The Middle Ages are often imagined as an age of wizards and enchantments. Yet alongside tales of Merlin and spells, medieval entertainers delighted audiences with clever magic tricks—many of them surprisingly similar to the illusions performed today.
The Secretum Philosophorum, written by an anonymous author at the beginning of the fourteenth century, is one of the few books from the Middle Ages that can tell us more about magic tricks from time. As it explains, “there are contained in it certain secrets which, by vulgar opinion, are impossible, but which philosophers consider to be necessary and secrets. Now, contained in this book are the secrets of all the arts.”
While the Secretum Philosophorum might sound very mysterious, its magic tricks range from how to make a soap bubble to creating simple ciphers to disguise your words. It even has a section where he talks about the senses can be deceived, and explains how to do these tricks for fun. Here are thirteen of our favourite medieval magic tricks:
Turning Water into Wine
One of the most impressive tricks described in the medieval text involved making plain water appear to turn into wine. The performer secretly carried pieces of bread soaked in vin râpé—a wine used to restore the colour of faded vintages. When these pieces were dropped into water, the liquid quickly took on the colour and taste of wine, convincing unsuspecting spectators that a miracle had taken place.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes it:
The same can be done in another way, so that the water appears to be turned into wine, and this experiment is used by those conmen who wander about like pilgrims through the whole world; by this experiment many are convinced that God turns their water into wine. For, they take scraps of bread and put them in the wine which is called vin râpé, the wine which those use to colour the wines which have lost their colour. Now, when the scraps of bread have been well soaked in the said vin râpé, they dry them in the sun and carry them with them in their jewellery. And when they come to someone’s house, they say that they eat nothing but bread and water, and they ask for the bread and water, and they break the bread into pieces and put some of the said scraps into the water. And straight away the water takes on the colour and flavour of wine, and so it is thought by many that this is a miracle.
Creating a Burning Mirror
Medieval magicians and experimenters knew how to harness sunlight to create fire. By modifying a mirror and carefully positioning it in the sun, they could concentrate the sun’s rays onto a small point, causing combustible material to ignite—a trick that must have seemed almost magical to onlookers.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the process:
When you want to make a burning mirror, take an ordinary mirror and scrape off the lead from the concave side. Next, take some tin foil and fit it to the size of the mirror, and put it on the convex side of the mirror. But first rub the foil with quicksilver – very carefully, because if it is not carefully rubbed, when it is soaked with quicksilver it tends to tear easily. Having done this, fit it into the mirror. Then put this mirror into a box turning the concavity outwards. In it there will appear an image which is very ugly because of its very large size. Now, when you want to burn with it, hold the mirror against the rays of the sun and put something combustible between the mirror and the sun in the place where the first point appears from the reflection from the sun. And after a short time, you will see the combustible material catch on fire.
Making an Egg Float in Mid-Air
One way to fool the eye was to exploit things too small for spectators to notice. By attaching an egg to a single strand of hair, a performer could make it appear to move by itself or even hang in mid-air, creating the illusion that it was suspended by nothing at all.
The Secretum Philosophorum explains the trick this way:
Sight is often deceived because it cannot perceive something on account of its smallness, as is seen in the tricks of jugglers, for instance: Take a fine hair from a woman’s head. Next, take an egg and empty it through a small hole, and then join the hair to the hole in the egg. Then the egg can be moved around your head by holding the other end of the hair in your hand. And no one will see the hair because of its smallness. And by the said hair you can hang the egg in your house and it will be thought by many to hang from nothing.
Escaping from Ropes
Escaping from bonds has long been a staple of stage magic, and medieval performers had their own method. By secretly hiding a small knife beforehand, they could cut the rope binding their hands behind their backs and make it seem as though they had freed themselves by mysterious means.
According to the Secretum Philosophorum, this is how the trick worked:
And they do another trick, and they free their hands which are tied behind them, and this is how it is done. They take a little knife and they hide it in some corner of the house, under the straw. Next, when their hands have been tied behind them, they go to the place where the knife was hidden and they take it in one hand and cut the cord by which their hands were tied, and they stand close to the wall with their back turned to the wall, and they do this so that their trick cannot be discovered.
Making Cooked Meat Look Raw
Not all medieval magic tricks involved sleight of hand. Some relied on simple but surprising effects. In this case, dried animal blood was turned into a powder and sprinkled over hot cooked meat, where it liquefied and made the dish appear fresh and uncooked.
Here is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the trick:
Take the blood of some young animal and dry it in the sun, and make it into powder. Later, when the meat is cooked and hot, sprinkle onto it some of the said powder, and straight away that powder will liquefy into blood and the meat will appear raw.
Making Meat Seem Infested with Worms
Medieval pranksters had a particularly disgusting trick for ruining a meal. By placing small pieces of lyre string on hot meat, the heat caused them to move and curl, creating the illusion that the dish was crawling with wriggling worms. Fortunately, the text notes that the meat itself was unharmed and could simply be washed before being eaten.
The Secretum Philosophorum gives these instructions:
Take the string of a lyre and cut it into little pieces and keep them. Then, when you want to perform the deed, throw some of the said pieces onto the warm cooked meat, and they will move on the meat and they will look like wriggling worms. Wash the meat and it will not be spoiled at all, and do this with meat which has been made to appear raw.
Conjuring Tiny Towers in a Glass
Medieval tricksters even knew how to create miniature landscapes. By adding partially mixed egg whites to a flask of clear water, strange shapes would form inside, resembling buildings and mountains. To spectators, it might have looked as though an entire city had magically appeared within the vessel.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the effect:
Take the whites of four or five eggs and mix them like glair but not thinly, but so that it is in the middle between egg-white and glair. Next, take a urinal flask and fill it with clear water. Next, pour in some of the aforementioned egg whites, and towers and various pinnacles will appear in the flask.
Making a Coin Magically Appear
This trick relied on the way water bends light. By standing at the right distance, the viewer could not see a coin lying at the bottom of a dish. However, once water was poured into the dish, the light reflected from the coin was bent toward the viewer’s eye, causing the coin to suddenly come into view without being moved. To spectators, it would have seemed as though the coin had magically appeared.
The Secretum Philosophorum describes the experiment as follows:
Another experiment concerning sight. Take a dish and put a coin in it. Then move yourself away from the dish, so that you cannot see the coin in it. Next, let it be filled with clear water and at the distance where earlier you could not see the coin before the water was poured in, now, after the water is poured in you will see it very well, which seems very marvellous.
Setting Someone’s Face Ablaze—Without Harm
Some medieval tricks were designed not to amaze but to terrify. In this case, the performer created the illusion that a person’s face had suddenly burst into flames. According to the author, the effect produced panic rather than injury, making it a dramatic if rather cruel practical joke.
As the Secretum Philosophorum puts it:
When you want to frighten someone. Take some incense and crush it into a fine powder on a piece of marble. And take some of the said powder and hold it in the palm of your hand, and put a candle between your fingers, near the powder, and hurl your hand towards someone’s face as if throwing something so that powder penetrates the candle flame, and his whole face will catch on fire and he will be thought to be burning, although the fire will not hurt him at all.
Making a Cross Turn by Itself
Medieval performers could even make religious objects seem to move of their own accord. Using a wax cross balanced on an oat stalk, they created the illusion that the cross was turning by itself. The author warns that many people would attribute the effect to magic, and even suggests using the trick to convince spectators that it could reveal hidden truths.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the trick:
Take a small oat plant and take its stalk, and make a small cross out of wax, and put the said stalk of the oat plant in the foot of the cross, exceeding the foot of the cross by half a finger so that the thicker part of the stalk is outside. Next, take a ball of wax and make a hole right through it with the point of your pen. Then, moistening the point with saliva so that all of the hole can be filled with saliva, put the stalk of the oat plant which exceeds the foot of the cross into the said hole. And it will be thought by many that this is done by the magical art. Pretend that you know, by means of this experiment, whether someone is a virgin or not, so something else of that type, so that the trick is not discovered.
Writing Secret Messages with Invisible Ink
Not all medieval magic tricks were meant for public performance. Some had practical uses, including the sending of secret messages. By writing with a solution of sal ammoniac, the text would disappear once dry and could only be revealed again by carefully heating the paper.
According to the Secretum Philosophorum, this was the method:
There is another method of writing letters, that cannot be read without the use of fire, and this is how. Take sal ammoniac [ammonium chloride] and mix it with water and write what you want with it on paper. When it dries, nothing will appear to be there. Then make a dot with ink by the part where you have written that it may be a boundary to you [so you can see where the invisible writing is]. When you want to read it, then place the part that is marked by the dot against the fire and when it is very well heated the letters will appear very well. And you may with this method very well send letters to someone secretly.
Revealing Hidden Messages on Your Hand
The same invisible ink technique could also be used for practical jokes. The performer secretly wrote messages on their hand and then pretended to possess supernatural powers. By sprinkling powder over the hidden writing, the words would suddenly appear, convincing unsuspecting companions that the answer had been revealed by magic rather than trickery.
The Secretum Philosophorum suggests the following prank:
Now, by this same method you can joke very well among your companions, and this is it. Write on your hand in various places: ‘NO’ and let it dry; and when you want to do the trick, say that you can know whether somebody is a virgin or not. Do this when you want to do the trick, that is: to know whether they are a virgin sprinkle powder on the place in which you wrote ‘NO’; and make the sign of the cross in powder, and the secret will not be detected. Then remove the excess powder, and there will be written ‘NO’. And this will seem to many to have been done through the magic arts, and because of the sign of the cross. With this, for the same purpose, you may joke among your companions, by writing with the preceding methods.
You can find more medieval magic tricks from the Secretum Philosophorum in English translation from these two articles:
Robert Goulding, ‘Deceiving the Senses in the Thirteenth Century: Trickery and Illusion in the Secretum philosophorum‘ in Magic and the Classical Tradition, edited by Charles Burnett and W.F. Ryan (Warburg Institute, 2006)
Mark Clarke, ‘Writing recipes for non-specialists c.1300: the Anglo-Latin Secretum philosophorum, Glasgow MS Hunterian 110′, in Sources and Serendipity: Testimonies of Artists’ Practice, edited by Erma Hermens and Joyce Townsend (Archetype Publications, 2009)
Bruno Roy, ‘The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions’, in Popular Culture in the Middle Ages, edited by Josie Campbell (Bowling Green University Press, 1986)
Top Image: The Conjurer, by Hieronymus Bosch, created between 1496 and 1520.
The Middle Ages are often imagined as an age of wizards and enchantments. Yet alongside tales of Merlin and spells, medieval entertainers delighted audiences with clever magic tricks—many of them surprisingly similar to the illusions performed today.
The Secretum Philosophorum, written by an anonymous author at the beginning of the fourteenth century, is one of the few books from the Middle Ages that can tell us more about magic tricks from time. As it explains, “there are contained in it certain secrets which, by vulgar opinion, are impossible, but which philosophers consider to be necessary and secrets. Now, contained in this book are the secrets of all the arts.”
While the Secretum Philosophorum might sound very mysterious, its magic tricks range from how to make a soap bubble to creating simple ciphers to disguise your words. It even has a section where he talks about the senses can be deceived, and explains how to do these tricks for fun. Here are thirteen of our favourite medieval magic tricks:
Turning Water into Wine
One of the most impressive tricks described in the medieval text involved making plain water appear to turn into wine. The performer secretly carried pieces of bread soaked in vin râpé—a wine used to restore the colour of faded vintages. When these pieces were dropped into water, the liquid quickly took on the colour and taste of wine, convincing unsuspecting spectators that a miracle had taken place.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes it:
The same can be done in another way, so that the water appears to be turned into wine, and this experiment is used by those conmen who wander about like pilgrims through the whole world; by this experiment many are convinced that God turns their water into wine. For, they take scraps of bread and put them in the wine which is called vin râpé, the wine which those use to colour the wines which have lost their colour. Now, when the scraps of bread have been well soaked in the said vin râpé, they dry them in the sun and carry them with them in their jewellery. And when they come to someone’s house, they say that they eat nothing but bread and water, and they ask for the bread and water, and they break the bread into pieces and put some of the said scraps into the water. And straight away the water takes on the colour and flavour of wine, and so it is thought by many that this is a miracle.
Creating a Burning Mirror
Medieval magicians and experimenters knew how to harness sunlight to create fire. By modifying a mirror and carefully positioning it in the sun, they could concentrate the sun’s rays onto a small point, causing combustible material to ignite—a trick that must have seemed almost magical to onlookers.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the process:
When you want to make a burning mirror, take an ordinary mirror and scrape off the lead from the concave side. Next, take some tin foil and fit it to the size of the mirror, and put it on the convex side of the mirror. But first rub the foil with quicksilver – very carefully, because if it is not carefully rubbed, when it is soaked with quicksilver it tends to tear easily. Having done this, fit it into the mirror. Then put this mirror into a box turning the concavity outwards. In it there will appear an image which is very ugly because of its very large size. Now, when you want to burn with it, hold the mirror against the rays of the sun and put something combustible between the mirror and the sun in the place where the first point appears from the reflection from the sun. And after a short time, you will see the combustible material catch on fire.
Making an Egg Float in Mid-Air
One way to fool the eye was to exploit things too small for spectators to notice. By attaching an egg to a single strand of hair, a performer could make it appear to move by itself or even hang in mid-air, creating the illusion that it was suspended by nothing at all.
The Secretum Philosophorum explains the trick this way:
Sight is often deceived because it cannot perceive something on account of its smallness, as is seen in the tricks of jugglers, for instance: Take a fine hair from a woman’s head. Next, take an egg and empty it through a small hole, and then join the hair to the hole in the egg. Then the egg can be moved around your head by holding the other end of the hair in your hand. And no one will see the hair because of its smallness. And by the said hair you can hang the egg in your house and it will be thought by many to hang from nothing.
Escaping from Ropes
Escaping from bonds has long been a staple of stage magic, and medieval performers had their own method. By secretly hiding a small knife beforehand, they could cut the rope binding their hands behind their backs and make it seem as though they had freed themselves by mysterious means.
According to the Secretum Philosophorum, this is how the trick worked:
And they do another trick, and they free their hands which are tied behind them, and this is how it is done. They take a little knife and they hide it in some corner of the house, under the straw. Next, when their hands have been tied behind them, they go to the place where the knife was hidden and they take it in one hand and cut the cord by which their hands were tied, and they stand close to the wall with their back turned to the wall, and they do this so that their trick cannot be discovered.
Making Cooked Meat Look Raw
Not all medieval magic tricks involved sleight of hand. Some relied on simple but surprising effects. In this case, dried animal blood was turned into a powder and sprinkled over hot cooked meat, where it liquefied and made the dish appear fresh and uncooked.
Here is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the trick:
Take the blood of some young animal and dry it in the sun, and make it into powder. Later, when the meat is cooked and hot, sprinkle onto it some of the said powder, and straight away that powder will liquefy into blood and the meat will appear raw.
Making Meat Seem Infested with Worms
Medieval pranksters had a particularly disgusting trick for ruining a meal. By placing small pieces of lyre string on hot meat, the heat caused them to move and curl, creating the illusion that the dish was crawling with wriggling worms. Fortunately, the text notes that the meat itself was unharmed and could simply be washed before being eaten.
The Secretum Philosophorum gives these instructions:
Take the string of a lyre and cut it into little pieces and keep them. Then, when you want to perform the deed, throw some of the said pieces onto the warm cooked meat, and they will move on the meat and they will look like wriggling worms. Wash the meat and it will not be spoiled at all, and do this with meat which has been made to appear raw.
Conjuring Tiny Towers in a Glass
Medieval tricksters even knew how to create miniature landscapes. By adding partially mixed egg whites to a flask of clear water, strange shapes would form inside, resembling buildings and mountains. To spectators, it might have looked as though an entire city had magically appeared within the vessel.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the effect:
Take the whites of four or five eggs and mix them like glair but not thinly, but so that it is in the middle between egg-white and glair. Next, take a urinal flask and fill it with clear water. Next, pour in some of the aforementioned egg whites, and towers and various pinnacles will appear in the flask.
Making a Coin Magically Appear
This trick relied on the way water bends light. By standing at the right distance, the viewer could not see a coin lying at the bottom of a dish. However, once water was poured into the dish, the light reflected from the coin was bent toward the viewer’s eye, causing the coin to suddenly come into view without being moved. To spectators, it would have seemed as though the coin had magically appeared.
The Secretum Philosophorum describes the experiment as follows:
Another experiment concerning sight. Take a dish and put a coin in it. Then move yourself away from the dish, so that you cannot see the coin in it. Next, let it be filled with clear water and at the distance where earlier you could not see the coin before the water was poured in, now, after the water is poured in you will see it very well, which seems very marvellous.
Setting Someone’s Face Ablaze—Without Harm
Some medieval tricks were designed not to amaze but to terrify. In this case, the performer created the illusion that a person’s face had suddenly burst into flames. According to the author, the effect produced panic rather than injury, making it a dramatic if rather cruel practical joke.
As the Secretum Philosophorum puts it:
When you want to frighten someone. Take some incense and crush it into a fine powder on a piece of marble. And take some of the said powder and hold it in the palm of your hand, and put a candle between your fingers, near the powder, and hurl your hand towards someone’s face as if throwing something so that powder penetrates the candle flame, and his whole face will catch on fire and he will be thought to be burning, although the fire will not hurt him at all.
Making a Cross Turn by Itself
Medieval performers could even make religious objects seem to move of their own accord. Using a wax cross balanced on an oat stalk, they created the illusion that the cross was turning by itself. The author warns that many people would attribute the effect to magic, and even suggests using the trick to convince spectators that it could reveal hidden truths.
This is how the Secretum Philosophorum describes the trick:
Take a small oat plant and take its stalk, and make a small cross out of wax, and put the said stalk of the oat plant in the foot of the cross, exceeding the foot of the cross by half a finger so that the thicker part of the stalk is outside. Next, take a ball of wax and make a hole right through it with the point of your pen. Then, moistening the point with saliva so that all of the hole can be filled with saliva, put the stalk of the oat plant which exceeds the foot of the cross into the said hole. And it will be thought by many that this is done by the magical art. Pretend that you know, by means of this experiment, whether someone is a virgin or not, so something else of that type, so that the trick is not discovered.
Writing Secret Messages with Invisible Ink
Not all medieval magic tricks were meant for public performance. Some had practical uses, including the sending of secret messages. By writing with a solution of sal ammoniac, the text would disappear once dry and could only be revealed again by carefully heating the paper.
According to the Secretum Philosophorum, this was the method:
There is another method of writing letters, that cannot be read without the use of fire, and this is how. Take sal ammoniac [ammonium chloride] and mix it with water and write what you want with it on paper. When it dries, nothing will appear to be there. Then make a dot with ink by the part where you have written that it may be a boundary to you [so you can see where the invisible writing is]. When you want to read it, then place the part that is marked by the dot against the fire and when it is very well heated the letters will appear very well. And you may with this method very well send letters to someone secretly.
Revealing Hidden Messages on Your Hand
The same invisible ink technique could also be used for practical jokes. The performer secretly wrote messages on their hand and then pretended to possess supernatural powers. By sprinkling powder over the hidden writing, the words would suddenly appear, convincing unsuspecting companions that the answer had been revealed by magic rather than trickery.
The Secretum Philosophorum suggests the following prank:
Now, by this same method you can joke very well among your companions, and this is it. Write on your hand in various places: ‘NO’ and let it dry; and when you want to do the trick, say that you can know whether somebody is a virgin or not. Do this when you want to do the trick, that is: to know whether they are a virgin sprinkle powder on the place in which you wrote ‘NO’; and make the sign of the cross in powder, and the secret will not be detected. Then remove the excess powder, and there will be written ‘NO’. And this will seem to many to have been done through the magic arts, and because of the sign of the cross. With this, for the same purpose, you may joke among your companions, by writing with the preceding methods.
You can find more medieval magic tricks from the Secretum Philosophorum in English translation from these two articles:
Robert Goulding, ‘Deceiving the Senses in the Thirteenth Century: Trickery and Illusion in the Secretum philosophorum‘ in Magic and the Classical Tradition, edited by Charles Burnett and W.F. Ryan (Warburg Institute, 2006)
Mark Clarke, ‘Writing recipes for non-specialists c.1300: the Anglo-Latin Secretum philosophorum, Glasgow MS Hunterian 110′, in Sources and Serendipity: Testimonies of Artists’ Practice, edited by Erma Hermens and Joyce Townsend (Archetype Publications, 2009)
Further Readings:
Vanessa da Silva Baptista,”Playing with the Mind: Magic Tricks in Late Medieval Europe,” Open Library of Humanities (2023)
Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Bruno Roy, ‘The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions’, in Popular Culture in the Middle Ages, edited by Josie Campbell (Bowling Green University Press, 1986)
Top Image: The Conjurer, by Hieronymus Bosch, created between 1496 and 1520.
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