it happened that one of the Kiev princes went to war with the pagans and was absent for a long time; his wife usually looked into this mirror every day, wanting to know what he was doing and how her master was doing. But one day, seeing, by the way, that he was in a love relationship with a captive pagan, she broke the mirror in anger; let, however, the reliability of this story lies with the responsibility of tradition."
This already very much resembles a mirror from Pushkin's fairy tales - who knows, maybe he also heard these legends. Note that this round hole from the mysteriously missing mirror can be seen in St. Sophia Cathedral even now.
High technologies of the past and the future
It is curious that if in the time of Pushkin magic mirrors were a fabulous attribute, then in our time, if you look at it, they are found everywhere. Can an ordinary tablet or phone be considered fabulous, which can be asked any question, including a voice, and it will answer you?
In modern "magic mirrors" we see other countries, we can communicate with our friends living thousands of kilometers away, or even observe other planets.
It is curious that recently British scientists have invented a modern magic mirror that allows you to see the future. At least your own. You can press a button and see how you will look years later.
The display is created using miniature cameras that shoot you in different projections. Then the images are processed and your hypothetical image in the future is created using a special program. However, some will see wrinkled or swollen old people in the mirror, while others will see young and good looking older people.
A mirror in which you can see yourself in the future
The fact is that the magic mirror is equipped with various sensors that collect information about you and your health. And based on this data, the program adds various touches to your portrait, and you can see with your own eyes what your bad or good habits lead to in the future.
The designers of the magic mirror warn that if you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, what you see can shock you, and therefore do not recommend using their inventions for people with a delicate nervous system. But everyone else can admire (or be horrified) looking at how they will look in a couple of decades.
Who knows what other similar inventions will appear in the future. It is quite possible that soon we will have "magic mirrors" that will tell us personally that we are "all blush and whiter", based on comparison with millions of other users, and conduct quite meaningful dialogues with us.
It is quite possible that the mirror broken by the jealous Kiev queen was some kind of similar device, on which it was quite possible to observe your husband on a long hike, or to compare your appearance with other users.
Where did such devices come from in the distant past? It is possible that there were already highly developed civilizations on Earth, in which there were some similar multimedia devices, which were perceived by subsequent generations as magical.
Who knows, maybe something will happen to our world, our technologies will be lost and by a miracle the surviving feral people will perceive the single surviving devices of our time as divine artifacts and decorate their altars with iPhones and iPads …
N. Trubinovskaya