| Welcome | About | Introduction | Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD |
| Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399 | Chapter Three 1400 – 1599 | Chapter Four 1600 – 1649 | Chapter Five 1650 – 1699 |
| Chapter Six 1700 – 1749 | Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799 | Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819 | Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829 |
| Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839 | Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849 | Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859 | Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869 |
| Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879 | Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884 | Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889 | Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894 |
| Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899 | Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema | Chapter Twenty 1911 + | Copyright |
| HOTDOC Internet Archive Channel | HOTDOC X Channel | HOTDOC You Tube Channel |
Period: 1000 AD to 1399 AD
Where we left off with the Landscape, Narrative and Monumental Scrolls of the far East in chapter one, we carry on now in this second chapter starting with the Emakimono ( ็ตตๅทป็ฉ) Picture Scrolls of the 11th century. The Far East gave pre cinema history a kick start after our time in antiquity and the classical era.
Now, we continue through the middle ages.
11 TH Century
EMAKIMONO (็ตตๅทป็ฉ) PICTURE SCROLLS
Emakimono, also shortened to emaki, is a horizontal illustrated narrative type picture scroll like cinema, that originated in Japan between the 11th and 16th centuries. These horizontal scrolls, combine calligraphy and vivid paintings to depict stories, including battles, romance, religious themes, folk tales, and supernatural elements.
They are considered an early precursor to modern manga due to their sequential storytelling.
Emakimono depicted battles, romance, religion, folk tales, and stories of the supernatural just like cinema. It is seen as the origin of modern manga. The handscroll tradition originated in India and was brought to Japan from China.
Emakimono evolved into a distinct Japanese art form during the Heian (794โ1185) and Kamakura (1185โ1333) periods. Made of paper or silk, they typically measure 30โ39 cm in height and 9โ12 metres in length, unrolled from right to left to reveal the story section by section.
The scrolls often alternate between text (kotoba-gaki) and illustrations (e), with styles like onna-e (feminine, courtly themes) and otoko-e (masculine, action-oriented).
The scrolls, which were made of paper or silk, were rolled up and stored using a wooden dowel at the left end. They were then secured with braided silk. Emakimono could be carried, set on shelves, or held in elaborate lacquer-ware until they were viewed.
Emakimono averaged one foot in height and thirty to forty feet in length. A normal story would take one to three scrolls in total. Emaki are read by exposing an arm’s length of scroll at a time, from right to left, in the same way that Japanese is written.
Emakimono averaged 1 foot in height and 30 – 40 feet in length. A normal story would take 1-3 scrolls in total. Emaki are read by exposing an arm’s length of scroll at a time, from right to left, in the same way that Japanese is written.
Famous examples include the Genji Monogatari Emaki (c. 1130), illustrating the Heian-era novel The Tale of Genji, and the Chลjลซ-jinbutsu-giga, a humorous scroll of anthropomorphic animals.
Many surviving emakimono are designated as National Treasures of Japan. They were historically viewed by the aristocracy and clergy, emphasizing their cultural and artistic significance.
Here from Illusions in Motion – Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles by Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, Boston, 2013 available at Google Books, we read more about the Emaki.
The person viewing the scroll would then re-roll it to itโs beginning. Remember rewinding a VHS tape after viewing? Directly below are 4 sections of Cockfighting Emaki handscroll. It shows Chinese boys called karako looking after and transporting their cockfighting birds.
1010 AD
ALHAZEN (IBN AL-HAYTHAM) (965-1038)
Also known as Ibn Al Haitham, this Arabian scholar writes on the observances of the Camera Obscura effect. Particular attention is drawn to the image of the eclipse and the “sickle-like shapes” in his manuscript On the Form of The Eclipse which includes many descriptions and drawings.
As Aristotle did, Alhazen (pictured below right), refers to the clarity of the image when the aperture is smaller.
Alhazen’s most famous work is his seven-volume treatise on optics called Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics).
Pictured is the frontispiece, written from 1011 to 1021.
This diagram depicts Ibn al-Haytham’s observations of the behaviour of light through a pinhole.
In his Book of Optics completed circa 1021, Ibn al-Haytham explained that rays of light travel in straight lines and are distinguished by the body that reflected the rays, and then wrote;
Alhazen described a dark chamber and did several experiments with small Pinholes and light passing through them. This experiment consisted of three candles in a row and seeing the effects on the wall after placing a cut-out between the candles and the wall.
He wrote;
Alhazen also analyzed the rays of sunlight and concluded that they make a conic shape where they meet at the hole, forming another conical shape reverse to the first one from the hole, to the opposite wall in the dark room.
Among those that Alhazen inspired, were Witelo, John Peckham, Roger Bacon, Da Vinci, Renรฉ Descartes, and Johannes Kepler, all of whom I will be talking about in future chapters.
Pictured, the structure of the human eye according to Alhazen from his own hand.
Below, the front page of Opticae Thesaurus, the 1st Latin translation of Alhazen’s Book of Optics (from Arabic by Frederick Risner). The illustration integrates many examples of optical phenomena including perspective, the rainbow, mirrors, and refraction.
Alhazenโs work is significant in the history of optics, photography, and the history of cinematography.
His Book of Optics written in Cairo between 1011 and 1021, used the term Al-Bayt al-Muthlim, translated into English as dark room.
READ Frederick Risnerโs copy of Alhazenโs Opticae Thesaurus, translated from Arabic to Latin at Internet Archive.
1020
AVICENNA (IBN SINA) (980-1037)
Avicenna suggested that light is emitted from the eyes and unites with the luminous air.
Avicenna stated;
โNow it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.โ
While Avicenna was telling us about light and how it acts, over in Britannia, a baby was born who would become Harold II (1020-1066) King of England, until he of course met William of Normandy.
1038 AD
Al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinized as Alhazen; 965โc. 1040) of whom I just recently spoke of, described a working model of the Camera Obscura to observe the time of the eclipse, in his Perspectiva (Book of Optics);
THE MAQฤMฤT
ORIGINATING IN THE TENTH CENTURY
Maqฤmฤt illustrated manuscripts have a distant relationship with the Shadow Play and have been identified as a โprecursor to silhouette animationโ (Pierre Jouvanceau, The Silhouette Film, 2004). These illustrated Maqฤmฤt manuscripts first made an appearance in the tenth century however today, none still exist that are younger than the 13th century.
The Maqฤmฤt is traditionally credited to Badฤซสฟ al-Zamฤn al-Hamadhฤnฤซ (d. 1008). Al-Hamadhฤnฤซโs innovation was expanded by al-แธคarฤซrฤซ of Basra (1054โ1122), whose Maqฤmฤt became a school text. The genre spread into Hebrew literature (e.g. Judah al-แธคariziโs Tahkemoni, 13th c.).
In later centuries, Maqฤmฤt influenced storytelling traditions, and picaresque literature.
Maqฤmฤt is a compilation of brief independent stories intertwined with short metrical poetry. This very primitive pre cinematic art genre was first seen about the tenth century with Arab poet Ibn al-Fฤtiแธฅ Aแธฅmad ibn แธคusaynฤซ, and reached its zenith with al-แธคarฤซrฤซ of Bosra in the late eleventh century.
The literary dramatic and comedic ancestry of the picaresque Maqฤmฤ can be traced back to the Shadow Puppet Theatre of al-Andalus, and across most of the Arabic-speaking world.
– Cambridge University Press: Theatres of Absence, February 2024.
PREFIGURING CINEMATIC COMPOSITION
From the 12th to 15th centuries, Maqฤmฤt were often reproduced in richly illuminated manuscripts. Miniatures depicted key episodesโthe trickster in disguise, crowds reacting, street scenesโgiving readers a quasi-theatrical, visual sense of the narrative.
These illustrations sometimes show dynamic gestures and spatial depth, almost like storyboard panels, which prefigure cinematic composition.
Maqฤmฤt were frequently read aloud in courts or public spaces.
Readers used gestures, intonation, and props to bring characters to life (Japanese Benshi). In some cases, manuscripts included marginal drawings or symbolic markers to cue gestures or comic timing.
The episodic, scene-driven structure of Maqฤmฤt influenced storyboarding techniques in illustrated books, shadow plays, and later narrative illustration.
Some scholars draw a line from Maqฤmฤt miniatures to early sequential art, where visual panels narrate events over timeโconceptually akin to cinema.
While these manuscripts predate the invention of film by centuries, their integration of visual art, narrative structure, and performative elements showcases an early form of multimedia storytelling that influenced later visual traditions
CONNECTIONS TO PHANTASMAGORIA AND STAGE EFFECTS
Although not directly projected, the theatricality of Maqฤmฤtโdisguises, sudden reveals, audience reactionsโmirrors later visual spectacle in lantern shows and Panoramas. Their focus on ephemeral, performative action makes them a textual precursor to narrative projection-based entertainments.
In short: Maqฤmฤt were literary, visual, and performative hybridsโthey werenโt cinema, but they contributed to the storyboarded, illustrated, performative imagination that prefigured cinematic thinking.
VISUAL STORYTELLING IN MAQฤMฤT MANUSCRIPTS
The 1237 Maqฤmฤt al-Harฤซrฤซ manuscript, housed in the Bibliothรจque nationale de France (MS Arabe 5847), is renowned for its intricate miniatures that vividly illustrate the tales of Abลซ Zayd al-Sarลซjฤซ.
These illustrations are not mere decorative elements; they serve as dynamic visual narratives that enhance the storytelling experience. The miniatures often depict scenes with multiple figures engaged in action, showcasing a sense of movement and interaction.
Below are specific, well-known scenes from the 1237 Maqฤmฤt of al-Harฤซrฤซ (BnF Arabe 5847, copied amd illustrated by Yahyฤ ibn Mahmรปd al-Wฤsiแนญฤซ).
For instance, scenes of gatherings or confrontations are portrayed with figures in various poses, suggesting motion and drama. Characters are depicted with exaggerated facial expressions and hand movements, conveying emotions and intentions.
This emphasis on gesture adds a theatrical quality to the illustrations. The use of architectural elements and varying perspectives creates a sense of depth, guiding the viewer’s eye through the scene and enhancing the narrative flow.
Rich colours and intricate details in clothing, architecture, and backgrounds not only beautify the manuscript but also provide cultural and contextual information, enriching the reader’s understanding of the setting.
PRE CINEMATIC ELEMENTS
The Maqฤmฤt manuscripts exhibit several characteristics that prefigure cinematic storytelling: Sequential Imagery: The arrangement of miniatures in a sequence mirrors the progression of scenes in a film, guiding the viewer through the narrative.
Framing and Composition: The careful composition of each scene, with attention to focal points and background details, resembles cinematic framing techniques.
Emphasis on Action: The depiction of dynamic scenes with a focus on movement and interaction anticipates the action-oriented storytelling in cinema. While these manuscripts predate the invention of film by centuries, their integration of visual art, narrative structure, and performative elements showcases an early form of multimedia storytelling that influenced later visual traditions.
PINHOLE IMAGES and PINHOLE TIME
THE GNOMON
I spoke about the Gnomon in chapter one but we need to revisit it because new players in our study come into play. The Chinese Zhoubi Suanjing (ๅจ้ซ็ฎ็ถ) literature (1046 BCโ256 BC) mention perforated Gnomons that cast a Pinhole Image of the sun.
The bright circle can be used to measure the time of day, or project images.
Its discovery was attributed considerably later in Arab and European cultures to Egyptian astronomer and mathematician Ibn Yunus around 1000 AD. The oldest known Gnomon in China is a painted stick discovered at the astronomical site of Taosi about 2300 BC.
Italian astronomer, mathematician and cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli is associated with the 1475 placement of a bronze plate with a round hole in the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, to project an image of the sun on the cathedral’s floor.
With markings on the floor, it tells the exact time of each midday (reportedly to the half-second) as well as the date of the summer solstice.
Italian polymath and geographer Leonardo Ximenes reconstructed the Gnomon according to his new measurements in 1756.
A sundial is specifically for calculating the time of day by tracing the sun’s pinhole image or shadow onto a grid of hour-lines.
These lines may be drawn on a flat surface, horizontal, vertical, or inclined, or on a surface that is curved and has a variety of shapes.
The relationship between a Gnomon and a Pinhole Image is based on light. This illustration shows a Perspective Gnomon by Bernardo Puccini in 1570.
Image Modo di misurar con la vista, Firenze, 1570.
The history of the sundial and the pinhole are identical to each other. The earliest descriptions and examples date from the beginnings of mankind.
Image Jessada Phattaralerphong
It seems time-telling and cinematography were both born of the same optical phenomenon.
In some historical astronomical setups, pinhole-like systems and gnomons were used together. For instance, large pinhole projections in observatories (like darkened rooms with a small aperture) could project the sunโs image, while gnomons outside measured shadows to determine time or solar angles.
The Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner used a pinhole-like setup to project solar images for sunspot observations in the 17th century, complementing gnomon-based measurements.
While a gnomon and a pinhole image are distinct in their mechanisms and purposes, they are related through their use of light projection and geometric principles, often in the context of solar observation or timekeeping. READ a translated-to-English version of the Chinese Zhoubi Suanjing (ๅจ้ซ็ฎ็ถ) [Zhou Shadow Gauge Manual] writings (1046 BCโ256 BC) at Google Books. The translation is by Jean-Claude Martzloff called A History of Chinese Mathematics.
WATCH the passage of the Sun from the largest gnomon in the world; being 90 metres high, and designed to measure the position of the sun in the sky and determine the duration of the solar year, this gnomon is the oldest and most widespread astronomical pinhole instrument in the world.
The language is in Italian, but all images are in English.
1064 โ 1066
THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY
Was the Bayeux Tapestry an early attempt to describe an historical event in cinematic fashion? Was it our first true epic told in embroidered linen and wool instead of celluloid? Or was the Tapestry simply art mirroring life by those who lived it, just like a painting or a sculpture? Was Bishop Odo the first director of a classic tale of a conquering king, and a battle of two nations?
The Bayeux Tapestry is a remarkable medieval artifact, often described as an embroidered cloth rather than a true tapestry, that vividly narrates the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
It contains over 50 scenes with Latin inscriptions, showcasing detailed imagery of battles, ships, and medieval life. Itโs one of the most detailed surviving records of 11th-century life, showing armor, ships, and daily activities.
It’s sequential art style is often compared to modern comic strips.
The Tapestry could also be the world’s first Panorama. At seventy metres (230 feet) long one might think so. Let’s take a look at what the Bayeux Tapestry is and what it does.
First of all, the Tapestry tells the story of William the Conqueror and his successful invasion of England, his battle at Hastings in 1066 and the death of King Harold II who may or may not have promised England to William in an earlier visit to Normandy.
It has a beginning and an end, as well as other players and other plots to the main scenario. It identifies several locations and depicts many animals (202 horses, over 50 dogs, over 500 more creatures), 623 extras, over 40 ships and was created in colour (eight separate shades of wool and yarn were used). It also has a hero and many other main characters in supporting roles. Sounds like something from David Lean.
And what about the linearity of the Tapestry? Like a 70mm strip of Super Panavision linen Technicolor, it unfolds frame by frame into a masterfully woven story of betrayal, war and victory.
Is it then any different than Ben Hur, Lord of the Rings, Dr Zhivago, My Fair Lady or Lawrence of Arabia? Or is it more like the early paintings we find at Altamira or Grotte de Lascaux? Perhaps the Tapestry lies somewhere in the middle.
A Bayeux copy resides at the Museum of Reading in England. It was created in 1885-1886 and can be seen in one, all connected continuous strip at the museum.
Watch medieval historian Dr. Eleanor Janega explain what the Bayeux Tapestry is, from a first time visit to the Bayeux Museum, Bayeux Normandy. This clip taken from Meet the Normans, Series 1, Episode 2, produced by History Hit.
It can also be seen at Best History Documentaries on YT.
The true Bayeux Tapestry is kept in Bayeux, Normandy and was given the description in 1476 of “a very long and narrow hanging on which are embroidered figures and inscriptions comprising a representation of the conquest of England.”
The opening scene is the depiction of Edward The Confessor granting Harold, Earl of Wessex passage to Normandy in the year 1064. Before the trip, Harold travels to Bosham in Sussex to pray. The next scenes of the Tapestry show Harold in feast, the night before the trip.
The Tapestry is a journey, just as a film is a journey, with players, backgrounds, action, love, hate, desire and above all, a blockbuster ending. It is also, as most historians agree, incomplete.
The Tapestry most likely had another section which has been lost in time. The section that is believed to be missing could have contained the glorious ending of William The Conqueror’s coronation, 25 December, 1066. But like so many early moving pictures of the late 19th century, these frames also, have been lost.
It is believed that in 1070 the half-brother of William of England, Bishop Odo, may have been the one to order the embroidery to be made. The Tapestry was likely embroidered in Kent, England.
The last extant scenes of the Tapestry identify William victorious at Hastings. Harold is dead and William will march on to London. The final scene of the Tapestry which is believed to have existed once, may have contained scenes of William on the throne of England, just as Edward was shown to be, in the first.
SEE a full Tapestry animation from Potion Pictures to see exactly what I have been saying about this tapestry being an epic motion picture. It has wonderful sounds effects and a musical score.
This movie of a movie runs 4 minutes 25 seconds. Animation by David Newton.
So well done. Grab your popcorn.
EXPLORE THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY ONLINE
SEE the Bayeaux Tapestry in it’s entirety here at the Bayeaux Museum. You can scroll the image at your own speed by dragging the image left with your mouse or thumb.
UPDATE
GET YOUR TICKETS
BAYEUX TAPESTRY IS COMING TO THE UK
The Bayeux Tapestry was to come to the UK for 2022 but after a four-year restoration period the tapestry is scheduled to arrive this year, with the exhibition opening at the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, British Museum, London in September 2026.
As the Bayeux Museum states regarding the delay; โThe aim of this restoration operation will be to stabilize structural damages on the Bayeux Tapestry such as tears, to carry out precise dusting of the embroidery and above all to limit the tensions weighing today on the medieval linen.โ
Read the full story here at the Medieval Lists.
1088
SHEN KUA (ALSO SHEN KUO) (1035 – 1095)
Shen Kua talks of the Camera Obscura’s inverted image, (the collecting place), burning mirrors and the focal point. In his Meng hsi pi-t’an translated as Dream Creek Essays Shen Kua refers to the inversion of the shadow and goes on to say that when images are reflected in a burning-mirror or concave lens (curves inward), they are inverted.
He talks about the obstruction as the place where the image disappears when reflected in the mirror. As he says, “It is also like the shadows of pagodas seen through the holes in windows” (Meng hsi pi-t’an (Dream Creek Essays), Passage on the Inversion of the Shadow, Shen Kua, 1088).
Waist Drum illustration by Ch’en Yang, 1104, Image Harvard Yenching Institute
Shen Kua presented his concept and understanding of the Mohist’s collecting place. He called it the obstruction or an invisible place.
He wrote how the image seen reflected from a concave lens (curves inward) will disappear between the center of the surface, and the focal point.
Something we now know to be the aperture where the rays of light cross and there is no image at that very point.
Kua attempted to show the waist-drum which I have pictured above, as an analogy of two shadows meeting, forming the invisible, or collecting place where it is the narrowest.
You will understand this experiment below, once you start reading.
This is where the pinhole image gets interesting. Conduct this experiment to see what happens when light rays intersect at the aperture and what happens to the image you use. Visualise as you go;
EXPERIMENT: Use a concave lens or mirror (curves inward). Place a small distinguishable object on the tip of a pin. Choose something that can be distinguished as being right-side and upside-down. Move the pin very close to the centre of the mirror, very slowly, and observe the object’s image. Depending on the size of the mirror, closeness of 1/2 to 3/4 of a centimeter may be required. Slowly pull the object back, keeping the image centrally aligned. Observe the image while pulling back.
OBSERVANCE: Notice that while the image is close-up, its reflection is seen in its upright state. As the image is withdrawn from the surface slowly, there is a point in which the image is not seen on the surface of the lens. This then, is the obstruction, or collecting place that She Kua talked about. His oar in the rowlock. As you pull the image back further, it appears inverted.
CONCLUSION: In understanding this collecting place more fully, consider the burning-glass effect. If the object is held indefinitely at the point of image-loss, and while being out-of-doors on a sunny day, the object likely will become flames or melt. This is because the heat of the sunlight being reflected and concentrated at this point is greatest. This phenomenon however is not restricted to light solely. It can be understood also in the use of micro, and sound waves as in the use of satellite and parabolic dishes.
In explaining his understanding of this 1,400+ year old discovery of the Mohists, Kua used things in the sky such as clouds, birds and kites. He stated factually that if seen in the sky, the shadows of these objects naturally move in the same direction on the ground.
However, when seen through an aperture such as the hole-in-a-window analogy, the object and its shadow/reflection, go in opposite directions.
Needham translated Shen Kua’s Meng Chhi Pi Than (on the inversion of the shadow) as;
“. . . . . The burning-mirror reflects objects so as to form inverted images. This is because there is a focal point in the middle (i.e. between the object and the mirror). The mathematicians call investigations about such things, โKo Shuโ. It is like the pattern made by an oar moved by someone on a boat against a rowlock (as fulcrum). We can see it happening in the following example.
When a bird flies in the air, its shadow moves along the ground in the same direction. But if its image is collected (like a belt being tightened) through a small hole in a window, then the shadow moves in the direction opposite to that of the bird. The bird moves to the east while the shadow moves to the west, and vice versaโฆ.“
Take another exampleโฆ.
“The image of a pagoda, passing through the hole or small window, is inverted after being ‘collected’. This is the same principle as the burning-mirror. Such a mirror has a concave surface, and reflects a finger to give an upright image if the object is very near, but if the finger moves farther and farther away it reaches a point where the image disappears and after that the image appears inverted. Thus the point where the image disappears is like the pinhole of the window. So also the oar is fixed at the rowlock somewhere at its middle part, constituting, when it is moved, a sort of ‘waist’ and the handle of the oar is always in the position inverse to the end (which is in the water).
One can easily see (under the proper conditions) that when one moves one’s hand upwards the image moves downwards, and vice versa. [Since the surface of the burning-mirror is concave, when it faces the sun it collects all the light and brings it to a point one or two inches away from the mirror’s surface, as small as a hempseed. It is when things are at this point that they catch fire. This is indeed the place where the ‘waist’ is smallest.] “
– Joseph Needham,, Physics, Part IV, G (optics), 4.Camera Obscura, pp97,99 Science and Civilization in China
Below p97 and p98 of Needhamโs translation.
Kua’s Dream Creek Essays have also been called a Brook or Pool essays. His estate where he lived in Ching-k’ou, China he named Dream Creek. He has been referred to as “the Leonardo of China.”
12TH CENTURY
STAINED GLASS AS A PRE CURSOR TO CINEMA?
Even with the sun as a natural lamphouse, and a robust suggestion of sequential imagery, I am still left wondering if stained glass beginning in the 12th century, is a precursor to cinema.
storytelling without movement is a book
I suppose it was only a matter of time before stained glass would enter a discussion on whether it belonged in the history of pre cinema. However, in 35 years I havenโt thought once about it. And then one day I stumbled upon Jerome Hilerโs Cinema Before 1300.
Hiler is without doubt the flag bearer in the parade of those who orate stained glass as the medieval Holy Grail of cinema. His docufilm Cinema Before 1300 is a beautiful testimony to the art of stained glass windows that began to adorn the cathedrals of Europe in the 12th century.
Pictured is Canterbury Cathedral.
Hiler is without doubt the flag bearer in the parade of those who orate stained glass as the medieval Holy Grail of cinema
After viewing his one hour and 39 minute argument, I put to you, where is the motion? Where is the movement?
There is definitely a suggestion of storytelling.
But storytelling without movement is a book.
Not one author of pre cinema that I have read has ever included stained glass, not one. Not one historian and not one researcher. I do believe however that stained glass is the most vibrant and naturally projected art imagery the world has ever seen.
But is it pre cinema? Pictured is Notre Dame de Chartres Cathedral.
Unfortunately, unlike Werner Herzog and his Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), Hiler does not try very hard to sell me on the link he sees, that joins stained glass with cinema. Ninety-eight percent of Cinema Before 1300 is about the art only.
Pictured is Notre Dame Cathedral.
All across France, Germany England and Spain, great cathedrals were actually designed for the sole purpose of displaying giant windows that would tell stories through natural light projection.
But not motion.
Cinema Before 1300 has nothing to say in that regard.
Hiler goes as far as to say the stained glass windows we see in the great cathedrals of Europe were โthe first mass media.โ And these same cathedrals in France and the UK today remain among the last storehouses of this now lost luminary art and craft;
CINEMAโS FIRST FULLY CGI CHARACTERโS RELATIONSHIP WITH STAINED GLASS
Barry Levinsonโs Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) features the character of a knight made out of a stained glass window, which Lucas Film Graphics Group (later Pixar) created.
As Far Out Magazine states;
From an undated Artland Magazine article, British artist Brian Clarke in collaborating with architect Norman Foster created a vast stained glass wall for the Al Faisaliah Centreโs skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and describes the project as;
The Museum of Modern Art calls stained glass a โlight-based projective art.โ I like that. Jerome Hiler says โDarkness is the sacred setting that film and stained glass share.โ I like that too.
I kept waiting, watching the docufilm, hoping to be convinced. It never arrived.
I am not sure if Iโve convinced you of my doubts, or whether Iโve convinced you of believing stained glass does indeed belong to pre cinema. Or perhaps you are still on the fence with me. Pictured is York Minster Cathedral.
I have given space and time to this topic mostly thanks to my sources who all show great faithfulness in their belief that stained glass is a precursor to cinema and I respect that. I also wanted to be fair. Iโm sure some out there donโt agree with everything I include as pre cinema.
โDarkness is the sacred setting that film and stained glass shareโ
Medieval stained glass for me however, remains storytelling without motion. A big beautiful illuminated book. Still, I do want to give special thanks to Amy Sloper at Harvard Universityโs Film Archive for her help and for access to Jerome Hilerโs Cinema Before 1300.
MY CONCLUSION SO FAR
Stained-glass art can be viewed as a conceptual forerunner to film, albeit the link is more philosophical than technological. Both mediums use light and colour to express stories or elicit emotions, typically inside a framed or delimited space.
Stained-glass, particularly in medieval churches, conveyed story lines through colourful imagery and sequential panels, similar to early film storyboards or sequential art.
The interaction of light with glass produced a dynamic, almost “projected” sensation for viewers, similar to light flowing through film in a projector. However, stained glass lacks the motion and temporal control required for film.
It is immobile, relying on natural light and viewer movement, whereas cinema controls tempo and perspective through mechanical projection and editing.
So, while stained-glass shares aesthetic and narrative DNA with film, it is a visual storytelling ancestor rather than a direct technological precursor.
1175
AVERROES (IBN RUSCHD) (1126 – 1198)
This Arab philosopher studies eye movement and vision, and comments on Aristotle’s view of perspective and rays of light.
Image Monfredo de Monte Imperiali’s Liber de herbis, from the 14th century. How he thought a debate with Porphyry would look.
He also agreed with the Alhazenโs explanation regarding rainbows and whether they are due to reflection, or refraction. Averroes and Alhazen were both wrong in believing rainbows were a result of reflection.
Animation Patrick Feaster
12TH CENTURY
We return to Persia, a major player in ancient pre cinema history with yet another bowl showing a galloping horseman when turned into a Phenakistiscope or Dadaeleum.
Unearthed in Northern Iran, it has the name Bowl with Courtly and Astrological Motifs.
“Ancient pottery so often has implied movement”
– Dr Sonya Nevin, Assistant Professor University of Warsaw and Supervisor at University of Cambridge Education Faculty
Intended to portray a motion sequence in phases, this bowl passes as an animation of a Persian horseman at full gallop. The artist whoever he or she was, created ten images in all, with the horseโs legs each in proper but different positions, pleasing Muybridge Iโm sure.
Images Patrick Feaster
1215
EXPLORING OPTICS
ROBERT GROSSETESTE (1168-1253)
Grosseteste, also known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was a highly influential English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, and scientist. He served as the Bishop of Lincoln from 1235 until his death.
This contemporary of Roger Bacon used plano convex lenses. He became Chancellor of Oxford University in 1215. Grosseteste dabble in geometry, pre cinema optics, and astronomy. Grosseteste was one of the most learned men of the Middle Ages.
He was proficient in law, medicine, languages (including Greek and Hebrew), and the natural sciences. He held positions at the University of Oxford, possibly as its first Chancellor, and later lectured in theology to the Franciscans there, profoundly influencing them.
Grosseteste was a significant figure in the history of science. He worked on geometry, optics, and astronomy, and is particularly noted for his “metaphysics of light,” which considered light as the fundamental creative force in the universe.
He experimented with mirrors and lenses and emphasized the importance of experimentation to verify theories. He also translated numerous Greek and Arabic scientific writings into Latin, introducing new knowledge to Western Europe. In optics, he experimented with mirrors and with lenses.
He believed that experimentation must be used to verify a theory by testing its consequences. In his work De Iride he wrote;
“This part of optics, when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long distance off appear as if placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances, or to count sand, or seed, or any sort of minute objects.โ
THE GROSSETESTE SPHERICAL LENS
Grosseteste’s work had a lasting impact, inspiring later scholars like Roger Bacon and influencing the development of scientific thought in 14th-century Britain. While some earlier claims about him being the “father of Western experimental science” have been debated, his emphasis on observation and logical reasoning laid important groundwork for future scientific inquiry.
This diagram of a water-filled spherical lens shows light being refracted. Itโs from Roger Bacon’s De multiplicatione specierum.
The image is taken from A. C. Crombieโs Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, and is identified as Figure 2.
The quotation accompanying it reads: “Diagram illustrating Grosseteste’s theory of the focusing of the sun’s rays by a spherical lens, from Roger Bacon’s Opus Maius.“
Crombie describes Grossetesteโs water-filled spherical lens diagram as;
12TH CENTURY
CHOJU JINBUTSU GIGA SCROLLS
The first scrolls we see of the Chouju Jinbutsu Giga (้ณฅ็ฃไบบ็ฉๆฏ็ป) appear in the 12th century. Meaning Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, they clearly depict motion in story-telling.
The Chouju Jinbutsu Giga mock our human foibles by portraying anthropomorphized animals in vivid ink monochrome brushwork, in a horizontal, widescreen, cinematic form.
Here from Illusions in Motion – Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles by Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, Boston, p32 in 2013 is Professor Huhtamo referencing picture scrolls.
12th-century scrolls are a blend of action, pauses in plot, expressing numerous movements, tension in characters, suspense, thunderous action, and quiet intrigue just like film noir
Sometimes shortened to just Chj Giga, these linear monochrome paintings are a collection of four picture scrolls, or emakimono, that belong to the Japans Kลzan-ji temple in Kyoto.
These late-12th-century scrolls are a blend of action, pauses in plot, expressing numerous movements, tension in characters, suspense, thunderous action, and quiet intrigue just like a movie or should we say anime.
Chouju Jinbutsu Giga is credited as the oldest work of manga. Japanese manga are the earliest form of comic books or graphic novels.
The scrolls are housed at the Kyoto National Museum and Tokyo National Museums.
SCROLL ONE
Below are scenes one to four inclusive, from Chouju Jinbutsu Giga portraying;
๐๏ธ animals bathing and swimming
๐๏ธ rabbits and frogs shooting arrows
๐๏ธ a preparation for a feast
๐๏ธ a pilgrimage and a robbery
Scenes five and six, from Chouju Jinbutsu Giga representing;
๐๏ธ sumo-wrestling rabbits
๐๏ธ a memorial service and an offering to a priest
SEE THE SCROLLS JUST POSTED COME TO LIFE
A beautifully narrated video on Chouju Jinbutsu Giga Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, produced by Fuh-mi Calligraphy highlighting Scroll One. Grab your popcorn.
Chouju-jinbutsu-giga – Facsimile Editions and Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. The Choju-jinbutsu-giga, literally Animal-person caricatures, is an outstanding collection of four scrolls from 12th and 13th-century Japan, and a fine example of art from the Fujiwara period.
12TH CENTURY
CHIANG KHUEI (- ) FANG CHHENG ( – )
Further examples of illumination and movement are mentioned in the Meng Liang Lu written by the Chinese scholars Chiang Khuei and Fang Chheng during the Sung dynasty.
In poetic form they describe;
“how the horses prance around after the lamp is lit.“
Similar entries tell
“how the smoke gives life and spirit to the figures in the โlanthornโ where they seem to walk, turn, ascend and descend“
Clearly, motion is represented when it describes horses “running”, vessels “sailing,” and armies “marching.” These celebrated incidents in Chinese culture are referred to by both Hangchow (1275 AD) who also talks of the “flying dragons,” and Gabriel Magalhaens (c.1650).
Also known as the revolving lantern, the use of heat convection to drive the impeller to rotate the images inside these lanthorns is the driving principle behind them.
Heat causes movement and flame causes illumination.
We still see heat convection used in late 19th century pre cinema optical toys.
The Zou Ma Deng Lantern is one of the most innovative, with a shaft inside the body of the lantern, fitted with paper vanes. The flames create a current of heat that rotates the shaft and sets a paper cut-out, usually a paper horse or dragon into motion from the convection.
A schematic-style illustration of the Zou Ma Deng Chinese Revolving Lantern.
Convection in primitive motion entertainment in its simplest form.
This could be the Prancing Horse talked of by Chiang Khuei and Fang Chheng.
A candle is lit in the lamp, and the heat generated by the candle creates an air flow that causes the wheel to rotate.
There are paper-cuts on the wheels usually, and the shadow of the paper-cuts is projected on the screen by candlelight, and the image moves continuously.
Around 1000 AD, the revolving lanterns based on the Panjia lanterns of the Qin and Han Dynasties appeared, and the turning Heron lanterns of the Tang Dynasty.
Beijing style lanterns (an example pictured to the left) were originally decorations for royal palaces.
The skeleton is made of wood and covered with cloth and later, glass.
Some more refined versions of this are made of rosewood and patterned silk.
Another simplistic example of convection in primitive motion entertainment is the simple flame, seen below. This example shows how amusement can be obtained in this manner. As the flame moves in a current of air, so does the tree. Shorter than one reel, and silent.
The Suzhou style lanterns have simpler raw materials than the Beijing lanterns and have imagery such as birds, flowers, fish and here, humans.
They are surely the most sophisticated and complex in terms of handicraft and convection in primitive motion entertainment.
There is a flat impeller on the revolving lantern, and a candle or lamp under it.
The rising heat drives the impeller to rotate. This is the same application of the working principle for the modern gas turbines.
While pre cinema apparatuses flourished in Europe, partly or entirely based on those brought back by the Jesuits and others engaged in China, an expanded vocabulary for, and dialog of, optical phenomena developed in China. This discussion included a more in-depth inspection of shadows and specular imagery.
Moreover, the depiction of transitory optical phenomena such as ascending lanterns, and the use of glass plates as a medium, transmuted viewpoints of perceptibility in everyday life.
At the same time, homegrown optical media contingent on a portable gaze and binocular vision (like the Zoetropic lanterns and Magic Mirrors) continued to mingle throughout China, parallel with devices like Peep Boxes that instead were reliant on the Chinese acclimatisation of introduced concepts of fixed gaze and monocular vision.
While in China optical media, connected to old-style optics and methods of vision, became an indicator of China’s lack of progress while in Europe, due in part to changing epistemologies of vision grounded in advances in scientific data of the function of the eye and brain, and strategies of representation that accounted more accurately for the binocularity of vision, these same media served as markers of modernity.
In China for example, light-transmitting mirrors or light-penetrating mirrors like the Magic Mirrors the West calls them, continued to mix within the culture but were no longer extraordinary, while at the same time in Europe they were wonderfully new and exciting.
12TH CENTURY
BENGAL SCROLL PAINTING
Patachitra is a distinct folk tradition of sequential picture storytelling accompanied by songs which originated in the 1100โs. Patachitra’s stories are painted just like frames in a film, on large scrolls, which the Patuas as they are called, gradually unravel while telling the story. Remember the Benshi?
This sequential imagery in scroll format comes predominantly from West Bengal, India and has many names; Patua scroll painting; Patachitra / Pattachitra scrolls. They are even produced today.
The word Pata comes from the Sanskrit word Patta, meaning cloth and Chitra refers to painting. The songs are known as Pater Gaan.
Bengal Scroll Painting: An Early Interpretation of Animation (2021) by Ananda Karmakar and Dr. Ravindra Singh is an investigation of Bengal Scroll Paintings and they have concluded that โBengal scroll painting is an early interpretation of animation and it has all attributions that early animation hasโ (1399 abstract).
Their study revealled a secret about Bengal Scroll Painting by looking closely at the frames or drawings of the Pattachitra, and then focusing on early animation of the late 19th and early 20th century animators and their method. Karmakar and Dr. Singhโs deduction was a positive one.
As Doctor Singh states, the objective of their study was;
Animating drawings in succession offers the illusion of movement; and this is the utmost principle of animatronics. In their research Karmakar and Singh compared the findings of Mark Azema who believes Paleolithic humans invented sequential animation by overlapping animal images; the sequential images of the Burnt City Bowl; the sequential drawings of Egyptian wrestlers and others.
Pictured from an unknown artist, a Bengal Scroll Painting, and its sequential storytelling imagery.
A key parallel to true animation is that the scroll movement reveals discrete scenes one after the other, akin to frames in animation.
Unlike modern animation, Bengal scrolls do not create in-between motion but rather emulate motion through sequence, music, and narration, much like a static storyboard animated by performance.
While there’s no direct link between Bengal scrolls and any 19th century animation devices, their conceptual DNA; that art can move through sequencing and performance, prefigures animation logic.
Some scholars argue that these folk traditions are an embodied form of proto cinema, especially when viewed in the context of performance-based image media globally (like Japanese emaki or European Moving Panoramas).
“Animation can explain everything the mind of man can imagine.”
–Walt Disney
12TH CENTURY
GIANT CAMERA OBSCURAS AROUND THE WORLD
The first Camera Obscuras were the size of rooms. They still can be today. I have several entries of large room size Cameras all over the world, and this one is located in the Rocca San Vitale di Fontanellato in northern Italy and is one of the most beautiful castles of the Duchy of Parma.
It houses the Castle of Fontanellato and a fantastical Optical Chamber.
All images from the public domain
Two systems of mirrors and a prism make it more a Camera Ottica than a true Camera Obscura. However, placed in one of the three round corner towers at the end of the 19th century, the Optical Chamber was created as โa futuristic social game.โ
Back in the 12th century this was a typical medieval social sitting room.
From inside this pitch-black 12th century room, through the mirrors, the image of the courtyard across the mote is naturally projected onto a curved white surface. In short, a 12th century video surveillance system.
Built from 1123 on, the Castle of Fontanellato was the residence of the counts of San Vitale until Giovanni gave it to Parma in 1951. This Optical Chamber is the only one preserved in Italy.
And in true castle fashion, to see this camera, you will have to cross over the mote.
Chapter twenty contains many or most of these giant Camera Obscuras from around the world. Jump ahead but don’t forget to return here.
Is this some old King from the past below, putting on a 33 1/3 LP?
No.
Well, it is a King. Itโs Solomon measuring the heavens with the help of an Astrolabe. From the Capuchin Bible, 1170-1180, in the National Library of France.
And what does this have to do with pre cinema history. Absolutely nothing.
12TH CENTURY
JAPANESE ART IN MOTION โ THE NARRATIVE HANDSCROLLS
As The Metropolitan Museum of Art puts it, โJapan has always storyboarded its visual culture.โ And that is what we find in the Japanese Narrative Handscroll. As in all of the Oriental scrolls we see, no mater what kind, movement, and motion are purposely implied.
One example seen directly above is a portion of The Tale of the Monkeys from c. AD 1200 with the artist providing a storyboard of animals carrying on as humans in a river setting (right). Also known as Illustrated Handscrolls, these Japanese visual narratives are to be read from the top downward and from right to left.
Japanese visual culture is manifested in deep traditions that have a long pre history in early Japanese art far preceding just the late 19th century. The Manga that we see today and even in the 19th century of comics or graphic novels originated from Japan.
Like the Bayeux Tapestry, the Monumental Landscape Paintings or Narrative Scrolls of Japan or the Chinese Landscape Scrolls, Japanese Narrative Handscrolls are a visual and moving art form which have been practiced for centuries.
These handscrolls unite storytelling with motion and bring into our minds a cinematic strip full of life and visual movement. These panoramic Japanese painted scrolls express movement in two dimensions.
Handscrolls are long and typically narrow as well as horizontally formatted scrolls which can include calligraphy along with the painted story. They usually measure up to several metres in length and approximately 25 to 40 cm in height.
Handscrolls are generally viewed starting from the right end and viewed or read leftward. Some Japanese Handscrolls are meant to be read laying flat on a table. This allows for the story to be told in a continuous narrative journey.
Japanese Narrative Handscrolls are believed to have first been seen in India c. 4th century BC before entering China c. 1st century BC. They came to Japan centuries later being seen from the 10th century on.
Below, the handscroll called Mลko shลซrai ekotoba.
Mลko shลซrai ekotoba like a strip of celluloid depicts Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281. These Japanese visual narratives usually measure up to several metres in length and approximately 9.8 to 15.75 inches in height.
The Japanese word Emakimono translated ็ตตๅทป็ฉ, and pronounced โemaki-mono,” is meant in a literal sense, picture scroll. Emakimono combine both text and image in telling a narrative and have been called;
an almost cinematic experience as the viewer scrolls through a narrative from right to left, rolling out one segment with his left hand as he re-rolls the right-hand portion
SEE the full-length Japanese Narrative Handscroll called The Miraculous Origin of Hachiman in the style of Sumiyoshi Jokei, Japanese (Sumiyoshi 1599-1690). Over eighty feet in length in two scrolls housed at Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts.
When you arrive at the scroll HERE, use your mouse or thumb to drag the scroll across from the left side to the right. This will cause the scroll to move in the proper direction.
N.B. Notice that this scroll, just like silent films from the 1890s right up to the sound era, has written dialogue inter-titles in-between the visual sections of the scroll.
Taken from Illusions in Motion – Media Archaeology of The Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles by Erkki Huhtamo, MIT Press, Boston, 2013 available at Google Books.
The Miraculous Origin of Hachiman (Sumiyoshi 1599-1690) is an opaque watercolour, ink, and gold leaf on paper, mounted on cloth assembled into a scroll. Its actual length is 12 7/8 inches x 42 ยพ feet.
MOTION PICTURES BEFORE THEIR TIME
Although films wouldnโt appear until the late 19th century, they were approximated nearly 2500 years before in the form of Oriental Handscrolls.
SEE Spring Morning in the Han Palace here, incorporating an immersive learning environment that restructures this pre cinema Chinese Narrative Handscroll using a head-mounted virtual reality platform. Produced and presented by Min Fan @michellefanfan2810 at You Tube.
Chinese curiosity in some matters of physics, namely optics, waned drastically during the 13th century and this continued for three centuries.
13TH CENTURY – MOVING BOOKS AND THE EMERGENCE OF VOLVELLES
RAMON LLULL (1232 – 1316)
Late in the 13th Century we see examples of pop-up and movable, or moving books. One early example is that of Ramon Llull of whom I will talk more about later along with many other examples.
Llull was a Catalan mystic and a poet, who used Revolving Disks and Volvelles to illustrate his religious and scholarly theories. These mechanical books were seen rarely before Llull’s time, however it was Ramon Llull who catapulted their popularity so that by the 16th century they had become a very popular form of both educational and moving entertainment.
By the 18th century we see pop-ups and movables appearing in children’s books and entertainment books in North America. One example of this is directly below– a Volvelle of a working lunar clock.
Revolving Disks and Volvelles allowed perspective and illusion thereby giving a sense of motion in story-telling. Today we see pop-up books mostly, with limitations in motion through the use of flaps which open to show a scene, character or background.
In his later years Llull lived in Genoa and was martyred at Bougie for his religious beliefs.
To see a fine selection of Volvelles, Pop-up Books and even some writing automatons by visiting the website of Robert Sabuda.
1267
ROGER BACON (1214 – 1294)
This proponent of medieval science writes in his treatise De Multiplicatione Specierum (Book II, ch.viii) and in Perspectiva, the principle of the Camera Obscura. He talks of observing the view outside of a darkroom, and eclipses by way of a ray of light passing through an aperture and projecting itself.
Bacon speaks of the Camera Obscura effect but does not describe the apparatus.
His most important mathematical contribution is the application of geometry to optics. Bacon followed Grosseteste in emphasizing the use of a lens for magnification to aid natural vision.
Bacon is documenting as having said;
“Great things can be performed by refracted vision. If the letters of a book, or any minute object, be viewed through a lesser segment of a sphere of glass or crystal, whose plane is laid upon them, they will appear far better and larger.”
Bacon examines eyesight and the anatomy of the eye in Part V of his Opus Majusโ (1267), as well as light, reflected vision, refraction, mirrors, and lenses. He makes reference to the works of Ptolemy, Grosseteste and Alhazen.
This illustration directly below and on the left, was drawn by Roger Bacon in the 13th century.
An almost identical image of this three-level tower Camera Obscura is found in Athanasius Kircher’s 1646 Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae on page 130.
Almost 400 years after Bacon. Kircher does not reference Bacon.
Directly above. Left is a 19th-century etching of Roger Bacon, by J. Nasmyth from 1845. Right is another 19th-century engraving of Bacon, this by Jan Verhas in 1867.
1275
ALBERTUS MAGNUS (1193 – 1280)
Also known as Count Albert Von Bollstadt, this Dominican scholar and mentor of Thomas Aquinas, studies the rainbow effect of light and says its velocity is finite, but great.
He also studies the action of silver nitrate under sunlight five hundred and fifty-one years before photography.
1275
HONOURABLE MENTION
JEAN DE MEUN (1240โ1305)
Jean de Meun was the continuator of Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose), a sprawling and illuminated allegory begun by Guillaume de Lorris around 1230.
In it, there are poetic passages describing mirrors, including concave ones, that โproduce projectionsโ or magnifications.
For example, thereโs mention of making images โappear outside the mirror,โ and โimages of things not in sight.โ
Among Jeanโs digressions is a famous section on mirrors. He was drawing on the Latin perspectiva tradition of Alhazen, Roger Bacon and Witelo, which was circulating in France by mid-13th century. In this section on optics, he describes mirrors that can make images appear outside themselves.
This alludes to the way a concave mirror forms a real image in space like something an observer can see โhanging in the airโ as Della Porta put it.
Jean de Meun notes mirrors that magnify or diminish objects, depending on their curvature. That matches the standard medieval knowledge of convex vs. concave forms.
He refers to images of things not present to sight which is a nod both to projection effects (the mirror creating an image outside itself) and to the long tradition of mirrors associated with โmarvelsโ (catoptric illusions, magical oracles, etcetera).
In short, the same phenomena that later 17th century natural philosophers would harness for telescopes, microscopes, and projection devices, were already present in the medieval imagination, described in both technical and literary contexts.
The specific passages are in the section where Jean de Meun has nature and genius speaking on knowledge and wonders of the natural world. Modern editors note the direct borrowing from Roger Baconโs Opus Majus and Witeloโs Perspectiva.
Jean renders these ideas into French, so the effect is striking as a courtly poem suddenly cataloguing optical illusions.
In these lines, Jean de Meun vividly describes the optical effects achievable with mirrors, particularly concave ones. The mention of โimages appearing straight, oblong, or upside downโ indicates an understanding of how concave mirrors can invert and distort reflections based on the viewer’s position relative to the mirror.
The ability to make “phantoms appear” alive, โin the water, or in the air,โ suggests an awareness of how concave mirrors can project real images into space, a phenomenon not fully understood until centuries later.
The reference to โvarying the angleโ to make phantoms quiver between the eye and the mirror demonstrates an early grasp of how manipulating angles can affect the perception of reflected images. Something Cinematographers do today on a regular basis.
Pictured are two pages from the Guillaume de Lorris / Jean de Meun illuminated manuscript Le Roman de la Rose began in 1230.
These descriptions align with the principles of catoptrics (the study of mirrors and reflections) and suggest that, by the late 13th century, there was a sophisticated understanding of optical phenomena in medieval Europe.
c. 1277
ERAZMUS CIOLEK WITELO, (also WITECK or VITELLIONIS) [1230-1280, with one source saying he lived to 1314]
A physicist of polish origin who also went by the name of Thuringopolonus, notes in a manuscript on optics that “all light passing through angular apertures is projected in a circular form.โ
Perspectiva was a massive synthesis of Greek and Latin optics (drawing especially from Alhazen [Ibn al-Haytham]). He sometimes signed as Thuringopolonus (the Pole from Thuringia). This quote comes from his treatment of how images are formed when light passes through openings.
This is directly in line with Alhazenโs discussions of the camera obscura principle. In Perspectiva, Witelo adopts Alhazenโs geometrical analysis: light rays travel rectilinearly; when restricted by a small aperture, they cross and form an inverted image.
Witelo describes perforations or angular apertures and observes the outcome (circular spots of light even if the hole is not circular). This corresponds to the pinhole projection effect (what we now call the Airy disk phenomenon in diffraction, but in medieval terms it was understood geometrically).
However, he does not explicitly describe using a Camera Obscura chamber to project full images, the way Alhazen did in his account of solar eclipses. Instead, Witeloโs note is more general: that the shape of the aperture is lost, and the projection tends toward a circle, a phenomenon observable in everyday pinhole effects (e.g. sunlight through leaves).
This phenomenon (remember the crescent-shaped image seen through the pinhole during an eclipse) once documented by Aristotle, is now over sixteen hundred years old in 1277 and still unexplained. Witelo was the first to describe the aberrations in lenses and concave mirrors.
The MPIWG (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) Berlin study further elaborates: Witelo, along with John Pecham, tackled the problem of โround images of circular bodies projected through angular apertures.โ
Witelo is describing the geometric principle: rays of light passing through such apertures produce circular spots of light inside a darkened space or on a surface. This is exactly what happens with pinhole projections, light strictly following straight-line paths, forming circular images, regardless of the apertureโs shape.
George Leonard Huxley in his book Anthemius of Tralles, A Study in Later Greek Geometry (Cambridge Massachusetts, printed by Eaton Press, Watertown, 1959) tells us of Witelo’s background on p39;
Witelo wrote Perspectiva in 1274. It was translated into English as Thesaurus of Optics in 1572.
It was considered the principal book on optics until the 17th century.
1279
JOHN PECKHAM (1228-1291)
A physics scholar, Peckham details in his Perspectivae Communis Libri, the image of the eclipsed sun through any hole into a darkened place. Below, the effigy of Peckham on his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. I have never seen any kind of image rendering Peckham’s likeness.
John Peckham was guided by the works of Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon’s views on the value of experimental science.
Bacon’s influence can be seen in Peckham’s works on optics. Perspectivae Communis Libri frontispiece seen here on the left, published posthumously 1592-3.
Johannes Peckham, an Anglican Theologian, studied astronomy and optics.
On our right is a photograph taken by Science Source of a Peckham illustration he made in 1279 possibly by the church, and then colourised somewhere along the way.
READ Johannes Peckhamโs Perspectivae Communis Libri, published in 1592-3 after his death here @Google Books.
1285
GUILLAUME DE SAINT-CLOUD (1201-1299)
Guillaume de Saint-Cloud, who flourished around 1290, is a somewhat enigmatic figure. He was a French scholar and philosopher, best known for his work in optics, particularly in the area of the Camera Obscura and light phenomena.
He was among the early figures who attempted to articulate the physics of reflected light and image projection, which helped lay the groundwork for later developments in optical devices that would contribute to the evolution of pre cinema knowledge.
A proponent of the Camera Obscura, Saint-Cloud references it when mentioning an eclipse of 4 June 1285. He explained the use of the camera for viewing the sun. Some scholars believe his studies were part of the intellectual shift in the late Middle Ages that sought to explain and manipulate light in ways that anticipated later Renaissance advancement of the Magic Lantern.
Saint-Cloud writes in his Almanac the impairment of the eyes if the eclipse on 4 June 1285 is viewed for too long. In some cases, spectators complained of near blindness for several days, others for hours.
There are no extensive surviving works attributed directly to him, and much of what is known about him comes from secondary sources or mentions by later scholars. Additionally, he is credited with an almanac prepared for Eleanor of Castile, queen of England, in 1287, which included planetary positions.
Little is known of William, except that he should not be confused with Simon of Saint-Cloud.
In order to eliminate this loss of vision, Saint-Cloud went on to explain the use of the camera obscura for viewing the sun during an eclipse . . . .
“In the year of our LORD 1285, on the 5th day of June, it happened that those who too intently observed the sun (during the eclipse) found their vision was impaired when they went into the shade again. This dazzled condition lasted with some two days, with others three and with some others several days, according to the length of time they had stared at the sun and the degree in which their eyes were sensitive.
In order to eliminate this and to be able to observe without danger the beginning, the end, and the extent of the eclipse, one should make in the roof of a house, or in the window, an opening towards that part of the sky where the eclipse of the sun will appear, and the size of the hole should be about the same as that made in a barrel for the purpose of drawing off wine. Opposite the light of the sun entering through the opening, should be placed, at a distance of twenty or thirty feet, something flat, for instance a screen.
A ray of light will then be seen delineating itself on the screen in a round shape, even if the aperture is angular. The illuminated spot will be bigger than the opening, the larger, in fact, the further the screen is moved away from it, but then the image will be more feeble than if the screen is placed closer.”
(This quote taken from the work of Georges Potonniee, The History of the Discovery of Photography, p21).
The Camera Obscura continued to be a useful tool for watching eclipses then, as it is today
Like Archimedes, Saint-Cloud talked of the power of lenses and mirrors.
On our right, we see Figure 8 from the almanac referenced earlier, traced by Guillaume de Saint-Cloud’s own hand, of the eclipse in this manuscript of 1290.
This Saint-Cloud almanac is housed at the National Library of France.
The Camera Obscura continued to be a useful tool for watching eclipses.
Left image from Daniele Santbechโs Problematum Astronomicorum, Basle, 1561.
This is an allegorical and didactic painting by Guillaume de Saint-Cloud found at the Bibliothรจque de lโArsenal (Library of the Arsenal) in Paris. Source BnF Gallica.
So little is known of William except through his own writings, that had he not addressed the eclipse of 1285 in documentation and image, we likely would not have known of his use of the Camera Obscura.
His work is important in the context of pre cinema because it bridges the gap between medieval optical knowledge and the more advanced techniques that would emerge in the Renaissance.
1342
LEVI BEN GERSHON (ALSO GERSON or GERSEN) (1288 – 1344)
This Jewish philosopher and mathematician was also known as Leon De Bagnois. Gershon wrote in his Hebrew De Sinibus Chordis Et Arcubus, ways of observing solar eclipses using the camera obscura. He commented that no harm came to his eyes when using this effect.
His observances and writings are similar to those of his predecessor, Alhazen.
1290
NATURAL CINEMA FROM 735 YEARS AGO
ARNAUD DE VILLENEUVE (1238 – 1314)
Arnaud de Villeneuve, also known as Arnau de Vilanova or Arnaldus de Villa Nova, was a prominent Catalan physician, theologian, alchemist, astrologer, and religious reformer of the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
Villeneuve was a magician and showman who wrote on alchemy. There is historical evidence suggesting that in his leisure time Arnaud de Villeneuve used a Camera Obscura to stage performances for an audience.
Several sources credit him with utilizing the Camera Obscura as a room to create “moving shows” or a form of early “cinema.”
The common description is that an audience would be placed inside a darkened room (the camera obscura). Outside, in bright sunlight, actors or performers would enact scenes. The light from these external performances would pass through a small hole (the pinhole or aperture) and project an inverted image onto a surface inside the darkened room.
This illustration above is from Edmund Atkinson’s Natural Philosophy in 1875 showing two children looking at a table Camera Obscura, taken from the Science and Society Picture Library, at Getty, Los Angeles Archives.
They saw from the inside, what was going on outside just like the shows put on by Arnold of Villanova did, albeit a little more sophisticated. Read on, as I have many more examples of this and some fantastic stories attached to the imagery in the forthcoming chapters.
Villeneuve used the Camera Obscura Room to present moving shows or Cinema by placing his audiences in the darkened room
The image of the performance would be cast on the inside wall through the Pinhole. To enhance the illusion, it’s reported that he would include sound effects from the outside, synchronized with the projected images. This would have added significantly to the immersive and magical quality of the experience.
These performances are said to have included themes like “warlike or murderous episodes” or “the hunting of animals.”
This use of the Camera Obscura by Arnaud de Villeneuve is considered a significant early step in the development of projected entertainment, predating the more widely known Magic Lantern shows by centuries. It speaks to his ingenuity as a “showman and magician” in addition to his medical and theological pursuits.
These performances are really no different to today’s theatre patrons sitting in a darkened Cinema, watching the screen, and hearing the action and dialogue including the boisterous sounds of the action outside, which could easily have been heard inside, in 1290.
Primitive Cinema during the medieval ages, 735 years ago as of 2025. Villanova was accused of magical wizardry and learning all of his knowledge from demons.
Even though man had been seeing this natural optical phenomenon since his beginning, in 1290 many if not all, could not understand how this could be.
It was a very superstitious time as well (when isn’t it).
So, while not a ‘play’ in the modern theatrical sense, he certainly used the principles of the Camera Obscura to create a mediated, live visual experience for an audience, making him a fascinating figure in the pre history of moving images.
1305
14th CENTURY MOVIE PALACE
GIOTTO DI BONDONE (1266-1337)
As Academy Award-winning independent animator, animation historian and author John Canemaker states in his Animated Eye blog, โSince the year 1305, visitors to the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, are also entering a 14th century movie palace.โ
He goes on to tell us that the Giotto fresco The Story of Mary and Christ in the Scrovegni Chapel โunfolds its narrative in a sequential series of compelling, innovative frescoes, which are among the most important breakthroughs in western art.โ
He concludes his 2017 opening statement calling Bondone a โdirector / animatorโ as well as a Florentine master painter.
Giotto di Bondone didn’t invent any optical devices or moving-image technology, but his innovations in pictorial realism and narrative sequencing are part of the deep prehistory of cinema. His work marks a turning point in Western art from the flat, symbolic conventions of medieval painting toward spatial depth, lifelike gesture, and emotional continuity, the very things that, centuries later, moving pictures would rely on.
Giotto may have been a genius visual storyteller as he focuses our eyes like a movie director onto his actors, expressing a wide palette of passions, among them sorrow, anger, love, pity, hate and horror.
As the earliest of the Disney animators would say, he emoted โsincerityโ onto his canvas.
Canemaker calls the Giotto fresco Kiss of Judas โcinema.โ
Giotto’s frescoes, like those in the Scrovegni Chapel, use consistent light sources, foreshortening, and overlapping forms to simulate three-dimensional space. This deliberate creation of spatial illusion is the same perceptual trick that later optical devices, from the peep show box to the painted Diorama, would exploit.
His cycle of narrative panels (e.g., the Life of Christ) arranges moments in sequence so the viewer mentally โeditsโ them together into a continuous story. This visual sequencing is conceptually similar to how a filmโs shots are linked in the viewerโs mind.
GIOTTO INSPIRED DISNEY
Giottoโs figures turn, lean, and gesture in ways that imply motion frozen in time. In early optical toys (Phenakistiscope, Zoetrope) and photographic motion studies, artists pursued exactly that: capturing and recombining snapshots of implied movement.
Renaissance painters influenced by Giottoโs depth and perspective would also design painted backdrops for theatrical spectacles, a direct ancestor of Magic Lantern slides, Panoramas, and other pre cinema staging techniques.
Albert Hurter became a Disney draftsman in 1931 and became Disneyโs inspirational sketch artist, drawing from the work of Giottoโs frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel, to portray his revolutionary sequence in Snow White.
The scene is Snow White on her death bed and Hurterโs concept sketches will motivate the studioโs directors, writers, storyboard artists and animators to proceed with the 1937 animated masterpiece.
DIRECTOR / ANIMATOR OF THE 14TH CENTURY
Mapping Giottoโs influence forward through Renaissance stage design, into the 17th and through the 19th centuries is in my mind, the best way to visualise the continuous optical chain of Giottoโs work, where his real โpre cinemaโ relevance appears.
Hereโs a link from Giotto, to pre cinema optical devices. Think of it as parallel streams:
๐ one artistic (how images were made and sequenced)
๐ and one technical (how images were presented)
1. Giotto Di Bondoneโs Renaissance Perspective and Staging
๐จ Giotto (early 14th century) breaks from medieval flatness, using shading, foreshortening, and life-like human gestures to create an illusion of space and time.
๐จ Piero della Francesca Masaccio, Brunelleschi (15th century)
They formalize linear perspective, allowing scenes to be designed as if viewed through a single optical point. This is essentially a โlens viewโ centuries before the camera.
๐จ Renaissance Theatre Designers (e.g., Sebastiano Serlio, mid 16th century)
Audiences sit in a fixed viewing position just like in the later Pleorama and Panorama.
2. Scenic Art and Optical Illusions
๐ฌ Giacomo Torelli and Italian Stagecraft (17th century)
Used moving scenery, trompe-lโลil backdrops, and forced perspective to simulate depth and transformation as in proto special effects.
๐ฌ Athanasius Kircher (1640)
Describes the Catoptric Theatre of mirrors and lenses projecting miniature painted scenes with lifelike realism. His painted perspective comes straight out of Renaissance art practice.
๐ฌ Magic Lanterns (1640 onward)
Early slides often mimic painted stage scenes, relying on Giottoโs lineage of perspective and composition.
Pictured is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, movie palace of the 14th century.
3. 18th and 19th Century Optical Shows
๐๏ธ Panoramas and Dioramas (late 18thโearly 19th century)
Huge circular paintings, often 360ยฐ, with accurate perspective and lighting changes are a direct descendant of Giottoโs pictorial realism scaled up for spectacle.
๐๏ธ Polyorama Panoptique (1820s)
Tabletop versions of perspective stage scenes that shift with backlighting, very much a โportable theatreโ built on the same Renaissance visual rules.
๐๏ธ The Phantasmagoria (1770+)
Uses moving lantern slides with perspectivally correct figures, Something Giottoโs style made standard for storytelling art.
4. Optical Toys and Photography (Mid 19th century)
๐ The Phenakistiscope and Zoetrope
Drawings of moving figures rely on naturalistic gesture, as if a Giotto inheritance.
๐ Muybridge and Ma rey to name just two major Chronophotographers
Their motion studies rest on the belief that naturalistic depiction is the expectation, a belief rooted in the post-Giotto tradition.
Without Giottoโs break toward spatial realism and expressive narrative sequencing, the visual grammar we saw in Panoramas, Dioramas, Magic Lantern slides, and even early motion photography might have progressed in a completely different direction. His work is a conceptual ancestor of cinemaโs language, even if he never touched an optical lens.
1377
A WOOLEN FILMSTRIP OF TIME
THE APOCALYPSE TAPESTRY
Another filmstrip of time, woven into 100 separate tapestries in gold, red, and blue wool thread, and not embroidered like the Bayeux Tapestry, exists in the Apocalypse Tapestry held in the Chรขteau dโAngers in France.
The Apocalypse Tapestry is a monumental set of medieval tapestries, commissioned by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, and woven in Paris between 1377 and 1382. It depicts the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation by Saint John the Divine, illustrated across six tapestries with originally 90 scenes (71 survive).
Measuring about 6 meters high and 140 meters long in total, itโs the largest surviving medieval tapestry set.
Created during the Hundred Yearsโ War and post-Black Death, it reflects both religious narratives and contemporary struggles, with vivid imagery of battles between good and evil, including the Four Horsemen and the New Jerusalem.
Designed by Jean Bondol, based partly on an illuminated manuscript, it was woven by Nicholas Batailleโs workshop.
A status symbol for Louis, it also served political purposes, showcasing Anjou heraldry. Donated to Angers Cathedral in 1480, it was looted and fragmented during the French Revolution but recovered and restored in the 19th century.
It is held in the Chรขteau dโAngers in France. The Apocalypse Tapestry like a film of wool, depicts the Apocalypse as described in Revelation, frame by frame. Made between 1377 and 1382 it was commissioned by the Duke of Anjou, Louis I in the 14th century. It’s the largest medieval tapestry in the world.
It was seldom seen in public and was kept in a chest for centuries, much like the Bayeux Tapestry. The Apocalypse Tapestry was looted and chopped into pieces during the French Revolution.
The pieces were utilised as stable blankets for horses, carpets, and insulation.
The Apocalypse Tapestry was eventually restored, missing only 16 pieces as if they had been dispatched to the editing room floor. Originally an epic story at 460 feet long, but like Ganceโs 1927 nine-hour Napoleon, it’s now 328 feet long with 84 of the original 90 frames saved.
WATCH this production of the famous tapestry of the Apocalypse here, produced by the keeper of the Tapestry, Chรขteau d’Angers, which is the former residence of the Dukes of Anjou. Runs 21:15.
The remaining parts 3 through 6 can be seen here.
14TH-CENTURY LADY DANCING IN YOUR BOWL
This bowl is authenticated as Persian Kashan Mina’i pottery. When the four figures in the centre are placed together in same order, they produce a conclusive series of what looks like a lady dancing in her traditional garb.
This is another example of ancient Persian pre cinema thinking like the Burnt City Bowl’s goat jumping to eat leaves off a tree.
This polychrome decorated bowl has white opaque glaze with a single horseman in the centre and four brown figures and Persian motif adorning the outer rim.
โAncient pottery so often has implied movement.โ
– Dr. Sonya Nevin @SonyaNevin (at X), Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw and Supervisor at University of Cambridge Education Faculty.
Now tell me, when did the movies first begin?
| Welcome | About | Introduction | Chapter One beginning of time – 999 AD |
| Chapter Two 1000 AD – 1399 | Chapter Three 1400 – 1599 | Chapter Four 1600 – 1649 | Chapter Five 1650 – 1699 |
| Chapter Six 1700 – 1749 | Chapter Seven 1750 – 1799 | Chapter Eight 1800 – 1819 | Chapter Nine 1820 – 1829 |
| Chapter Ten 1830 – 1839 | Chapter Eleven 1840 – 1849 | Chapter Twelve 1850 – 1859 | Chapter Thirteen 1860 – 1869 |
| Chapter Fourteen 1870 – 1879 | Chapter Fifteen 1880 – 1884 | Chapter Sixteen 1885 – 1889 | Chapter Seventeen 1890 – 1894 |
| Chapter Eighteen 1895 – 1899 | Chapter Nineteen 1900 + post cinema | Chapter Twenty 1911 + | Copyright |
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